Holy crap. Was he waiting for me? “Jason…” Then I realize I have no idea what to say next.
“Yeah?”
“Um…I’m so sorry you got in trouble over yesterday. I feel terrible. I tried to talk Mrs. Parks out of suspending you, but I couldn’t.”
He looks at me for a second, tilting his head slightly to the side. “You did?”
“Yeah. Sorry it didn’t work.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t get suspended.”
“What?”
“Nope. I have detention for a week or something, but I didn’t get suspended.”
Totally relieved, I reached out and grabbed his wrist. “That’s awesome. I would have felt terrible if you couldn’t play Friday.”
He looked down at my hand, and a zing of shock went through me. Why was I touching him? I mean, it felt amazing, but why was I touching him?
“Sorry,” I said, jerking my hand away.
“I don’t mind.” His voice was soft. Then he shifted and spoke louder. “So are you coming to the game?”
I stood there for too long, conflicted over what to say. Finally, the truth forced itself out. “Yes.”
“Good. Ready to go?”
We walked out together, just as if we’d done it a hundred times. I hesitated a moment but finally found the courage to ask him the question that was making my pulse hammer in my chest. “So why were you waiting for me?”
He shrugged. “I wanted to.”
His answer flooded me with warmth, but I didn’t know how to respond. We walked quietly toward the parking lot, but the silence didn’t feel awkward. As we got to my car, instead of walking ahead, he stopped and leaned against the door, keeping me from opening it.
“I don’t see you around school too much,” he said. “I bet you’re in all the smart kid classes.”
“I take mostly AP classes if that’s what you mean. What lunch do you have?”
“B.”
“I have A,” I said. I bit my lip. This was a strange conversation, like both of us were dancing around something, trying to figure it out. I just wanted to be friends with him, right? Surely that was no big deal.
“Well, I probably won’t see you tomorrow. We have a short practice because it’ll be game day.”
I smiled. “Maybe you won’t see me, but I’ll see you.” Okay, that sounded creepy. “I mean, while you’re playing. And I’ll be watching everyone of course.”
He winked at me and straightened. “Uh huh.” He leaned closer and murmured, “But me most of all, right?”
I took a deep breath and shook my head. “No.” I didn’t sound very convincing even to myself.
“See you later, princess.”
4
Friday night was uncomfortably warm without a breeze so I didn’t bother to bring a jacket for either me or Ryker. I put my phone and the cash my mom had left on the counter for me into my jeans pocket and headed for the car with my brother in tow.
“Okay, buckle up,” I said as we got into the car.
“I know.” His voice sounded a little grumpy.
“Hey, this will be fun, right? You like football, and you’re going to get nachos.” The last thing I wanted to deal with was a grumpy kid.
“Yeah. What are we waiting for?”
“Nothing,” I said, putting my car in reverse.
When we got to the field, I was able to get a parking spot in the lot right across the street from the stadium. Already I could smell the alluring scent of popcorn and hot dogs from the concession stands and hear the band warming up. I didn’t usually get to the games this early. Guess I was more eager than usual.
Once I paid for us to get in the gate, I headed for the bleachers, but Ryker grabbed my hand and tried pulling me in the other direction. “Can we get nachos right now?”
Might as well get it over with. “Sure. Come on.”
Apparently, everyone else had the same idea because the line was super long and took forever to get through. By the time we got into the stands, I had missed the kickoff.
“Amber, we’re over here.”
I looked toward the voice and saw Charlotte waving at me from ten rows up. Ryker had his head down, already eating his nachos, so I put my hands on his shoulders and steered him up. “Don’t get cheese on anyone,” I muttered as we squeezed through the crowd.
“Hey,” Charlotte said as I finally made it over to her.
“Hi.” I got Ryker settled next to me and sat down. My eyes turned immediately to the field, trying to pick Jason out from the green and grey Sweet Water High jerseys on the field, but it was impossible to tell for sure since the shoulder pads and helmets made them all look so similar.
“What are you frowning about?” Charlotte asked.
Even though I felt embarrassed, I leaned closer to her and whispered, “I don’t know what Jason’s number is.”
Charlotte turned immediately to Lucas. “Hey, what number is Jason?”
My cheeks must have been glowing red. “Charlotte!”
“He’s eighty-six,” Lucas said, his eyes on the game.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, embarrassed. Hopefully, Lucas would keep it quiet that I was asking.
But I quickly got over worrying about it since I was finally able to follow Jason on the field. Being an athlete myself, and very competitive, I loved watching his passion poured into the game. Most of the time, he had a careless, bored vibe to the way he moved and reacted. With the exception of when he jumped on Dugan, I’d never see him move like this. He was sharp, quick, and powerful on the football field. I could almost feel, all the way up in the stands, the way he was completely focused and tuned in to what he needed to do. He caught a dozen short passes and picked up a lot of yardage in the first half—and even scored a touchdown. But the coolest part was watching the way he dominated other players while blocking. The defense rarely got by him.
