Distracted By You: Book 1 in The Exeter Running Girls Series

briefly, hating the sound of my name. My parents once said they had chosen that name because it represented their love for each other – how it just kept growing. What a sick joke that now was. More like poison ivy.
“Ivy. Nice name.” He turned a corner, his focus on the road. I wasn’t sure if he meant it. It was too dark to determine his facial expression and I was too tipsy for any perceptive skills to be on high alert. “Call me Tye.”
“Tye? Like a necktie?”
He shook his head, laughing quietly without humour.
“With a y instead of an i. It’s not like I haven’t had those joke before.”
“Sorry,” I cringed at the mistake and looked down at my handbag in my lap, suddenly wishing we had already reached my halls.
“I have probably had that joke about as much as you have about the plant.”
“Okay, I get it,” I waved my hand in the air, showing he could stop talking. “No more references to ties – necktie, cravat, bow or any other.”
“Cravat? A little out of my class, princess.” The nickname snapped at my attention – my eyes lifted sharply back to him.
“Whoa, less of the princess, chauffer,” I tried to refocus my eyes on the road, distracted by his smile that had been momentarily visible in the passing streetlamps. “Princesses get drunk on champagne rather than toffee apple cider.
“Yuck,” he practically wriggled in his seat at the thought. “Who drinks toffee apple cider?” At his look of disgust, I raised my hand. “Course you would, princess.”
“Less princess, please!”
“Nah, I like it,” his smirk was now evident, even through the darkness. It peeved me, I found myself folding my arms again. “You better start giving me directions to your hall.”
“Lafrowda block. Do you know it?”
“Oh yeah. We’re fine,” he took the next turning away from town and headed back up to the campus. “So what happened to your designated driver?”
“Leonora got drunk and went home with guy number four.” I kept my eyes through the passenger window, chastising myself for looking at him so much.
“Number four? This week?”
“This evening.”
“Okay,” he drawled out the syllable, nodding thoughtfully. “What Benji says of her is beginning to make more sense.”
“It was a competition between her and Ellie, they like the chase is all. That reminds me, I should introduce you to Ellie some time.” I turned my gaze back out of the window.
“Why?”
“Think you’d like her.” That was the gut-wrenching truth. If Leonora did not push his buttons, then Ellie certainly would. Yet being here in his car, alone… well, it was easy to pretend Ellie did not exist at this moment. Just as long as Tye kept talking I thought I would be happy. It was surprisingly easy to talk to him, and I gave up trying to train my eyes away and let them willingly slide back to ogle him. Hey, a girl can look!
“If she goes home with four guys’ numbers from one night out, no thanks,” Tye shook his head just as we pulled up outside Lafrowda block. As we came to a halt, I rested my hand on the door handle – the ladybugs scattered across the back of my hand fell into the glow of the streetlights and I hesitated. One of the ladybugs was chasing the other, little fast lines drawn behind him to show his speed. “Everything okay?” Tye noticed my pause, pulling me from my thoughts.
“All good,” I replied chirpily, jumping out of the car, and ignoring my strange moment. I bent back down to look through the doorway with a smile. “Thank you for the ride.” It had saved a long walk home and now I had actually spoken to the guy I kept thinking about.
“How often do you get stranded on a night out?” He leaned forward onto the passenger seat, causing the streetlight behind me to fall onto his features. He really was a good-looking guy – strong jaw line, dark eyes, stubble across his chin. Concentrate Ivy!
“Not often,” I shrugged as though it were no big deal. Sure I was angry, but as I said, I could never be too angry at Leonora. The girl had some serious issues to deal with.
“So it has happened before?”
“Once or twice. Why?”
His happy features angled down into an arrow, displaying anger. Wow, did he look livid.
“It’s fine,” I waved it away with my hand.
“It is not fine,” he shook his head and the muscles in his neck grew taut.
“If it were an issue, it would be my issue to deal with. As it is, I’m fine with it. Okay?” As nice as the protective guy thing he was showing was, it was still my life and my decision. Sure I was peeved with Leonora, but this guy did not know the situation and really, in truth, did not have a right to comment. “Trust me, it’s fine. See you.” I shut the door and hurried inside, suddenly eager to run away and be gone from that angry look.
I had only walked back once by myself through the darkness. Overall, Exeter was a very safe city – nothing of interest ever happened here.

Chapter 2
Apart from spying Tye at the back of the lecture hall in mechanics, I didn’t see him again for a few weeks, and certainly didn’t speak to him. When we did speak again, well… I say speak, I literally collided with him one day at the gym.
“Whoa, princess, watch where you’re going.” We backed away from each other in surprise. So much so that I nearly tripped over the running machine I had just stepped off, I had to reach out to the handles to balance my weight and stop toppling over completely.
As a student, I had discount for the campus gym, but