“We are not related,” he said. “Why does that bother you so much?”
“I don’t know, but it does.”
He collected my hands in his and pressed his forehead to mine. His warm breath stroked my skin. The gesture wrapped me up in velvet—soft, warm, and settling. “No one is even going to find out. And if they do, so what?”
“That’s easy for you to say.”
“It can be easy for you too.”
I wasn’t sure about that, but I was caught under his current. His lips moved nearer to mine and as our mouths connected, I allowed myself to indulge in the fantasy that there was nothing between us but what we felt, and that nothing could come between us for the same reason.
Chapter Fourteen
I settled on a bench outside, ready to bask in the last fragments of the day’s sunlight and just read. I held my copy of “Fellowship of the Ring” gingerly. I’d read it so many times the binding was broken, but that wasn’t enough to get me to let it go.
Back against the bench, feet kicked up to give a clear message to anyone passing that I was in no mood for company, I stroked my handmade bookmark and opened the pages with a satisfying creak.
Seconds later, the book was unceremoniously pushed toward my lap.
“Hey,” I said, finding Tate smirking down at me. With the sun as his backdrop, his brown hair had a sort of glow, and my heart gave a little flurry of excitement. He paid no attention to the message my feet were giving off, tossed them gently to the side, and sat beside me.
“Some of us are going swimming,” he said. “Want to come?”
Us? Swimming? “You do remember what happened the last time you invited me out with your friends.” I liked having a phone again, thank you very much.
“No one will harass you,” Tate said. “Carson’s not invited.”
I swallowed and rubbed a finger along the edge of my book. “I think I’m good hanging out with Frodo.”
“Seriously? How can you give up swimming for reading?”
“Like this.” I lifted the book, blocking him out.
Tate laughed and pushed the book down again. “I get it. You like reading.”
“Like is a severe understatement of the intensity of my feelings.”
Another laugh.
“You don’t like to read?” I asked.
“Not in my free time,” he said. “And not this heavy-duty fantasy stuff.”
“This is the best kind,” I argued, stroking my book.
“Why is that?”
“Are you sure you have time for the answer to that question?”
Tate rested his arm on the bench and leaned closer. I fizzled inside at the thought that while he had other plans, he was putting them off to sit here and talk about books with me.
“Okay, then. I love being whisked away to new worlds. And the more complex the better. I love the magic systems and the idea that ordinary people can beat unbeatable odds.”
The romance in a lot of fantasy I loved too, but I wasn’t going to go into that with him.
“That’s—nerdy,” he said, smiling so I knew it was a tease.
“Then I’ll own the title happily.”
“I have seen the movies, and they’re pretty cool,” Tate said. “But—”
“Tate!” a boy from the team whose name I didn’t yet know called to him from the door to the dorms. He waved his arm. “You coming?”
“Hang on!” Tate answered. He turned to me. “What do you say?”
“Frodo calls,” I said.
He stroked my cheek and pressed a soft kiss to my lips. I shivered over the unexpected action. “Then I guess I’ll see you later.” He winked and left me with butterflies in the orange sunlight.
THE DOOR TO THE GATHERING area in our dorm gaped wide open. Bright pop music blasted from within, and the laughter and rambunctious chatter buzzed at a lower decibel, still loud enough to be heard. Curiosity got the better of me. After the conversation at Dad and Laurel’s the night before, though it ended up nice enough, I was looking for a distraction, and it seemed I found one.
Sure enough, a crowd of kids were gathered inside, lounging on the couches, making out in corners, huddled around the foosball table or clustered at tables and staring at phones, leaning in for selfies or to laugh at memes.
I spotted Jenn, wearing a pair of plaid pajama pants and a hot pink t-shirt with a sparkly unicorn leaping across it. Her braids were tucked at the base of her head. She waved, making her way over to me.
“What’s this?” I asked, gesturing to the group.
