Welcoming it was not.
She didn’t seem to care. After one glance she turned her attention back to me. “Explain.”
I grinned. So cute. “Cut to the chase, huh? I like that about you.”
She pursed her lips in a look that said I am not amused.
“Okay, here’s the deal.” I set her bag down and faced her. I had this sudden image of that long dark hair of hers in braids. With that pale skin and serious face, she’d look just like Wednesday Addams from the Addam’s Family movies.
The thought made me grin even more.
“You’re making me nervous.” Her voice was a funny monotone that I suspected was not intentionally funny.
“You like that Robbie guy, right?”
“His name is Robert.”
Whatever. The guy looked like a weak little loser who wouldn’t know how to talk to a girl, let alone kiss her. But that was not my problem. She wanted him, she’d get him. “Right, Robert. You like him.”
I paused even though it wasn’t really a question. I’d heard enough of her friends’ conversation to know the answer and she knew it.
Her stare gave nothing away.
“You need help getting him to notice you—”
“Who said I need help?”
My brows arched. “Uh, every one of your friends?”
She huffed.
I couldn’t blame her. I’d wanted to smack her friends upside the head for being such busybodies. I had no doubt their intentions were good—I didn’t really know my stepsister all that well yet, but she seemed like a nice person, and her friends were sweethearts from what I could tell. But that didn’t mean they hadn’t overstepped in a big way.
“Look, I’m not judging,” I said, my hands going up in a defensive gesture. I eyed her from head to toe. “Personally I dig this whole Morticia look you’ve got going on. You’re rocking the geeky emo vibe.”
“Geeky...what?” Her brows drew down. “Are you insulting me right now?”
“No.” I ruined it by laughing, but honestly, the way she’d asked was kind of hilarious. She hadn’t sounded offended, just curious. Like she honestly didn’t know and just wanted to be clear.
“But you’re laughing at me,” she said in a tone that said she was trying to clarify.
“I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing with you.”
“I’m not laughing,” she said.
“It’s an expression.”
“But it doesn’t make sense in this context.”
I opened my mouth and then shut it with a sigh. “We’re getting off topic here. Do you or do you not want to hear my offer?”
She blinked a few times and then adjusted her glasses again. “Okay, fine. What is this offer?”
“I’ll get you Robert.”
Her eyes widened in alarm. “What?”
“I’ll make him like you.”
She stared at me in shock and I wasn’t surprised. It was a big promise, but I had no doubt I could do it. This girl wasn’t a dog, she just didn’t have style. And the way Robert had looked at her when I’d called her my girl?
There was clearly some interest there. Enough for me to work with.
“How?” she asked.
I grinned. “You leave that to me.”
She turned her head slightly and gave me the side-eye. “And what would you get out of this deal?”
I grinned. Smart girl. “Your help getting caught up in my biology class.”
She narrowed her eyes. “If you expect me to help you cheat—”
“No.” My voice was harsher than intended but, man... Why did everyone think that about me? I mean, sure, I’d let Stella help me a little too much, but I wasn’t looking for a handout, just a leg up. “No,” I said again, milder this time. “I just need some...assistance.”
“Like tutoring?” She looked unconvinced.
“Yeah. Like tutoring.”
“Oh.” Her stance changed. She stopped looking so stiff. In fact, I was almost positive she was trying not to smile. “Deal.”
“Yeah?” My brows shot up in surprise. “That was...easy.”
Her smile appeared in a sudden flash and it hit me like a bolt of lightning. I stopped breathing.
She was cute when she was serious. But that smile...?
Not pretty. Not beautiful. Not stunning. I couldn’t think of the word for what that smile did for her.
What it did to me.
Her smile didn’t suddenly make her gorgeous, but it did...something.
Her smile was something.
And that right there, folks...? That was why I was barely getting by in my English writing class, too.
“How are you going to make him see me like...” She waved her hand in front of her as she looked for the word. “That.”
Clearly she wasn’t an English genius either.
“Easy,” I said with a shrug. “I’ll make him jealous.”
Her brows lifted a bit and her eyes widened. I could basically see her put the pieces back together and everything about her relaxed as she did. “So that’s why you called me babe.”
Her voice was a sigh of relief.
I knew in that moment that this was not a girl who enjoyed surprises. She did not dig a mystery. She seemed to relax twenty times over now that she’d made sense of my earlier behavior.
I held my hands out to the side with a grin. “It’s already working.”
She looked skeptical. “You think?”
“Did you see the way he was watching us when we walked away?” I nodded. “He’s freaked out by the fact that you’re off alone with some college hottie.”
“Some college hottie, huh?” Her lips twitched with amusement.
“Too cocky?”
“A little.” She paused to think. “But it’s okay because it’s the truth.”
I stared at her in surprise. In a heartbeat it felt like the tables had been turned.
She was wearing this little smirk—a freakin’ adorable little smirk, to be honest—and I was gaping with my mouth open like a fish. I recovered quickly with a grin. “Yeah?” I sniffed, overdoing the macho ego thing and making her snicker. “You think so, huh?”
