I’m pretty worried this isn’t going to work, but then Nate raises his arms over his head in a long stretch and yawns, and as Ty turns to look away, Nate holds both thumbs in the air and winks at me.

Drinking is the focus for the next hour. I’m careful, sipping slowly on my cup of rum and Coke that Nate mixed special for me. I’ve never been drunk. Just one more thing in that long line of rites of passage I missed during the homeschool years. The more the others do shots and play games though, the more I understand why Paige picked the sorority she did. The two girls she brought with her—I think their names are Lindsay and Angie?—could not be any more like her if they tried.

“Dude, are you sure these two aren’t your twins?” Ty asks, making a joke after we all endure a ten-minute long recap of their trip to the department store makeup counter.

“Uh, I’m pretty sure that would make them triplets, dumbass,” Nate says.

Everyone laughs—everyone, but Cass. I feel horrible, because she has sat with Nate and me for the last hour, just staring at Ty. I know she wants him to come talk to her, and when I tried to encourage her to go to him, she shot me that look that was more than a warning.

“Yeah, uh, this has been nice, but…I kinda think I’m gonna go. I have a test tomorrow…or something,” she says, brushing the small bits of grass from the back of her shorts while she stands and hands me her still-full cup.

“Oh, Cass. Please…stay?” I say, knowing she won’t.

“I…I can’t,” she says, looking over my shoulder to where Ty is busy entertaining Paige and her friends. I could kill Paige for bringing distractions.

Cass walks over to her sister and gives her a hug, and says something that makes them both laugh, and then she starts the long walk across the outfield grass.

“Well, crap,” I say to Nate, taking a bigger drink from my cup than I have all night. It makes my belly warm and burns my throat a little, like old cough medicine.

“Hold on, give it a minute,” he says, threading his fingers through mine, and pulling my body in closely against his. He nods in Ty’s direction, and I look up to see him following Cass with his eyes. Within seconds, he hands his cup back to Paige and looks over at his brother and me.

“Yo, dude. I’m taking off, too,” he says.

“Yeah you are,” Nate says, his knowing smirk taking up every bit of his face.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ty says, holding up both middle fingers.

“Holy damn. That worked!” I say, my heart speeding up with adrenaline to the point where I almost feel like running. And I might, except my head feels a little bit like it’s floating away from my body.

“Whoa, slow down there, slugger. I think you’ve had enough,” Nate says, taking the cup from my hands.

“Awe, I barely even finished one drink,” I say, seriously thirsty for more, and liking the small tingles firing away along my skin. I was buzzing for sure, but I think I was more affected by the way Nate was holding me, and the warmth of his leg and side and chest along the right half of my body.

“I know, but I just got you home. I don’t want to spend tonight watching you lose your onion burger in the dorm bathrooms,” he says, his eyes lowering to look at my lips. His breathing changes, and when his teeth tug lightly at his bottom lip, I can’t seem to stop myself from leaning in to kiss him, completely forgetting the fact that three other girls are out here with us.

As soon as my lips hit his, I’m sunk, and when his hands reach for my face, I move to my knees, sliding one leg over him so I’m straddling his lap, our lips never breaking. He sits up taller when I do this, letting his hands trail down my shoulders and arms, reaching around my waist to the back pockets of my shorts, pulling me to him even tighter.

This is desire. I have had sex exactly once in my life, and it was awkward and uncomfortable, just like a teenager’s first time should be. But that was planned and orchestrated and coordinated to go along with Josh’s parents’ work schedules. Everything running through my mind right now is impulsive, and there’s a part of me, a raw and hungry urge, that wants Nate completely.

“Good god, get a room!” Paige’s voice breaks through our kiss, and Nate pulls his lips from mine, his eyes focusing on nothing but my eyes and mouth.

“That’s probably a good idea. Ladies, I trust you can find your way home,” Nate says, standing with me wrapped around the front of his body, and quickly moving his lips back to mine. He carries me that way all the way to the ball-field gate while Paige whistles behind us. “If Ty is in my room, I am kicking him out,” he says, his voice almost a deep growl in my ear.