Free Believe in Me (Jett #1) by Amy Sparling

already. This is stupid. Embarrassing. Ugh.
    Jett shakes his head and steps back into his bedroom, leaving my body feeling cold without his closeness. 
    “No, I’m just being a friend, you dork. You can stay as long as you want, until you hear from your mom or whatever, and no one will know.”
    “Thanks,” I say, staring at the carpet, which is gray and feels like a cloud under my flip-flops. “I really appreciate it. Hey do you have a phone? I’d like to call my mom again even though it’s two in the morning.”
    He gives me his cell and I try calling her but I’m met with the stupid voice mail again. I sigh and hand it back, noticing that his phone’s wallpaper is a picture of his dirt bike, not some hot celebrity model like most of the guys I know.
    “Here,” he says, opening his dresser drawers. He pulls out a dirt bike T-shirt and a pair of American Eagle boxers and holds them out to me. “Towels are in the bathroom. Go get that shower you wanted.”
    I stare at his clothes, at his freaking boxers , and then hesitantly take them. “Thanks.”

Chapter 12
     

     
    I lean back against the plush futon mattress and try like hell to focus on whatever show I’d selected on Netflix. Just a few feet away, under the hot water of my shower, was a girl I was going crazy trying to get to know. She’d lightened up a little at the McDonald’s, and even more once we got here. Maybe soon she’ll be able to have a normal conversation with me. One that’s not filled with layers of sarcasm and snide remarks.
    Maybe then I can peel back the layers that make up this mysterious girl and see what she’s really like underneath the massive wall she keeps up.
    A little while later, the shower cuts off and I wait like some kind of nervous idiot for her to emerge. I’m ready to see her again, to hang out and spend time together. Even though, yeah, it’s early as hell in the morning and we should probably go to sleep. I’m just not ready for this day to be over. And this might be the first time in my life that I want to talk with a girl and not just get her clothes off so we can make out. I sneak back outside and take her suitcases back up to my room, storing them in the closet just like I’d promised.
    When the bathroom door opens, I keep my eyes on the TV, acting like it’s not a big deal at all.
    “You have good-smelling shampoo,” Keanna says. As if to make its point, I immediately smell the citrusy fragrance as she walks up to me and takes a seat on the other end of the futon. She’s as far away as she can get, but she’s still sitting near me, so I’ll take it.
    “Yeah, it’s green apple something,” I say, casually looking over at her. “My mom buys the stuff.”
    I hadn’t thought it were possible, but this girl is even more beautiful in my baggy shirt and boxers. Her dark hair hangs loose and wet around her shoulders and she works a towel through it as she watches the TV.
    “Why are my boxers so short on you?” I ask, hoping that that’s not how they look when I wear them. I’m way taller than her after all.
    She lifts up the bottom of my shirt. “I had to roll them up a few times at the waist so they wouldn’t fall off.” She smiles and my breath catches in my throat.
    She should not have done that. I can see her hip and belly button. The smooth skin of her stomach that makes me want to slide my hands over it. But I just nod and try to regain my composure and she drops the shirt like it’s nothing.
    I let out a slow breath. I will not get a hard on while sitting next to this girl.
    “You gonna shower, too?” she says a little while later.
    I’m covered in dried lake water, so yeah, I need to. But I’m not ready to leave. Keanna nods toward the bathroom. “The hot water should be back by now.”
    “Huh?”
    “The water I used for my shower,” she explains, like she doesn’t understand why I don’t understand. “It takes a while for a hot water heater to refill? Why are you looking at me