She rolled her eyes, but I caught the blush creeping up her neck. “Of course.”
Of course. I felt my smile broadening. It wasn’t like I had low self-esteem when it came to the looks department, but I still got a kick out of her roundabout compliment. Probably because I had a hunch she didn’t know the first thing about lying or being coy.
She was direct and honest, and it made her words that much more effective. Everything that came out of her mouth seemed to have a whole lot more weight than anything any of my friends said.
Heck, anything I said.
She tilted her head to the side to study me. “You really think it’ll work?”
“Of course it’ll work.”
She nodded, clearly not entirely convinced but convinced enough, it seemed. “Where do we begin?”
“You two are supposed to go to a meet-and-greet function tonight,” I told her. “Super lame, over at the science building. A bunch of nerds making small talk over sodas and cookies...super lame.”
“So you think it will be lame then,” she said in that monotone voice of hers.
I choked on a laugh. The last time she’d spoken like that I’d thought she was being unintentionally funny, but now...?
“Are you laughing at me?”
She grinned, and the sight once again nearly knocked me onto my butt. “No,” she said. “I’m laughing with you.”
Another shocked laugh escaped as I nodded with new admiration. “Okay, I deserved that.”
She was still smiling as she reached for her bag and opened it, pulling out her laptop. “But actually, what I meant was...where do we start with your biology lessons?”
She glanced over at me expectantly and I blinked. “You want to start now?”
She shrugged. “It’s going to be a busy weekend, right? No time like the
present.”
“Oh. Yeah. Right.” I glanced toward the door. “I can go grab my books and—”
“Go do that. I’ll be here waiting.”
Sexy librarian. There she was. Ordering me around and looking cute as heck as she made herself comfortable behind the desk and flipped open the laptop.
I stood there for a beat too long and she looked up at me expectantly. “Were you waiting for something?”
“Nope, just curious.”
Her brows hitched higher. “About what?”
“You.”
She blinked once and some of her giddiness seemed to fade. “What about me?”
I shrugged from where I stood in the doorway. “You seem...excited. About tutoring.”
“I am.”
We shared a long blank stare during which it was clear we were two different species living on very different planets.
“I love science,” she said. As if that explained everything.
The longer I stared at her the more her smile grew. I couldn’t look away. The curve of her lips was somehow mysterious, sweet and smug.
It was freakin’ awesome.
I felt something in me lurch as I watched it transform her into someone else entirely. A sexy little minx with a secret. “What?” I finally asked. “Why do you look like you’re in on a secret joke.”
“Not a joke,” she said with a little laugh. “It just amuses me.”
“What? The thought of you and me dating?”
She laughed harder then, her eyes crinkling up at the corners with amusement. “It is pretty funny.”
My own lips twitched but my brows drew down, torn between an answering laugh and being insulted. Sure, she was some nerdy genius and I was a dumb jock but surely the idea of dating me wasn’t that hilarious.
Was it?
“But no,” she said as her laughter faded. “It made me laugh that you offered to help me win over Robert as some sort of payment.”
I arched a brow, waiting for the punchline. “Why?”
She flashed me one last smile before turning to her screen. “Because I would have happily tutored you for free.”
5
Charlotte
Okay, now I was nervous.
“You need to relax,” West muttered beside me.
I shimmied my shoulders a bit, as if that might help to ease the tension there as we rode the elevator to the conference room floor of the science building. The meet and greet had started a half hour ago but West had insisted we be late to make an entrance.
Poor Robert was already there on his own without me.
“I feel ridiculous,” I whispered.
“You look hot.”
I didn’t know whether to scoff, blush, or laugh at his ridiculous comment. Somehow I managed to do all three at once.
Hot? Hardly.
And I still felt ridiculous.
The elevator doors were metal and I had a fuzzy reflection staring back at me. Not enough to make out the details, but enough to see that this was not me.
I didn’t know which of West’s girlfriends had offered up her wardrobe for his new pet project, but I felt like a Barbie doll. Partly because the dress I was wearing was tighter and girlier than anything I’d ever worn, but mainly because West had made me try on three other outfits, and had made me wear my hair down, then up, then in a low ponytail before finally deciding that this updo was the best look on me.
By the time he was done with his mini makeover I honestly felt like some overgrown dress-up doll.
I squinted at my hazy reflection but all I could see of my face was the outline of my glasses and on top was what looked like a giant bird’s nest. “My hair looks messy.”
“It’s supposed to look like that,” West said, possibly for the third time. Maybe the tenth. His tone was exasperated. “How have you never heard of a messy bun?”
“Better question,” I shot back. “Why have you?”
I was rewarded with one of his lopsided grins, the kind that said I’d taken him by surprise. That he hadn’t expected to be amused. “Touché.”
I continued to stare at him even after he turned back to face the doors. At what point had I started to catalogue his smiles? I wasn’t certain. But we’d been in the same room together for the past three hours, give or take, going over his biology homework and then helping me get ready for tonight’s function and at some point in those few hours, I’d become a master of his features and their expressions.
