Prologue

There’s a spike in my heart rate the second Theo Graham enters the room.

My skin prickles and although I only notice him out of my periphery as my grandparents stand in front of me going on and on about how proud they are of me for graduating college, he has all of my attention.

Tonight is my graduation party and my parents rented out one of their favorite restaurants for the occasion and invited practically the entire town where I’m from in Pennsylvania to celebrate.

My back straightens as I follow him with my eyes, and suddenly I’m hyper-aware of everything. How do I look? Is there anything in my teeth? Why are my hands sweaty? Has he noticed me? Fuck, Avery, do not look over there.

Despite my instincts telling me not to react, I can’t help it; my eyes are inexplicably drawn to Theo whenever we share a room. It’s been like that for longer than I can remember. He knows how to command attention in any room. He knows how to command my attention anywhere.

God, he looks good.

At somewhere over six feet, Theo Graham is still very well built after his ten-year career in the NFL even though he now runs a construction company and is no stranger to getting his hands dirty. Warm chocolate brown eyes, a head full of lush dark brown wavy hair that is always styled perfectly, and a light dusting of stubble currently covering his jaw. There

 have been times he was clean-shaven and also times that he had a full beard so luscious it made me want to run my fingers through it.

Dressed in a linen charcoal gray suit with a black shirt that covers most of the delicious muscles I know are hiding beneath, he’s making more than a few women’s heads turn as he makes his way through the party.

I’m no stranger to witnessing the attention Theo gets, but it never stopped the sting of jealousy, especially now that I know what his mouth tastes like.

I want to kiss him again.

Two years before he retired from professional football and fresh off a divorce from the mother of his two children, Lucas and Raegan, the three of them moved into the house next door. I was only fifteen when he retired from the NFL, so I wasn’t as familiar with the football star version of Theo. I knew the guy who ran four miles every day to stay in shape and worked out in his backyard which I had a perfect view of from my bedroom window. I knew him as the guy who picked Lucas and me up when we ran from a party that the cops busted, and to this day—to my knowledge—he’d kept that fact from my parents. I knew the man who helped teach me to drive while he was teaching Lucas because we were always attached at the hip.

Never did I think that he’d eventually be on the list of men I’d go on to kiss in my lifetime. Especially when I’d spent the majority of my ninth- grade year making out with his son. For practice, not for romance.

I shiver thinking about that night when Theo had lifted me in the air and pressed me against the wall like I was nothing. Holding me up against him as he pressed his lips to mine. I can still recall that dizzy feeling of his hard body pressed against me and I feel my nipples harden and press against the fabric of my dark green dress at the memory.

I chose this color not only because it’s the color of the tassels of my graduation gown but because it brings out the green in my eyes. My eyes typically dance between brown and hazel most of the time, but there are moments when the sun hits them just right when you can see flecks of green.

A fact that Theo had brought up on more than one occasion.

The dress is midi length, but hugs me in all the right places, highlighting my hourglass figure. I’m bronzed from my recent trip to the beach with my friends—our final girls’ trip to commemorate the end of

 college and this chapter of our lives—and I can feel his gaze skating across me, heating the already warmed skin. You would never know I had any melanin in me with how pale I can get during the winter months. My hair, initially styled into perfect curls before the East Coast humidity got to it, has fallen into waves. I pull it over one shoulder to showcase my neck, which, if my memory serves me correctly, is Theo’s weakness.

I catch his eyes again and he’s closer than he was before, like he’s making his way through the crowd to get to me.

I mean, it is my graduation party. It would be rude to not speak to the guest of honor.

My grandparents have moved on to mingle, leaving me alone holding a glass of champagne that I want to down before Theo gets to me. I try to meet his gaze again, waiting for him to approach me, and I realize that even though he’s not looking at me I can sense that I have his attention.

I haven’t seen Theo in almost six months. Six months ago, when we’d made out in his car and I’d sat in his lap and fucked myself with my fingers until I came with the promise of more.

It wasn’t the first time we’d hooked up, having done so once the previous summer, but it was the furthest we’d ever gone. We hadn’t spoken about it after, almost as if we were both pretending it hadn’t happened. Me out of humiliation and hurt and him to keep it hidden from the one person he was sure it would hurt the most.

Lucas Graham. My best friend. His son.