Forever Mine (ROYAL RIDERS SERIES BOOK #2)

4| Game

I met her during our spring break. That year, a lot of the students weren't going back home to see their families and planned their own little festivities and trips instead. I was friendly with everybody but not really friends with anybody until Amelia. A bunch of students had all paid for their own tickets and booked a trip to Miami. I was included. When we were in college, nobody cared- and generally, people don't- who was a freshman or a senior. Everybody knew everybody and we were all friends. 

That's how I met Amelia. On this trip. I hadn't even seen her before that but after that trip, I made sure I did. I made sure I saw her every chance I got. 

"Oh, I'm sick of playing volleyball, can't we do something else?!" Kaden, one of the guys on the team with me, groaned. 

"Well, what do you suggest we do? It's not like we can play ice hockey out here now, can we?" 

"Why can't we do something fun? Soccer?" 

"No," a bunch of guys mumbled. Kaden proceeded to suggest a bunch of sports games but nobody agreed. 

"For fuck's sake! Playing tag would be better than this!" 

Silence. 

"Sure," someone shrugged. "Yeah, it'll be fun. We're at the beach, we're a lot of people though. We should split it into teams." 

The rules were decided then. Boys vs girls. Since most of the guys were shirtless, each girl picked a shirt that belonged to a guy at random and tucked it into their pockets or waistband. The guys had to find the girl with their shirt, steal back their shirt, and catch the girl. If they did, they won, and dinner was on whoever they were chasing. If they caught the wrong girl, then they'd be paying for dinner. 

Now that I think about it, the game had its own matchmaking tactics going on. If I remember correctly, the person coming up with the rules was a girl named... I can't remember. But I do remember hearing the next morning that she slept with the guy who was chasing her, so I'm guessing it was all a ruse to get together. But that day, a lot of couples were made. Us included. 

"All right!" Kaden announced. "Have all the ladies picked a shirt?" 

"Yeah!" all the girls chimed in. 

"Boys, you can take a look!" Kaden is somehow the judge now. 

We all turned around and scanned the line of girls. This is going to be much harder than we thought. A lot of our shirts were the same. 

Which is why I tied a knot in mine by ripping the hem. I quickly glanced at every shirt, recognizing mine and the end of the line. My eyes followed up the denim shorts, to the white crochet tank top with the red bikini straps peeking out from underneath, and finally landed on her face. 

She was putting her hair up while talking to the girl beside her. She laughed and nodded while saying something. Her friend leaned in to whisper in her ear and she scanned the line of boys, her eyes stopping at me. She went on like she didn't just meet my gaze and then whispered back to her friend before looping my shirt through two of her belt loops instead of one. She looked at me again, lifting her brows challengingly. 

My eyes went from head to toe and then toe to head before I nodded slowly, mostly to myself. 

She was fucking drop-dead gorgeous. And then she mouthed, "Catch me if you can." And I damn near lost my mind.