Jessica shrugged. “I play the piano, guitar, flute, trombone, trumpet, violin, cello, and I’m learning the oboe.” She ticked them off on her fingers. “So, I guess eight.”
“Seriously?” Trudy gaped at her. “That’s amazing.”
Jessica motioned like it wasn’t a big deal. “My mom taught me most of them. She can play just about every instrument ever invented. Plus, she can sing too.” Jessica sighed and slumped her shoulders. “She’s super talented.”
Neil appeared from behind the curtain and lifted a guitar case onto the counter. “Let me know if you have any issues with it.”
“Okay. I will.” She waved to Neil and they headed out the door.
“What kind of music do you like to play?” Trudy asked.
“Classic rock.”
Trudy stepped down from the curb and raised her eyebrows. “Really?”
Jessica hitched up her guitar, getting a better grip on the handle. “Yeah. Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones…that kind of stuff. It’s the best.”
“You can play that on an acoustic guitar?”
“Who said this was an acoustic guitar?” Jessica opened her trunk, laid the case inside, then popped the hinges. In the case sat a red and white electric guitar. It looked brand new, like Neil had shined it up or something.
“Wow.”
“I saved my babysitting money for three summers to buy her. She’s my most prized possession.”
“Her?”
Jessica blushed and curled her hair behind her ear. “Is it stupid I named her?”
“I don’t know. Depends. What did you name her?”
“Harriet.”
Trudy couldn’t tell if she were joking around or serious. She squinted at her. “What?”
Jessica laughed and shook her head. “Okay, that’s not it.” She closed the case back up.
Trudy walked around the car. After they were inside, she asked, “Then what is it?”
“Stevie.”
“After Stevie Wonder?” Trudy wrinkled her nose. Her mother played his songs when she was in a sappy mood. He was the king of gooey love songs.
“No. Nicks.”
“Who’s that?”
Jessica gave her a funny look. “I really need to educate you.”
“I guess so.”
“Wanna come to my house? Do you have time?”
Trudy didn’t want to go home, so she nodded. “Sure.”
Ten minutes later, they were lounging on Jessica’s four-poster bed, listening to a song called “Landslide,” which Trudy actually liked quite a bit.
Jessica opened a drawer on the nightstand beside her bed and pulled out a bag of peanut M&M’s, tossing it to Trudy. “So, what’s the plan for hottie?”
Trudy grew uncomfortable. She didn’t want to think about it. “Just all the stuff you said.”
“I know, but you need a solid plan, or I can see this thing blowing up in your face.”
She was right. Trudy already was nervous to see Lane tonight. She stared at Jessica’s freckles. “What do you have in mind?”
“Invite him to your house and—”
“I can’t,” Trudy interrupted. “Mom has a strict no home alone rule.”
Jessica blew out a breath. “Well, does she have any rules about you going over to a guy’s house?”
Trudy thought about it. She’d never had a guy friend, so they’d never really talked about it before. Was it an unspoken rule? Do those even count?
“It’s probably an implied rule.”
“She’s never said out loud that you can’t go to a guy’s house?”
“No, I guess not.”
“Perfect. Ask him if you can study at his house tonight. Then, get him alone and make the moves on him.”
The thought made Trudy’s heart jump into her throat. “Make the moves on him? Like, what exactly?”
“You know. Touch his arm. Sidle up to him. If the opportunity presents itself, kiss him.”
Trudy put up her hand in a stop sign motion. “Whoa, wait a minute. No one said anything about kissing.”
Jessica huffed. “You have to kiss him if you’re going to make him think you really like him. It’s no big deal. Haven’t you kissed a guy before?”
Great. The geeky band girl had gotten more lip action than she had. How pathetic was that? Trudy made a face. “Of course.” Even she didn’t believe the words.
Jessica squinted at her. “Oh. My. Gosh. You haven’t kissed a guy before? Holy cow, girl. You’re a senior. Where have you been?”