“Impromptu dorm party,” she said with a grin. “You in?” Not giving me the chance to answer, she looped her arm through mine. “You’ve got to see this app Adelle and her lab partner are working on. It supposedly pairs you with your perfect date for Homecoming.”
“I saw the poll the other day,” I said. I’d voted in favor of the dating app over the other option they had. John and Adelle seemed to be pretty ambitious, out to set a new record and win an award for their project.
“The app isn’t to set you up as a couple. Just for the dance,” Jenn said as we approached. “Hey, girls. Have you met Bailey Monroe? She transferred here from Idaho at the beginning of the year.”
One at a time, the crowd’s attention veered to me. The same constriction a crowd usually brought to me tightened its hold on my insides, but I dragged in a long breath and plastered on a small smile.
“You’re the one from that video, right?” one girl with dark hair and glasses said. I’d seen her in the hall.
“The one who sang to Tate and then kissed him?”
“The one Tate and Carson fought over at the bonfire,” another girl added with a laugh.
I tucked my hair behind my ears. “What are you guys looking at?” I deflected. “Is that the dating app?”
“This is Adelle,” Jenn said, gesturing to the girl sitting on the couch’s arm rest. “She’s a sophomore and has a seriously killer project. How would you like to find your soul mate, Bailey? Maybe the app will pair you with Tate.”
The girls around us laughed. One elbowed me. I simmered under their attention, but I couldn’t say it was unwelcome. While the app sounded fun, I didn’t exactly need it to help me find a date. Tate’s adorable invitation hadn’t stopped playing through my mental catalog since it happened. Before last year’s Winter Formal, I’d never been to a dance. This year, though, I was going to Homecoming with the cutest guy I’d ever seen. A guy who made me feel like I was everything to him.
“It’s not meant for that,” Adelle corrected. “Just meant to pair you up for one evening.”
“Homecoming,” a girl named Emery added. As if we didn’t know.
“It’s all about aligning your common interests,” Adelle added.
“Then it definitely won’t pair me with Tate,” I said, earning another round of giggles. Having all these girls around me, rooting for me, was super cool. “It’s true,” I said. “I love fantasy novels, studying, and escaping on YouTube. Tate loves the outdoors and breathes sports.” The girls all laughed again. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure he’d ever cracked open a book that wasn’t required for a class. The app definitely wouldn’t pair us together, and I wasn’t sure I cared to know who it would line me up with in his place.
“I tried the app yesterday,” Jenn said, resting her hand on the back of a barstool. “Got myself a hot date.”
“With who?” a girl named Debbie asked.
“Justin Warbler.” Jenn beamed.
“The receiver?” I asked, grateful to know who she was referring to. “Did the app pair you with him, or did he ask you?”
She raised a single shoulder. “It paired us, so we rolled with it. Should be a fun night.”
Mia Selznick clicked away on her laptop. “What are you working on there, Mia?” Adelle asked, lowering her phone. “I need to talk about something else.”
“Just checking out the local news.” Her brows furrowed together. “Bailey—what did you say
your last name was?”
I hugged my arms around me and then caught myself and lowered them again. Guess I wasn’t completely comfortable with attention just yet. “Monroe. Why?”
Mia tilted her laptop screen to peer at me over the top of it. “Why does Tate Ingram’s mom have the same last name as you?”
My internal temperature gravitated higher than on Mars. How in the world did she know Tate’s mom’s last name?
“What?” Jenn asked, peering in over Mia’s shoulder and reading. “What’s this?”
“The article mentions this woman Laurel Monroe being the mom of the school quarterback. She just finished some major project for the Seattle Historical Preservation Society. It was featured on HGTV, and the proceeds help provide scholarships for MLA.”
“That’s a bizarre coincidence,” Jenn said. “That you both have the same last name.”
I turned squeamish inside. My usual desire to cower and fold into myself was combatted by the urge to stand tall. I knew exactly how this was going to sound. I’d had reservations about our relationship myself, but Tate blew them off. I was fairly sure his logic might not work on this particular crowd.
