A Girl and Her Wolf (Howl, #7) (10 page)

Chapter 15: Colby

When Colby woke up in the middle of the night, Emma was already sleeping next to him. He frowned, disappointed that they hadn’t gotten a chance to talk before she’d gone to sleep. Then he remembered to check on Davenport.

He rose to his feet and glanced down in Daven’s crib. He stared up at Colby, but there was a tired look in his eyes.

Colby picked him up and put him on the changing table. He began to change his diaper, knowing that Davenport would probably fight him like he always did. Daven remained there, though. His eyes seemed to want to flutter shut. Colby had thought that he’d been napping for hours, but Emma must have played with him for a while when she fed him.

Why was he acting so calm? It seemed strange, but maybe it was because Daven was finally warming up to him.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if he and Emma had a pup of their own, after all. He wasn’t ready to tell Emma that yet, though. He wanted to see how the rest of their babysitting venture went before he made a decision.

As he placed the baby back inside his crib, Colby whispered, “Goodnight, Davie.”

Daven smiled up at him.

Colby glanced over at Emma, who was still snoring softly. Well, now what was he going to do?

It didn’t take him long to figure it out, though. He grabbed Emma’s diary from the nightstand. He could’ve sworn he’d left it open, but she must have closed it before she’d gone to sleep.

He quickly flipped through the pages, trying to figure out where he’d left off. His eyes scanned over her next entry about her crushing on someone, which provoked a low growl from him. Deciding to skip over that entry, he read the next one.

Have you ever had someone hate you, even though you have no idea why? I have to tell you, Diary, if looks could kill, Colby Jack would have killed me about ten times today. The weird part is, I thought we were getting along pretty well. He invited me to the art studio he goes to and we really seemed to be bonding.

I don’t know why he hates me, but I guess it just goes to prove one thing. Popular girls and dorky boys can never be friends. Period.

Xoxo, Emma

Colby laughed. It amused him to see that it had actually bothered Emma when he’d gone through his period of hating her. It wasn’t that he hated her as a person, but he hated that she put her popularity before everything else. He thought back to the events leading up to his temporary hatred of her. . .

*

On Friday night, Colby sat in front of the TV in his family’s entertainment room, fast-forwarding through a few scenes of
A Walk to Remember
. He’d already gotten through
The Notebook, Message in a Bottle,
and
Dear John
. So far, Colby liked to think that he most resembled Noah. He even had the shaggy blonde hair to go along with the role. But that wasn’t the only reason; Emma definitely seemed like she could be his Allie.

At that moment, he heard footsteps down the hallway and the door was flung open.

“Colby?” Steve asked. “Are you seriously watching
A Walk to Remember
?”

Colby didn’t even turn to face him. “Make fun of me all you want, but you’re the one who knew what it was just by looking at the TV screen. How did you get in here?”

“Your mom let us in,” Chris spoke up from behind him. “We thought maybe you wanted to play some PlayStation with us. Or maybe we could watch a better movie. Why
are
you watching this, anyway?”

“How would you describe Landon?” Colby asked, motioning to the TV screen as Shane West embraced Mandy Moore right after the scene where everyone had embarrassed her in the cafeteria.

“I don’t know, but Jamie kind of reminds me of you,” Steve admitted. “You know . . . the one everyone picks on at school, even though you’re really a good person and shit. What makes you ask?”

“Well, that doesn’t help at all. It’s just that Emma told me she wants to meet a guy like one of the ones in a Nicholas Sparks movie,” Colby replied, not even realizing what he was saying. Crap. He’d probably said too much.

“Emma? As in Emma
Taylor
?” Steve asked with wide eyes.

“Is that something you overheard her say?” Chris questioned. “She wasn’t talking to you, was she?”

Colby felt himself growing a little angry. He knew that he wasn’t that popular, but if Emma thought he was good enough to talk to, that had to mean
something
. “Actually, she
was
talking to me. She invited me to her party tomorrow night, too.” Without even thinking about what he was saying, he blurted, “And I think she likes me, guys.”

Chris glanced over at Steve. “Did he just say what I think he said?”

“Uh huh,” Steve replied with a nod. “He’s outta his damn mind, though. You know that, right, Colby? You’re outta your damn mind.”

Colby sighed, knowing that they probably wouldn’t have believed him anyway. “Whatever, guys.” He turned his attention back to the TV screen, making mental notes about some of Landon’s finer qualities.

“Wait, Colby. We’re not trying to be mean,” Chris insisted. “It’s just weird. You’re not exactly Emma’s type. That’s all.”

“I know,” Colby agreed. “It came as somewhat of a shock to me, too, but . . . I don’t know, guys. She just seems to open up to me in a way that I’ve never seen her open up to anyone before.” He shrugged, deciding to omit the part about her sitting at his table in art class and
definitely
not telling them about how he’d spent the night at her house. He knew what sorts of jokes they’d probably come up with, and he also didn’t want rumors to spread around school like wildfire.

No, it was a secret that would stay between him and Emma forever, as far as he was concerned.

“You know what, Chris? Remember when we walked past Emma’s locker the other day and she was talking to Ashley about some guy she liked? I bet that was Colby,” Steve said.

“I was just thinking that, too.” Chris nodded. “And remember how she was telling her that her ex-boyfriend was so unromantic that she has to make sure that the next guy will have to prove that he’s more romantic before she’ll even consider dating him?”

“And that she wishes the man of her dreams would just be waiting for her in her bed after one of her parties so she could stop lookin’ for the right guy,” Steve continued. “I say forget about all this
A Walk to Remember
shit. Watching these cheesy movies isn’t going to help you figure out what to do. There’s one really easy way to charm her.”