At the Zippy Burger with Izzy. Or listening to the radio in her basement while they ate potato chips dipped in mustard. Trudy held that part in. She didn’t want to look lamer than she already was. Izzy was a year younger than she, and Trudy supposed she’d spent her time giggling and talking about boys more than actually spending time with them. “I don’t know,” she finally said, the lameness of her words making her face heat up.
“Okay. This is how tonight is going to go down. You’re going to flirt with him until you find the perfect opportunity. Then you’re going in for the kill. Remember, he’s the jerk who wants to destroy you socially. You’re not kissing him for real. You’re kissing him for revenge.”
Trudy wasn’t so sure about that. “Is it still revenge if he hasn’t done it yet?”
“Yes.” Jessica nodded to emphasize it. “He’s a nerd-bucket for even taking the bet. You’re doing what is natural. Defending yourself. And—” Jessica held up her hand like she’d just thought of something brilliant. “You’re also helping him.”
“How?”
“You’re helping him understand how it feels to have someone mess with your head like this. He’ll never do this again as long as he lives. You have to do this… to save all the future girls in his path.”
Trudy nodded. “I guess you’re right.”
“Of course I’m right. I’m always right. And when this charade is over, I’m going to find you a boyfriend.” Jessica grinned and Trudy knew she was in trouble.
Chapter 12
Lane slipped his T-shirt on over his head and grabbed his towel out of his locker. Football players milled about, some in towels and others in different states of getting dressed. As he rubbed it on his wet hair, he heard his phone chime. He pulled it out of his locker and read the text.
Can we study at your house tonight?
Apprehension tightened his chest. He didn’t want Trudy at his house. Not if his parents were going to be there. It was often a battle zone, and he didn’t want her hearing them scream at each other. He texted his mom. Are you going to be home tonight?
After a moment, she answered. I have to work late. I’ll be home after nine.
He didn’t want to think about if that meant she really was at work, or if she was going to be with that man he saw her with at the restaurant. At least she wouldn’t be home to start fighting with his father.
He texted Trudy back. Sure. I’ll pick you up in ten minutes.
She sent him back a smiley face emoji.
Lane grabbed his backpack from his locker and slung it over his shoulder, happy to be done with practice. And if he allowed himself to be honest, he was excited to see Trudy. He couldn’t wait to tell her he’d aced the test.
The drive to her house didn’t take long, and soon he was sprinting up her walkway. Trudy opened the door before he had time to press the bell. She had a two-handed grip on her backpack strap, and it was so tight her knuckles were bulging.
“Hey,” she said, looking up at him briefly before starting down the walkway to his car. She walked like she couldn’t wait to get away from him.
This was the most confusing girl he’d ever met. He hurried to catch up to her. “Nice weather tonight, huh?”
Lane cringed. Nice weather? What was he thinking?
Trudy did another quick glance his way. “Yeah.”
He had to rush to get in front of her to open the car door for her. His mother had taught him to always open doors for women. He k
new some people thought it was an old-fashioned notion and didn’t like it, but he’d rather take the chance and be a gentleman than stand back and look like a slob.
As he drove, he tried to think of something to say to start up a conversation. Instead, he blurted out, “I aced the test today, thanks to you.”
She seemed to relax a bit at that. “Oh? That’s great.” Her smile was genuine. “You must be really starting to get it, then.”
The tone of her voice made it seem like she was relieved she wouldn’t have to teach him too much longer. But he hadn’t meant to give her that impression. He flicked his turn signal on. “Not that I won’t need any more tutoring. I’m sure I’ll need it. In fact, today’s assignment looked really tough.”
“Oh.”
Trudy’s phone buzzed and she slid her backpack onto her lap to dig through it. She pulled it out and looked at it then made a huffing noise and buried it deep into her bag. It buzzed a few more times, but she ignored it.
“Someone annoying you?”