I could lie. Tell them some made-up story and play it off, but something like that would only come back to bite me harder if the truth ever leaked out. Which truth tended to do.
There was nothing for it. I would play it cool. Act like kissing and crushing on my stepbrother was no big deal. Besides, Clary and Jace thought they were brother and sister in City of Bones for a while, and that turned out okay.
“Oh, Laurel is married to my dad.”
My light tone didn’t soften the words at all. The movement nearest to me slowed, including those who were listening in on the conversation and some I didn’t even know were. In a strange moment of awkwardness, everything stilled. Mouths gaped. One girl spilled her popcorn all across the floor, and Violet Amlin popped her gum loudly in the silence.
“You mean you kissed your brother?” Mia asked.
Flames splotched my cheeks. I’d never been good at confrontations, and this was the motherload of embarrassing attention.
“That’s kind of disgusting,” Emery said.
“Very Star Wars of you,” added Jenn.
My nerves pulsed. It felt as though everything contained within my skin was trying to get out. I couldn’t handle all of their attention. I was going to burst. Slowly, my gaze clocked from one girl to the next, a tick at a time. Bile rose in my throat. If I wasn’t careful, I’d lose my dinner.
Gripping my stomach, I whirled around and ran for the hall.
I bolted out the open door. The sickening sensation in my stomach increased. Before I could get any farther, I collided with the last person I wanted to see. Charly shoved me back inside.
“Watch it,” she snapped as the contents of my stomach emptied themselves all over her shoes.
Now I really had everyone’s attention. People pulled away from their games, from the foosball table and the movie playing on the big screen. Many laughed, several pointed. Phones swiveled in my direction like robotic eyes as everyone apparently felt the need to document my humiliation.
“You’re disgusting,” Charly said, arms aloft from her body.
“I—I’m sorry,” I muttered. Tears spiked the corners of my eyes. Having their accusing stares was bad enough. Charly had already threatened me over Professor Granger’s feature and then egged Carson on to destroy my phone. What would she do now that I’d obliterated her shoes?
I wiped my mouth, gaped at the onlookers, and broke for it.
“YOU CAN’T QUIT,” MOM said when I called her the minute I got back to my room.
“I’m failing here. My homework is falling behind. I’m getting too much attention and then there are these dinners with Dad and these stupid nights spent with his wife’s son, Tate, who I just might be falling for, and now the school knows I kissed him even though he was my stepbrother and—”
“Wait. Back up for a second. What?”
“Tate is Dad’s wife’s son.” Like that made it any easier to understand. “And I like him. I mean—I really like him. Kids at school think we’re like, more related than we are or something.”
“You kissed your father’s stepson?”
“Yes?” I said it like a question. I couldn’t quite read where she was coming from. Was she going to give me a hard time for it too?
“Okay,” Mom said on an exhale. “So what if he’s your stepbrother?” Her tone shifted, as though she’d taken the necessary time to process and was more accepting. I breathed with relief. Thank you, Mom.
“The kids here don’t share your attitude. I told him when he suggested all of this. Then, I threw up on his ex-girlfriend’s shoes, and she’s already got it in for me, but now she’s really going to hate me.”
“If she does anything, go to the principal,” Mom said, stern and to the point. “A school like that won’t tolerate bullying.”
“And these kids won’t tolerate someone like me.”
“How do you know?” Mom’s voice was both serious and understanding. “Bailey, they only just found out about your connection with Tate. Did you explain your situation? That you’re not really related to him? Don’t run away from this opportunity.”
“I’m not running away,” I argued, though I knew she was right. It was the same thing I did at the bonfire too. “The thing is, I like him, Mom. I mean, I’m kind of crazy about him. I never thought I’d go for a guy who’s into sports and is popular and walks like he owns the school.”
