Falling for Autumn Read Online Free PDF Page A

if you and your roommate wanted to stop by the Football House, but you never gave me your number.”
    “What , do you have a party at your house every night?”
    I sou nded a little judgmental and acknowledged I was resentful at times. A small part of me missed going out, partying with careless abandon. There was a girl named Faye on the high school cheerleading squad who had free rein over her family’s guesthouse. I had a lot of my firsts at Faye’s and the reckless moments of partying would eventually come back to haunt me. When everything went to hell, she was one of the first to dig up photos of me at her house. Shameful pictures painting me as a different person than I actually was. The pictures of the drinking games were bad enough, but the overtly sexualized photos were what destroyed me. It was humiliating to know my parents would likely see photos of me flashing my bra and panties. I was fifteen and sixteen years old in most of the images, immature and thoughtless. Never realizing every action had consequences.
    Blake was answering me. “I don’t live there. I have an apartment off campus with my friend Darien.” He added with an exaggerated shudder, “Besides , that house is a shithole from all the parties there. When I go to bed at night, I don’t want to worry about catching crabs.”
    “Thanks for the visual,” I replied dryly.
    Once the professor arrived, I tried to focus on the lecture. My nerves were fried, partly to do with the guy sitting five feet away from me. He put me on edge and I wished for the tedium of last semester, when I had dressed and acted without any thought to attracting the opposite sex. Before art history class that morning, I’d woken up early to shower and style my hair, taking extra time to run my fingers through the long locks to create a sexy tousled look. I’d put on mascara and pink lip gloss, not overdoing my makeup, but hoping to accentuate my best features.
    I couldn’t explain what was behind my efforts. Blake had told me he wasn’t into me in that way. I reasoned my motivation was to chase what I couldn’t have. Blake was safe and it was the reason my crush was growing. Because honestly if Blake liked me, I wouldn’t know what to do with him. I hadn’t been physical with a guy in two years and had trouble mentally prepping myself to take that step. One of my biggest fears was I’d never be able to be intimate again with a man.
    “Are we going to breakfast again?” Blake asked me at the end of class. I nodded and followed him out of the arts building . He put back on his sunglasses and matched my stride. I tried not to become hyperaware of how he was close enough that I could feel his body heat.
    Once we were seated with our trays of food and the table put distance between our bodies, I relaxed. I hadn’t felt unnerved by him the last time we ate together and I was trying to pinpoint the change in my attitude. It most likely had to do with my regular schedule of watching him play football on my computer.
    There was a raw masculinity about him on the football field that I found sexy as hell. He was all fluid motion as the ball glided into his arms and he ran with determination down the field. When he took off his helmet at the conclusion of the game, his hair plastered with sweat and his tanned skin glistening, my pulse began to race and my mouth dried up. He was utterly beautiful.
    I laughed as I looked at his plate of food. “Is that your hangover cure?” He had two fried eggs smothered with salsa and shredded cheese on top of two flour tortillas.
    “Yes, I didn’t have time to get an Egg McMuffin this morning, that’s my usual go-to cure.” After a minute of chewing thoughtfully, he said, “So, you don’t go out a lot? I was serious when I said I never saw you at parties before.”
    I shrugged. “I’m trying to keep my priorities straight. My grades were just okay in high school, but my GPA last semester was three point eight.”
    “So, what do