“Something like that.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s just Jessica bugging me about something I’m supposed to do.” She stared at her lap. “But I don’t really want to do it, you know?”
“Then don’t do it.” He pulled in front of his house and shut off the engine. He turned to face her, resting his arm on the steering wheel. “Jessica can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
“You’re right.” She smiled at him. “I don’t know why I was so stressed about it.”
“Come on. Let’s go inside and you can teach all the math to me, and I can convince you to go to the dance with me.”
She stiffened a little, then nodded. “Right. The dance.”
“You know I’m going to win, don’t you?”
“Win?” She blinked at him like she couldn’t believe he’d said that.
“Yeah. I’m going to win you over.” He reached out and brushed a strand of her hair off her forehead. It was silky soft. He wondered what she put in it to make it feel that way.
She let out a deep breath. “Yeah.”
“Yeah? You agree I’m going to win you over?” He couldn’t help the cheesy smile that came on his face.
She gave him a funny look then quietly said, “You’re so not going to win.” And then a flirty smile tugged at her lips and she hopped out of the car before he could ask her what that meant.
He grabbed his backpack from the back seat and rushed to catch up to her. Whatever she was doing, it suddenly felt fun. He opened the front door and led her to the family room in the basement.
“Dang, your TV is enormous.” She plopped down on the leather couch.
“So was the fight that ensued after Dad brought it home.” Lane clamped his lips together and sat beside Trudy. He hadn’t meant to say that.
She offered him a sympathetic glance. “I’m sorry. Is that normal?”
He didn’t want to talk about it, hadn’t even meant to bring it up, so he unzipped his backpack and pulled out his book. “Kind of. But don’t worry about it. Let’s start on the assignment. I got confused when she was talking about logarithm functions.”
Trudy leaned closer to show him how to work the problems. The way she explained it made sense to him. Why hadn’t the teacher said it that way? As she talked, he could feel the heat from her leg pressed against him. And then he suddenly wasn’t thinking about math anymore. He was thinking about what it would feel like to hold her in his arms.
Gah. He needed to concentrate or he wouldn’t pull his grade up. He stared down at the numbers. She shoved the pencil at him. “Here, you do this next one.”
He managed to think about math long enough to do the problem. When he finished, she grinned at him. “Great. You got it right.” She took the pencil away from him and her skin brushed against his, which made him think about touching her again. He wanted to hold her hand. Caress her soft skin.
She tugged on her long sleeves, covering up part of her hands, as if she could read his mind. He wanted to grab her hand and pull that dang sleeve back so it didn’t cover up any of her beautiful ivory-colored skin, but instead he jumped up. “Do you want a soda? We have Coke or Mountain Dew.”
“Just water would be fine.”
“Water.” He clapped his hands together, then felt dumb for doing that. “I can do water.” He went to the bar in the back of the room and opened the mini-fridge, pulling out a Coke for himself. Then he grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap.
When he came back, she was texting someone. “Jessica again?”
“Mmm,” she said, shifting so he couldn’t see the screen.
“Is she still bugging you to do whatever it was she wanted you to do?”
“Yeah.” Her gaze briefly met his, and her cheeks turned pink.
Well, that was interesting. She was embarrassed about it. He sat down. “What’s she want you to do?”
“Nothing.” Her face darkened to a lovely shade of crimson.
Before she could react, he swiped the phone from her hands and read the text.
Kiss him already!
Trudy squealed and grabbed the phone back, her mortification written in the expression on her face. “She’s just messing around. That’s not really what she wanted me to do.” She shoved her phone in her backpack, looking like she wanted to crawl in after it.
Dang, she was cute when she was embarrassed. He decided to take advantage of the suggestion. He leaned over. “Jessica wants you to kiss me?” He couldn’t help the goofy grin he knew he had.
“She’s delusional.” Trudy held her backpack like a shield in front of her.
