Read To Be With You for Free Online

She was going to have to get used to him getting attention. Who knew Sean would grow up to be hot? To her he’d always be the little boy screaming to her for help.
    She looked again, trying to see what a stranger would see. His face had lost its boyish roundness, and now his jaw was square. He seemed about six foot four, and his body was probably exactly what a fighter should be. Still just Sean to her, for now.
    “Do you want a drink?” Sean asked. He seemed to be flushed and she realized she’d been studying him openly.
    "Just water," she said, and he went to the drink table.
    "Nicole!" one of the women said, pulling Nicole's focus away from Sean’s butt. She recognized the women as girls from the year above her. Friends of Lily. They wore nearly identical retro inspired dresses and tightly curled hair.
    "Beth!" Nicole said, standing to hug the blonde. "Tina!"
    "So you were lucky enough to get a date." Tina said, watching Sean walking carefully to the table with two drinks. The little glasses looked ridiculous in his hands. "Who is he?"
    "Just a friend," she said. When Tina and Beth looked at each other and then at Sean with grins, she felt like a porcupine defending its turf. She may not want him, but she needed time to figure it out. “That may be changing soon though."
    “That’s obvious.” Beth sighed. “He likes you.”
    “He does?”
    “Slobbering,” Tina said. “You lucky jerk. You’ll share, won’t you?”
    Not likely. But then Sean might get the wrong idea if she was possessive. “Sure.”
    Nicole was about to distract them by asking how life had been since high school when Sean arrived at the table. He moved smoothly, set her water down on a napkin, and then pulled out the chair beside her and sat with his own drink. He lifted it and drank half of it in one go, then his brow wrinkled and Nicole knew he probably had a head freeze.
    "So how do you two know each other?" Tina asked.
    "We grew up together." Nicole sent Sean a warning look so he'd play along.
    He nodded and buried his face in his cup again.
    “In Idaho,” Nicole said. Was he flushing? Interesting.
    Sean messed with his collar. “Sure. Idaho?”
    "If that's how they grow them in Idaho, sign me up." Tina smiled at him.
    "Grow what?" Sean asked, looking from one to the other.
    Nicole wondered if she should tell him and let him get an inflated ego, but Tina and Beth laughed.
    "You're so cute," Beth said, taking a sip of champagne.
    If he was Sean, she knew that would ruffle his feathers. Sean had been called cute since he was young. He hated it.
    "You know, men don't really like being called cute," he said, slumping slightly and narrowing his eyes on them.
    "Oh," they said in unison, looking at Nicole for a second with raised eyebrows.
    "But I'll accept hot, handsome, rugged, and beastly, in reverse order of preference."
    Nicole recognized it as Justin’s speech when someone called him pretty. She also noticed a fine sheen of sweat along Sean’s hairline. Poor guy.
    "Can I borrow him for a dance?" Tina asked. "No one here is tall enough. I'll bring him back in one piece.”
    Sean turned to Nicole. He looked confused and slightly helpless. Nicole decided to let him sweat.
    "Be my guest. How could I hog such a hot, handsome, rugged, beastly man?"
    Sean's glare was a micro expression that happened in a fraction of a second before he smiled and held out a hand to Tina. "Shall we?"
    She smiled and took his hand, and Nicole tried to ignore a distasteful awkwardness that rose in her as they touched. She frowned.
    Tina turned to Sean as they left and Nicole heard her words.
    "She looked kind of fierce there for a moment."
    Sean glanced over his shoulder.
    Nicole tried to look away before he could catch her watching. She folded her arms and sat back in the chair. "As if."
    But the two were gone, already out on the dance floor, swaying back and forth, Sean's hands in the proper positions on Tina's hand and waist. Tina’s tall, chubby figure