getting braces.”
“Yeah. That kind of sucked. But it’s only for a couple of years, I guess.” I looked down at our joined hands resting on Seth’s muscular thigh. How weird that he hadn’t let go yet. Not that I objected. I loved the feel of his skin.
“Guess I got lucky there.” Seth’s white teeth flashed. “Except for this.” He pointed to a small chip in his right incisor. To me the imperfection was edgy and quirky. A formula that only made him hotter—if that was even possible.
I rested my head on his shoulder, loving the clean boy smell of him and the fit of our bodies hip to hip. “I like it. It gives you character.”
“So do your braces. Especially since you used Indiana U colors for your bands. My dad would go nuts.”
I smiled, glad he’d noticed the red and white. When I peeked up at him, I caught an unreadable expression before he looked away—out over the lake.
“The bands are the only fun part. The rest is hideous. If they wired these shut I could do a pretty good Darth Vader.”
Seth’s shoulders lifted and fell beneath my cheek as he chuckled. He cupped a hand over his mouth and said, in possibly the worst impression of Vader I’d ever heard, “Lauren… come to the dark side, for I am your real friend.”
What a dork. But that’s what made him adorable…adorkable.
“I know,” I sighed. Why was it so hard to break out of the friend zone?
Fingers tipped up my chin and our eyes met. “What’s wrong? You make that sound like a bad thing.” His thumb brushed the skin beneath my chin, then traced along my jaw. I trembled at the frissons of electricity his touch ignited.
“It’s not.” Something soft swept against my cheek but it wasn’t until wings beat against my hair that I realized what it was. I bolted upright and let go of his hand. “Uck. A moth.” I started to shoo it away, but Seth gently snagged my wrist before I could damage the fragile bug.
“Careful. That’s a Coelostathma Discopunctana .” Seth separated strands of my hair while I did my best not to squirm.
“Say that again,” I asked once he’d freed the black, furry insect from my temple. Ugh.
“It’s a Batman Moth. Cool, right?” He grinned, his enthusiasm infectious.
I smiled back, forgetting about my totally un-cool grill before I brought a hand up to cover it. “Never thought I’d get that close to Bruce Wayne. I feel special.”
“Peter Parker would have been better, but let’s not start that old fight again.”
I lightly punched his shoulder. “Yeah, because you know Bruce could totally kick Peter’s ass.”
The electric hum of cicadas heralded nighttime, competing with the campers singing “B-I-N-G-O.” Seth’s chuckle joined the evening noise. “Right. Peter can swing from skyscrapers. What’s Bruce got—a grappling hook?”
Indignation made me temporarily forget my “Kiss Seth” mission. “He doesn’t need to web sling. Bruce has a helicopter—and a Bat Taser, Bat saw, Bat rope, Bat smoke grenades, Bat pellets, Bat—”
A finger pressed to my lips made my eyes dart to his. Amusement danced in his amber depths. “Fine. You win.”
My shoulders lowered and my breath whooshed against his finger, my heart a jackhammer. “Never doubted it,” I said in a rush.
“Did you like the latest X-Men movie?” He rubbed his palms against his shorts. Was I making him nervous? A thrill of excitement shot through me. It was weird to think I could affect a boy that way, especially one I liked so much.
“So awesome. You saw it, right?” I didn’t wait for him to nod since obviously he had. “That part with the submarine was sick.”
The dock lamp shown on his golden waves, the longish strands falling in his incredible eyes when he nodded. “Crazy. All of the effects were intense.”
I nodded, although the storyline was all that really mattered. I shifted my sweaty thighs on the planks. “Definitely.”
Seth’s eye searched mine, then he blurted, “Did you go