Colby felt a surge of hope run through him. Steve and Chris had both dated a lot of girls from school, so maybe they actually knew what they were talking about. “How?” he asked.

“On the night of the party, all you gotta do is go up to her room with some wine and light some candles. Most importantly, though, you’ll want to make sure that you’re waiting in her bed for her . . . without your clothes on. That will really bring the point across to her.”

Colby lifted his eyebrows questioningly. “How will waiting in her bed naked
charm
her?”

“Well, you don’t want to be
completely
naked,” Chris explained. “You’ll want to make sure that the only thing you’re wearing is boxers. You have a pair, right?”

“Yeah, I do,” Colby admitted quietly. “Why would I only wear boxers, though?”

“Oh, it’s a well-known fact that Emma has a thing for guys in boxers,” Steve said quickly.

“Hmm,” Colby replied with hesitation. It didn’t sound
completely
unbelievable. “Okay, guys. Thanks for your advice. I think I’m going to try this on Saturday and see what happens.”

“You really should,” Chris agreed. “It’s the only way to know how she feels about you for sure.”

“And lucky for you, we’re going to be at the party, too,” Steve said. “So, we’ll be there for moral support.”

Colby grinned. “Thanks.”

Suddenly, he felt more hopeful about this than he had about anything in a long time. So what if Emma wasn’t going to turn out to be his mate? The feelings he felt for her were real, and that was all that mattered.

*

The party at her house that Saturday night was much crazier than the last one he’d gone to. There were more guests than usual, the music was cranked louder, and most of all? Emma was wearing a short, black little number that showed off way more leg than usual.

Now, Colby just had to work up the nerve to do what his friends had said. He’d already snuck a bottle of wine into her room earlier when no one was watching, but now he had to figure out a way to slip away and wait there for her.

He had a really good feeling about what would happen later that night. He didn’t expect to lose his virginity or anything—and yes, he
was
still a virgin, even though he’d already had a mate—but he thought that they might have a really hot make-out session if it turned out that he was right and she did have feelings for him. Just the idea of lying in her bed and kissing her after everyone else had already gone home made him feel so excited—so aroused; he really needed to find a way to contain his animal instincts.

At that moment, Emma caught his gaze from across the room. She gave him a small wave and smiled as she made her way over to him.

When she approached him, she gave him a small kiss on the cheek. “Hey, Colby Jack! It’s good to see you.”

“You, too,” Colby replied, stuffing his hands in his pockets nervously.

“Hey, do you remember what we were talking about at the art studio the other day?” Emma asked. Glancing around to make sure that no one was listening in on their conversation, she whispered, “My crush?”

“Yeah,” Colby replied, nervously licking his lips. Maybe he wouldn’t have to go through with what Chris and Steve had told him to do. Maybe Emma was going to admit her crush to him right now on her own.

“Well, I really need to talk to you,” Emma explained. At that moment, there was the sound of something crashing in the kitchen, which was followed by glass shattering. “Shit,” she said. “I should probably go check on that, but why don’t you go wait for me in my bedroom so we can have that talk?”

Colby nodded. “Okay, sounds good.”

As Emma headed into the kitchen, Colby spotted Steve and Chris standing in the corner of the room, watching him like a hawk.

He strolled over to them and whispered, “You were
right.
She told me to wait for her in her room. She said she needs to talk to me about her crush.” Even though he didn’t want to seem pathetic, he couldn’t help it; he was beaming.

“Awesome, bro. Maybe she really
does
like you,” Chris said.

“But remember, Colby. The only way for you to find out for sure is to go with our original plan. Now is the perfect time for you to go in her room and wait for her in your boxers. Now, you’re wearing your SpongeBob ones like we told you to before we left the house, right?” Steve asked, the seriousness written all over his face. “Emma can’t resist a guy in yellow.”

“Yeah,” Colby replied with a nod. “I’ll let you guys know how it goes later on.”

He began to climb up the stairs that led to her room, feeling a rush of nervousness erupt through him.

There was no turning back now.

Luckily, there was no one upstairs, so he didn’t have to worry about anyone walking in on him. How embarrassing would
that
be?

He quickly stripped out of his clothes, down to his underwear, and then lit a few candles. Once he was done, he flicked off the lights and climbed on top of her pink comforter. Stretching his legs out over the bed, he rested his head on his elbow as he waited for her to come into the room, his heart pounding against his chest the entire time.

Emma didn’t come right away, though. He watched her digital clock as fifteen minutes passed and then twenty. Beginning to feel uncomfortable and suddenly exposed, he climbed underneath the comforter.

Just as he was convinced that she’d completely forgotten about him and was ready to put his clothes back on, the door clicked open.

“Colby?” Emma asked, glancing around the room. “Are you even in here?”

“Yeah,” Colby replied, instantly regretting going with the plan. He felt more nervous than ever now that it was actually happening. He wished he’d just gone with his plan of telling her how he felt. This felt so wrong, but if she thought he could be the man of her dreams, he needed to prove how romantic he could be.

“Why is it so dark in here?”

He cleared his throat nervously. “It’s not completely dark,” he replied quietly, motioning to the candles that he’d lit.

“Hmm. Okay,” Emma agreed, sitting down on the bed next to him.

He pulled the comforter to himself, feeling uneasy about her seeing what was underneath. “So, you wanted to talk about your crush?” he asked, trying to sound casual, even though he was really squealing inside.