I’d also grown a heck of a lot more comfortable in his presence. The first time I’d seen him he’d stunned me with his looks. The second time he’d stunned me by his mere presence and then his whole “my girl” and “babe” routine.
But once all that shock wore off, he’d been surprisingly easy to spend time with. I knew logically that he and Max weren’t actually related, but he still reminded me of her a bit, in all the good ways. He was surprisingly direct, which I appreciated.
I hated when people expected me to understand subtext or read between the lines.
Plus, he seemed to find me amusing, when I was attempting to be and even when I wasn’t.
I didn’t mind it when he laughed at me because it was never cruel.
After years of being Lakeview High’s biggest nerd, the shy girl in the corner, the outcast...trust me when I say I knew the difference between mean laughter and the nice way my friends tended to laugh at me.
There was a big difference and his laughter fell into the latter category.
The doors opened with a jarring ding and everyone in the elevator filed out. We were all clearly going to the same conference room, but I was the only one being escorted by a giant football player who drew looks every time anyone passed.
He didn’t seem to notice, but I did.
I didn’t enjoy attention of any kind, so to walk next to him down hallways filled with ogling eyes and curious glances was a special kind of torture.
Meanwhile, West walked around with his chin tilted up and his shoulders back. So at ease with that attention, like it was to be expected.
Like it was his right.
What would it be like to walk this earth feeling that way?
A pang of jealousy hit me hard and it temporarily distracted me from my nerves. I was so distracted I forgot to brace for impact when West threw open the doors and we marched in.
Well, West marched in. I sort of stumbled in behind him along with the rest of the high school science competitors and tried not to hear their whispers about West and why he was here.
I spotted Robert immediately, and his response to my little makeover was...satisfying.
His eyes widened, his mouth parted. He looked alarmingly stupid, which I knew for a fact he was not.
Then his gaze shifted to West and a flush crept up his neck.
That was new.
I’d known Robert for years and had never seen him blush.
“Hi, Robert,” I said. “How is your—”
Dorm room. I was going to say ‘how is your dorm room?’ I didn’t get the chance because West wrapped an arm around my shoulders and I forgot how to speak.
That was hyperbole, obviously. I knew how to speak, but I couldn’t think of a thing to say. My brain instantly regressed to the Paleolithic period and I was a caveman.
Cavewoman.
Whatever.
My thoughts were ridiculously simplistic. Arm. Arm feel good. Arm make me feel nice.
And so on and so forth.
Really, I was having a hard time moving on from the fact that his arm was wrapped around me making me feel more comfortable than I’d ever felt in a public space ever before.
The heavy weight of it, combined with his natural confidence gave me a false sense of my own confidence.
Perhaps confidence was contagious.
I made a mental note to study confidence and its transferable properties at a later date.
Robert clearly did not share in my newfound ease. He was eyeing me oddly, like he’d never seen m
e before. “I didn’t know you knew anyone here, Charlotte.”
I blinked. Right. I should probably lie right about now, but there was one big problem with that plan.
I couldn’t lie.
I was terrible at it. I could write a million research papers, but fiction left me stumped. And speaking a lie...? That was even worse. It would require not only using my imagination, but also monitoring my physical appearance to ensure I didn’t give it away.
In short, it was too hard. I couldn’t do it. A panicky sensation started in my chest and spread outward until my limbs felt numb.
I looked up at West, who was watching me expectantly and not without a heavy dose of amusement.
Stick to the truth, he’d told me before we’d left my dorm room. Keep it simple.
Right. I could do that.
“I haven’t known West for long,” I said. “I met him through Max.”
“Max?” Poor Robert looked confused.
“Max Sutton. She’s my stepsister,” West said.
“Oh.”
Robert still looked confused. “So you two are...” He trailed off, waiting for one of us to fill in the blanks.
I glanced up at West.
“Friends,” I said.
“Dating,” West said.
We’d both spoken at once and Robert looked between us again as if he could find the solution to some unknown equation in the way that we interacted.
“Okay, well...” Robert tugged at his collar.
The three of us stood there in silence because apparently no one knew how to follow that.
Were we friends? Were we dating?
Nobody knows.
Our awesome silence was interrupted by a pretty blonde with the kind of crinkly-eyed smile that instantly put me at ease. “Hey, West,” she said.
“Stella.” His voice was the same as ever, but I felt his arm tighten on my shoulders.
Her gaze flickered from him to me and then back. “I didn’t know you were volunteering this weekend.”
“Yeah, well....” He stopped talking.
Robert and I exchanged a look as a new level of awkwardness descended on the already awkward scene.
Some of that contagious confidence swept through me again and I did the unexpected—I introduced myself. “Hi, I’m Charlotte.”
“Stella,” she said, her smile warming even more. “I’m a bio major.”
First Kiss with the Quarterback (How to Catch a Crush Book 4) Page 4