Chapter 1

CHAPTER

ONE

MARTY

T he thing about locking down a boyfriend as amazing and hot as Dalton Beauregard was that it didn't mean I could get complacent. And I didn't want to get complacent, because Dalton was awesome and deserved to have every single day be like Christmas or something, you know? Except if you made every day Christmas, then it would be a Christmas Groundhog Day situation, and nobody wants to see Bill Murray drive a groundhog off a cliff into a quarry for real.

"Marty?" Dalton asked, handing me a breakfast burrito as we sat on a bench in the quad.

"Huh? Oh, thanks."

"You were a million miles away," he said. "What were you thinking about?"

He smiled, and I loved the way his eyes crinkled a little bit when he did that. It made him look even more handsome. Not that he needed the help. My boyfriend was hot. I hadn't been into guys for very long, but I'd got the best one. Like, I'd always known in theory which guys were good looking and which weren't, but it had only been recently that I'd moved from the theoretical side to the practical, if you get my drift. If you don't, I mean I had only recently got my hands, mouth and other parts of me on a guy's dick for real. And I'd picked Dalton's dick, which had turned out to be the best decision ever. And not just because it was a fantastic dick, but also because it was attached to Dalton, and he was the best. Case in point: he bought me a breakfast burrito every Monday morning because early classes on Mondays were the worst and he liked to make me feel better. He actually made me feel better just by, like, showing up, but I hadn't told him that because I didn't want the burrito thing to stop.

"I was thinking about groundhogs," I told him around a mouthful of burrito.

"Not squirrels?" he teased, bumping his shoulder against mine.

"Nah. Mainly because it's Groundhog Day, not squirrel day." I took another bite of burrito.

Dalton hitched an eyebrow at me. "It's not Groundhog Day, Marty. That's in February."

"Is it? Then why are you talking about it?"

Dalton laughed, and it warmed me inside to see it. He had a great laugh. He had a great everything. I told him every single day how great he was, but I got the feeling he didn't quite believe me yet.

Dalton didn't talk about his shitty ex much anymore, mainly because he was with me and I was amazing and much better than that other guy, but I knew for a fact that Emmett hadn't appreciated Dalton nearly enough. I wondered if anyone had ever taken a day to celebrate just how amazing he was, and then I wondered why I hadn't taken a whole day to celebrate how amazing he was. Like, I could do all sorts of romantic shit and he'd feel like he was in one of those eighties John Hughes romcoms, like a taller, buffer Molly Ringwald.

Yeah. If a groundhog could have a day, why couldn't Dalton?

Dalton was a not-so-secret sucker for romantic shit. He'd fucking love it .

"We should do something tonight," I said.

"Like what?"

"I dunno," I said. "But something . Something romantic."

He showed me that smile again. "Like a date night?"

"Better than a date night," I said. Go big or go home, right? "Clear your schedule. It's gonna be awesome."

"It's Monday, Marty," Dalton said.

"So?"

"So, Monday night is laundry night. And then we study together and argue about whose place we're staying at."

"Squirrel likes to stay at Alpha Tau," I said.

"And Dalton likes to sleep with you without Casey in the room," Dalton said.

Dalton didn't have a roommate, which was great for when we wanted to get down and dirty. But I missed Squirrel, my dog, when I stayed over at Theta Phi. Squirrel preferred to stay at Alpha Tau, where all the guys knew to let him out to pee, and to check the refrigerator for his food and walk schedule. Also, he slept better when he could steal a pair of Casey's socks to chew on. Squirrel was weird like that.

Casey didn't seem to mind though, not since I'd ordered him a box of a hundred pairs of novelty socks at the start of the semester. Also, if we stayed at Theta Phi, Casey didn't have to listen to me riding Dalton's dick.

Did I mention Dalton had an amazing dick?

"Are you thinking about my dick right now?" Dalton asked.

"How can you tell?" I licked the burrito juice that was running down my forearm before lobbing the wrapper into the trash can.

He grinned. "I can always tell, babe. You get the same look on your face when you're thinking about the good donut place."

"Please. Your dick is much more important to me than donuts. "

Dalton threw a hand across his forehead in a mock swoon. "More important than donuts?"

"Tastes better too," I said, just to see him go pink. It was a lie, though, because what science really needed to do was create a way that dicks tasted like donuts. Though, if that happened, I might accidentally kill Dalton through exhaustion within a week. I wondered briefly how he'd feel about me drizzling icing on the tip, but decided in a fit of self-control not to ask. Mainly because the thought of it was super hot, and it would be awkward if I started getting a boner every time we went to the donut shop.

"Anyway," Dalton said, breaking into my fantasy, "I can't clear my whole night. I really wish I could, but I have two assignments I need to work on, so it'll have to be sex and laundry just like always." He gave me a crooked smile.

That was one of the things I loved about Dalton. Even when he said no to something I suggested, I didn't ever feel like he was saying no to me .

"For the record, I like sex and laundry Mondays," I said, turning to face him. "I mean, they're no Taco Tuesday, but they're pretty great." I leaned in and kissed him so he knew I wasn't mad or anything, and Dalton kissed me back.

The moment was broken by the alarm on my phone going off.

I groaned and pulled away, pressing one last kiss to Dalton's temple before standing. "I gotta go. English Lit in ten minutes." As well as getting prescribed ADHD meds, I'd found a whole heap of life hacks that actually worked for me, and setting an alarm ten minutes before every class was one of them. This year, classes were already going better for me than they had last year—yet another thing I had to thank Dalton for.

