Extra Credit: Three Ivy Years Novellas (The Ivy Years Book 6)

I FOUND a t-shirt for Katie to wear. Actually, I picked out my favorite one, which had an X-wing fighter on the front of it. And that made her laugh. And I loved her laugh, because it sounded a little bit out of control. Here was a girl who usually matched her hair band to her sweater. She looked pristine and put-together every time I saw her. But the sound of her giggle gave her away. It was riotous.

And man, my X-wing t-shirt had never looked so good as it did with her long legs sticking out from under the hem. I found her an extra toothbrush, too. And then I checked to see if the bathroom was empty, and it was. So Katie did the mini Walk of Shame into the bathroom to brush.

“Do you want the inside or the outside?” I asked when she returned, pointing at the bed.

“You first,” she said.

I shut the lamp off and then climbed in, scooting all the way over to the wall. She got into bed then, gingerly. First, I pulled the covers up. Then I put my hands on her hips and pulled her closer to me. “Let me show you how this works best,” I said, angling the pillow just so. I positioned Katie’s back against me so that her head was level with my sternum. That way we both had some breathing room.

“Mmm,” she lazed against me. “Okay. I think I get it.”

Luckily it was dark, and she was facing the other way. So she couldn’t see how big my dorky smile was just then. Seriously, you could probably see my teeth from space. Because I’d never been happier than I was right then. I had the girl of my dreams in my bed, curled up against me. I was optimistic that maybe this would become a thing. But that was probably getting ahead of myself, right?

I wasn’t going to lie here and worry about it, though. No matter what happened tomorrow, I would always have this night.

“So,” I prompted. “Which European paintings are we going to memorize first?”

“The medieval ones,” she said immediately. “There aren’t as many of those as in the Renaissance section.”

“Good point,” I whispered, smoothing my hand down her hair.

“I’m a little worried about the modern stuff,” she confessed. “He covered it really fast. The Russians… I don’t remember what any of those paintings look like.”

“Like… The Knife Grinder? We can tackle those,” I said. “You know that little sofa in the back of the coffee shop? I’ll park my butt on that puppy while you’re changing. We can sit there and flip through the paintings on my laptop.”

There was a pause, and I hoped she wasn’t about to tell me that she’d rather study alone. “We are going to rock that test,” she said instead. “We are going to kick its ass.”

Again, I grinned in the dark. “We are going to send it home, crying for its mama.” Katie giggled again, and I felt it in my chest.

Then it got quiet for a little while, and I wondered if she’d fallen asleep. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to fall asleep. Because I didn’t want to miss a moment of being with her.

“Andy?” she asked suddenly.

“Yeah?”

“Have you ever had a one-night stand before?”

Now there was a tricky question. “Well… I’m not sure I can say.”

She turned to peek at me over her shoulder. “Never mind. That was a really personal question.”

I dropped my arm around her waist and gave her a squeeze. “That’s not the problem. It’s just that I’m not sure. The answer is no. Unless I’m having one right now, and I was really hoping that wasn’t the case.”

After I said it, my heart nearly failed. Was that too much, too soon?

“You’re definitely safe,” Katie whispered.

Whew. I dropped my nose into her hair and took a deep breath of her. “Good to know,” I said.

Her slim fingers gently stroked my wrist for a few minutes. And then she began to breathe deeply. I lay there smiling in the dark for awhile longer, until I fell asleep too.

And I had very, very good dreams.