Free Sliding (The Stone Series) by Kitty Berry

love every second of it.

 
    We finally break apart, Tate notices his parents a few feet away and he
takes me by the hand to lead me to where they are standing. I’m nervous as we
approach them. They greet me by telling me how great I was. They tell me they
were scared I would fall when I was so high in the air during our half time
show. Tate’s mom tells me that Tate talks about me all the time, when I look at
him he blushes slightly and shrugs his shoulders. I feel his arm go around my
shoulder and he pulls me close to the side of his body.

 
    “I can’t help it. You’re so cute” he whispers into my ear while his
parents look at each other questioning our closeness.

 
      His parents say they hope I’ll
come over again really soon so they can get to know me better. I smile politely
and tell them I’d love to and promise to have dinner with them next weekend. His
dad tells Tate how proud he is of him and his mom starts to cry as she gives
him a hug. Tate beams under his father’s praise and his mother’s affection
makes him blush. All Tate has ever wanted was his father’s praise and attention
but most times what he gets instead are his critical comments. Tate has to go
hit the showers and I need to go with the girls so Tate and I say goodbye to
his parents and we head back to the field house hand in hand.

 
    The bus ride back to the hotel is nuts, everyone is screaming and you
can’t hear a thing until “We Are the Champions” comes on the radio. Then the
whole bus begins to sing in unison. Tate and I sit together holding hands and
kissing between our yelling and singing. It’s a fast ride and when we arrive
back at the hotel Tate tells me he’ll see me in an hour in the ballroom for the
team party. He says we’ll talk about how we’re going to sneak away later.

 
    Wendy and I get ready for the party, we shower and braid each other’s
hair and do our makeup. I put on my favorite pair of jeans and a red t-shirt.
All the girls are planning on wearing red shirts with blue jeans to represent
our team colors. When we enter the ballroom Tate is already there and he’s
wearing this new pair of jeans that I have never seen on him before, they are
ripped allowing some of his skin to be seen. He has on a white t-shirt and his
long silky hair is wet so he must have showered again when he got back to his
room. I get that feeling in the pit of my stomach again when I see him.

 
    “Party All The Time” is playing and all the kids in the room are dancing.
I don’t want to bother Tate while he’s dancing which looks more like jumping, with
his friends. I wait for the song to change and for him to notice me. It’s that
electric connection at play again; whenever we’re in a room together we are
always able to find the other one. When “Friends and Lovers” come on Tate looks
around to see if I’m there and when our eyes lock his whole face lights up and
he heads my way. He takes me in his arms and we begin to dance. I tell him how
awesome he was in the game today and how proud I am of him. I kiss him all over
his face with little feather light kisses and he giggles like a little girl. He
leans down and sucks my neck for a second then tugs my ear with his teeth and I
get a different feeling in the pit of my stomach that is growing more and more
common when I am around Tate, it’s a kind of burning, an ache. He tells me I
look hot and slaps my ass in my tight jeans which only makes the ache growing
inside me more pronounced.

 
    Later in the night, Danny and Wendy find us while we’re dancing to “Take
My Breath Away”. They tell us they want to go back to the rooms and that we should
head back with them. I nod; Danny slaps Tate, who looks like he’s about to be
sick on the back. We all sneak out of the side door to the ballroom and run
down the hallway to the stairwell. I ask Tate if he’s feeling alright and he
waves me off. We run up three flights of stairs to our floor, I hug Wendy