Which was why he deserved the biggest, most over-the-top romantic gesture I could think of. In fact, he deserved all the romance. Why stop at one day of telling Dalton how special he was ?

Why not make it an entire week of celebrating all things Dalton?

Yeah.

I was gonna romance the hell out of him, and it was gonna be epic.

I did stay the night at Theta Phi—partly because I wanted to make Dalton happy, and partly because I was in the mood for more than an under-the-cover hand job. But later, while Dalton slept, I lay awake and planned.

I knew how romantic gestures worked—hell, Mackenzie from Zeta Tau was still talking about when her guy had turned up on her doorstep from out of state for Valentine's Day and sung ‘All of Me' by John Legend to her in front of the entire sorority.

Wait. Maybe I could serenade Dalton.

He liked music, and he liked romcoms, even though he pretended he only watched them for me. I just needed to pick the right song and go full karaoke on his ass in front of his frat. It would be romantic as fuck.

Unfortunately the only song that was coming to mind right now was Cardi B, and I didn't think that was the vibe I was going for. Still, I'd think of something before tomorrow. I could just picture it—me turning up at sunset with a Bluetooth speaker, Dalton standing on the porch with his hands over his mouth like a contestant in The Bachelor who's just won a solo date—and it was gonna be awesome.

Just as soon as I found a song that didn't involve girls. And girl parts. Which were great, but just not relevant to my situation anymore. I was very much a dick man these days. My parents hadn't been super impressed with that—I probably should have phrased it differently—but everyone else had been supportive and stuff. Especially my brothers at Alpha Tau, which shouldn't have surprised me. Between Archer and Scout and Trey and me, coming out was becoming a regular sort of thing over there.

I fell asleep before I could think of anything, and I didn't have any ideas when I woke up either. We had breakfast and went to classes, and I tried desperately to think of the most banging romantic power ballad to show Dalton how I felt. I considered the song from Titanic , but some of those notes were hella high. Besides, I was firmly team ‘room on the door'.

It was the middle of the afternoon when it came to me. There was a song by the Righteous Brothers—who, fun fact, weren't even brothers— that I remembered from this movie my mom always used to watch, about a dead guy and his wife. The film had a scene with a pottery wheel where the song played, and my mom always used to get all gooey eyed over how romantic it was. If I sang that to Dalton, he'd probably lose his ever-lovin' mind.

I wasn't that good of a singer—Casey said I sounded like a cat with its head stuck in a trash can—but I figured Dalton wouldn't care. He'd be too busy swooning.

I hunted down the song on Spotify and waited until just after dinner when the light was just starting to fade. After texting Dalton to make sure he was there, I took myself over to Theta Phi with my Bluetooth speaker and a megaphone I'd borrowed from janitorial. I figured they wouldn't mind, since it was for romance.

Leo was sitting on the porch. "Hey Marty. What's up?"

"I'm making a grand gesture," I said, and lifted the megaphone to my mouth.

"This one's for you, Dalton Donut!" I shouted and wow, that was way louder than I'd expected. Maybe I should have practiced or something first.

Dalton's window flew open and he appeared over the sill. "Marty?"

"Hey boo!" I called, and then started the music. Then I remembered that I didn't actually know most of the words, so I just kind of made it up as I went along. I started out okay, but then I couldn't remember what I hungered for, so I improvised.

" I hun-ger for…your dick! " I bellowed.

Okay, now I was hearing my own voice through the megaphone, maybe Casey had a point about how I sounded. I kept going anyway. This was romance , not America's Got Talent .

Leo cackled from his spot on the porch.

"Jesus, Marty, no!" Dalton called, but he was laughing, so I figured he didn't really mind.

I'd missed a line or two, so I just picked up at the next bit that sounded familiar. The bit about rivers full of pee. I remembered singing it that way as a kid, even if it had never quite made sense. The best part was how I could replace all the darlings —and there were a lot of them—with Daltons . It was the perfect song for serenading.

I was in the zone now as I sang, one arm thrown out wide as I tipped my head back and made eye contact with Dalton, who was shaking with laughter. Huh. Not the response I'd been going for, but I pressed on. " Dalton, won't you wait for— what the fuck? "

I squawked and jumped sideways as a spray of cold water hit the back of my bare legs. A second spray followed, colder than the first. I scrambled up onto the porch, clutching my speaker and megaphone, and turned to watch as Theta Phi's irrigation system kicked in properly, decorating the lawn with glistening droplets and tiny shimmering rainbows, all while destroying my kickass romantic gesture.

The door opened and strong arms wrapped around me from behind. "Hey, babe," Dalton said, face resting on my shoulder. I turned in his arms, accidentally smacking him in the stomach with the megaphone. He sighed and took it off me along with the speaker, setting them on the swing chair. "What… what was that, exactly? "

"It was awesome, before the sprinklers kicked in," I said. "I was serenading the fuck out of you, bro."

"I know that, but why?" Dalton asked. "Wait, shit. Is it our anniversary or something? Did I miss a special occasion?"

"You're the special occasion, boo." I loved the way he went all melty when I called him that. "I wanted to make sure you know that you're the best there is."

Dalton pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Thanks, babe. I'm sorry the sprinklers ruined your plan.

"Nah," I said. "It was still kind of awesome, right?"

"Yeah," Dalton said, grinning. He leaned in close and in a low voice that sent a shiver down my spine, murmured. "Wanna go upstairs, get naked, and see what happens?"

"Always, boo."

I scrambled up the stairs after Dalton.

Sure, my romantic gesture hadn't gone perfectly, but that was okay.

There was always tomorrow.