Free Veer (Clayton Falls) by Alyssa Rose Ivy

inside of his place was even cooler than I expected. I had to give him credit . H e had good taste. I loved the concrete counter tops, the exposed brick and beams, and that view . I t was breathtaking.
    We settled into a comfortable conversation , and I let myself relax. He seemed different. Instead of arguing , he appeared legitimately interested in learning more about me, and I found I actually cared about his story as well.
    “ T ell me about your job , ” I asked after Gavin popped open our second bottle of wine. I wasn’t sure where the first one went, but it was good , and I wasn’t complaining.
    “My job ?” He poured more into his empty glass .
    “Yeah. Is being a cop like it is on TV?”
    He laughed. “Not exactly. Well , unless you watch cop shows that involve ticketing farmers for tractor violations or making sure teens don’t get too crazy with their parties.”
    “Come on, there has to be more.”
    He took a long sip of wine. “No, really there isn’t. Crime isn’t much of a problem here.”
    “You say it like it’s a bad thing.” I guess there were some benefits of l iving in the middle of nowhere.
    “Not bad, just boring.” He stared pensively down into his wine.
    “ I get that.”
    “ W hat do you plan to do after you graduate?” His hazel eyes had more green in them than usual, probably because he was wearing a green t-shirt.
    I relaxed back into the arm of the couch, enjoying my wine before answering. “I want to work for the District Attorney in Boston. I’d love to be an assistant D.A. one day. ”
    “A prosecutor? I can see that. I’d bet you’d be pretty intimidating in the court room.”
    “Intimidating?” I laughed. “Not exactly, but I think I’d be good at it. I’m on the trial team at school , and I’ve done pretty well.”
    “Well, I definitely wouldn’t want to be a criminal you were trying to put behind bars .”
    “I’m not that scary.”
    “No, you’re not.” He looked at me for a m inute, finishing off his glass . “Are you ready for more?”
    “I probably shouldn’t , but why not ?” An idle thought about how in the world I was going to get home hit me, but I was already tipsy , and I easily brushed it off.
    “Well I know you said you don’t see much action as a cop here, but at least you’d be ready for it if you did.”
    He poured a little more wine in my glass. “What do you mean ?”
    “I just mean you’re in good shape—you could handle whatever.” I was fighting the urge to run my hand down his chest . H is t-shirt clung to it tightly, and I remembered what his chest had looked like that day on the beach.
    To distract myself, I pulled out my hair tie and let my hair fall down.
    A small smile spread across his lips as he reached over to take a lock of my hair between his fingers. “I like when you wear your hair down.”
    “Yeah? It’s pretty long. I’m growing it out for Locks for Love .”
    “Oh, the wigs for cancer patients ? That’s really cool.”
    “Yeah. I think it’s almost long enough now.” I didn’t go into all of the reasons it was important to me . M ost revolved around my mom.
    “I’m sure it’ll still look good short, but I like it now.”
    “Thanks.”
    Watching him play with my hair undid me. I lost my battle and reached out to touch him, tentatively at first. “ Let me rephrase my previous comment . Y ou’re in amazing shape.” I could feel the blood rushing to my face and knew I was blushing, but I got a little braver, moving my hand more.
    He chuckled . “Y ou’re not in such bad shape yourself. ” I felt his hand on my leg and realized belatedly that my skirt was riding up. This would usually have been the point where I would have moved the guy ’ s hand and excused myself, but I didn’t want to.
    “You know , I had a dream about you last night.” Alcohol made me honest . V ery, very honest.
    “A good dream?” H is hand mov ed further up my leg.
    “A really, really good