“I don’t know. I think she might have something there. I mean, I think it’s a good suggestion.” He pressed closer until the smell of mint carried on her breath. “Wait, did you just put a mint in your mouth? When I was over at the bar?”
Trudy’s eyes widened and she sank further into the leather of the couch. “No,” she whispered.
The lie was so apparent, if it had flown out of her mouth and taken root in his hair, it wouldn’t have been more obvious. He tried not to laugh. She must want to kiss him if she did that. He had to admit, the thought was quite appealing.
“You’re lying,” he said, moving even closer until his nose was almost touching hers. “I can smell it.”
She pressed her lips together and shook her head, still clutching the backpack between them.
“Then open up. I want to see.”
She shook her head again, still not saying anything.
“If you won’t show me, then I only have one other choice. I have to kiss you to figure it out.”
Trudy froze, and he wasn’t sure if she was waiting for him to do it, or if she was scared that he would. The last thing he wanted was to force something on her, so he raised his hand and brushed his knuckles across her cheek. “All kidding aside, I really do want to kiss you. Would you mind?”
Her gaze dropped to her backpack, as if she were considering his words. Finally, she looked at him. “No,” she whispered again.
“Then, can I get rid of that backpack? Because it’s seriously cramping my style.”
Again, she paused then said, “All right.”
He slowly took the bag from her, dropping it on the floor. Then he took her hand in his. “You’re trembling,” he said, surprised.
“I’m a little nervous.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Why?”
“I’ve never kissed a guy before.”
His heart thudded. If that didn’t make him want to kiss her even more, he didn’t know what else would. He grinned. “I’ll be gentle, I promise.”
He tugged on her hand until she sat up next to him. Then he crooked his finger under her chin and lifted it, moving in closer to her. “Are you ready?”
She closed her eyes and nodded.
He reached around behind her neck and gently pressed his lips to hers. Something about the way she sat made her seem vulnerable, and he di
dn’t want to come on too strong, so he kept the kiss feather-light, his lips caressing hers, softly probing.
Trudy was a pretty girl, but she had a depth to her the other girls lacked. He could see it in her deep brown eyes. The way she held herself. She had secrets, and the urge to get her to share them overwhelmed him.
The sensation of her smooth skin on his made his body tingle. She let out a small gasp and her lips parted. He pulled her closer as she began to respond to the kiss, her lips dancing with his in a rhythm that increased in tempo as his heartrate tried to keep up.
Lane had kissed a few girls over the years, but this was different. It was electric. The hairs on the back of his neck stood and he found himself wanting more. Trudy slid her hand up his chest and fire erupted along his skin.
She gripped his shoulders and pressed herself closer to him, deepening the kiss. Every nerve ending in his body came alive. This was her first kiss? He wouldn’t have guessed.
She took command of the kiss, and it grew passionate. Hungry. He didn’t want it to stop, but the heat level was rising to a dangerous level and he broke away, pulling back. He drew in a gasp of air. “Dang, girl. What are you trying to do to me?”
Trudy drew back from him, her eyes like saucers. Her hand flew to her mouth. “What did I do? I’m sorry. Did I mess it up? Am I a terrible kisser?”
He shook his head and brought her hand down, placing his other hand on top. “No. The opposite. You were just a little too good, and I didn’t want our PG kiss to turn into an R-rated movie.”
Her blush came back and she slumped back into the couch. “Oh. Sorry.”
“By the way, you owe me an apology.”
She quirked a brow. “What for?”
“For lying.” He opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue. Sitting on the end was a small, white mint.
Chapter 13
The chatter in the lunchroom was loud, but not as loud as Trudy’s heart pounding in her ears. Jessica set her tray down and scooted her chair closer. Her lunch consisted of a banana and a carton of milk. She ate like a monkey. “Okay. Tell me everything. Every detail.”
“There’s nothing to tell, really.” The truth threatened to spill out, so she clamped her jaw shut.
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