“Different from that other guy you dated while you were here, I take it,” Mom said.
“Very. He’s so confident, he’s so funny and talented. He’s so everything I didn’t know I would even want. How can I be with him now, though? You should have seen the looks I was getting in that room, when all the girls found out he was my stepbrother.”
“You don’t owe them an explanation, Bailey. You don’t owe them anything.”
“They’ll never let me live it down.”
Mom exhaled loudly. “Fine. Explain to them that you’re not related. I still mean what I said, though. If you like this boy, and he likes you, and there’s no legal problems—because trust me, you’re not related—then what does it matter?”
I winced. “I wish it didn’t. I wish I could let it go and just own it.”
“You sound like you really like him.” This time Mom had a smile in her voice.
“I do. He gets me, Mom. He doesn’t care that I’m off-balance or into fantasy or would rather spend my time reading and studying than doing anything else. He holds my hand and...” And he kisses like it should be illegal. “We looked at our baby books the other day. He’s a great guy with a tough past but he tries hard to move forward and be his best.”
“You know what I’m going to say then, don’t you?”
I sank onto the bench in my dorm. I knew. I needed to stop running away from things, needed to stop hiding. I was mortified to have vomited on Charly’s shoes in front of everyone. I was mortified that they all thought Tate and I were disgusting. But I couldn’t run from it this time.
“Why does it have to be so hard?”
“If you care about him, then it won’t be hard at all.”
“I do care about him.” The truth of this statement resonated in my chest like a bell. “A lot. His sister has Down syndrome and we went to visit her last weekend. He was so adorable with her, so sweet. He’s kind to me and he’s strong and amazing, Mom.”
“Then everybody else will understand. A little conversation goes a long way, Bailey. Talk to these girls, help them understand you’re not related to him. Things will work out.”
I inhaled a trembling breath. “Okay. Thanks, Mom.”
I could talk to Jenn, Adelle, Emery, and even Mia. They would understand. But Charly? Her threat wouldn’t leave my mind. She’d already egged Carson on to throw my phone in the fire. That had been easily replaceable, albeit crazy expensive. But our audition
for the feature was coming up soon.
Who knew what she would do this time?
I CAUGHT UP WITH JENN in the hall outside Calculus the next day. Fortunately, she was also with Adelle and Mia. This wouldn’t completely negate everything that had happened the other night, but I had to try.
“Hi Bailey,” Jenn said kindly. “Are you okay?”
“We were worried after you ran off like that the other night,” Mia added.
I took heart. They were being much kinder than I gave them credit for. Granted, they were my friends, but still. I could use a little kindness.
“I’m—I’m okay. Thanks. I wanted to talk to you about that article.”
“About Tate?” Mia said, adjusting her backpack.
I swallowed. I didn’t have a whole lot of time before the bell rang, but I hurried on. “So, I know how it sounds, but it’s not like that between us. The first time I ever met him was at the start of the school year.”
Mia shifted. “Yeah, but...he’s your brother.”
“The not-related kind,” I said. The words took more energy to expel than singing the national anthem had. “His mom is married to my dad. That’s it.”
The discomfort simmering between us lightened. My chest opened, allowing me to take in the first full breath I had since last night.
“So...he’s not your brother,” Jenn clarified.
“Not even,” I said. “No relation whatsoever.”
The statement stewed between us.
“He is gorgeous,” Mia said with a mischievous grin.
I dipped my chin. “Yeah.”
“Is he taking you to Homecoming?” Jenn asked.
I took in a long breath, grateful they were believing me. “Yeah. He asked me a few nights ago.”
“No wonder you weren’t interested in Adelle’s app. Has Charly contacted you at all?” Jenn asked. The bell overhead rang, and we started walking down the hall. Adelle parted down a separate hall, leaving Jenn, Mia, and me to make our way toward the senior hall.
Don't Kiss the Quarterback: Billionaire Academy YA Romance Book 5 Page 12