Ryker was quiet while he ate his nachos, but it wasn’t long before he was tugging my sleeve. “Amber, I want a drink.”
I looked down, and sure enough, there were nacho cheese fingerprints on my shirt. Why hadn’t I grabbed a bunch of napkins? Because I had been totally distracted, that’s why. “Okay, let’s go. It’s almost half-time anyway, and we need to get you cleaned up.” I grabbed his hand and stood up. “I’ll be back soon, I hope.”
“We’re coming too,” Charlotte said.
Charlotte and Lucas saved me a place in line while I took Ryker to the women’s restroom to clean him up. He resisted, not wanting to go in, but I dragged him in anyway. “You shouldn’t have made a mess.”
“Amber, I gotta pee, and I’m not going in here.”
Rolling my eyes, I agreed, then stood outside the bathrooms for a million years. Just when I was trying to figure out how to fish him out of the men’s room, he came back out.
“What took you so long?” Thinking better of my question, I put up a hand to stall his answer. “Never mind. Let’s go get in line.”
We’d taken so long that Charlotte and Lucas were already gone, but at least the line wasn’t too long anymore, since the third quarter was about to start.
“Can I have a Gatorade?” Ryker asked.
He’d be a lot less likely to spill that than a cup of soda, so I smiled. “Sure.”
Once he had his orange Gatorade, he was happy to follow me back toward the stands. He even did a funny little skip thing as he flipped the bottle in the air. I was just glad he was moving in the right direction, so I didn’t say anything until he flipped the bottle over the fence that ran along the sidelines of the field. We both stopped and stared at it as it lay on the bright-green turf.
“Uh oh,” he said.
I gasped, appalled. “Well, you’ve lost it now.” Expecting a meltdown, I tried to figure out how to get it back, but the players were already running back out onto the field.
“Here you go,” said a deep voice which was becoming more and more familiar to me.
Jason was a big guy at all times. In his football pads, he was incredibly
intimidating. But that was not what made my heartbeat flutter. It was the potent combination of how gorgeous he was with his hair spikey with sweat, a fascinating half-smile on his lips, and his eyes focused on me. He looked at me in a way no one else did, like he was really seeing me.
While I stood like a hypnotized idiot, Ryder stood on his tiptoes and took the bottle from Jason. “Thanks,” he said, immediately tossing it in the air again.
“Yeah, thanks,” I said. “Sorry about that.”
Jason laughed. “I saw him toss it over as I was headed this way. Can’t say I minded the excuse to come talk to you.”
My lungs froze in shock. My tongue, however, did not. “Since when did you need an excuse to talk?”
He raised an eyebrow and grinned. “Since I’m supposed to have my head in the game and not talking to pretty rich girls on the sidelines.”
“Why do you always call me rich?”
“Don’t mind the pretty part, huh?” The time clock buzzed, signaling the end of half-time. He stepped back while putting his helmet on. “Wait for me after the game.” He put his mouthpiece in and turned to run over to his team huddle.
Irritated and amused––and irritated that I was amused––I put my arm around Ryker’s shoulders and steered him up into the stands. “Butthead,” I grumbled.
“Mom says you’re not supposed to call me that,” Ryker reminded me.
“I wasn’t talking about you.”
“So you can call other people buttheads?”
“When they are one. And Jason Hunt definitely is one.”
We won, though by how much, I couldn’t have said. I didn’t exactly pay attention to the game itself. Sure, I cheered when the crowd did, but it was only after I realized that we were cheering for a touchdown that I grasped the extent of my fixation on just one of the players.
This was a problem. A big problem. But it was too delicious for me to fight it. And after all, I could talk to a guy without dating him, right? Talking was absolutely fine.
Usually, I was a get in and get out kind of girl. The football game is over? Well, then it’s time to go. But tonight, I lingered, hanging around with friends in the parking lot, even though I was mostly just standing there with Ryker pulling on my sleeve wanting to go home. I wasn’t even talking to Charlotte or Lucas and Maddie—or anyone else. I was just waiting.
“Amber, I’m tired. Can we go?” He drew out his question in a long, exaggerated whine.
Frustrated with myself, I nodded and headed over to the other end of the lot where my car was parked. I hadn’t gone far before someone called my name. Looking up, I saw Jason striding toward me. It was the first time he’d ever said my name instead of a nickname. The sound of the familiar syllables in his voice shot through me like lightning, especially since we were close enough to the others that everyone would have heard him. He didn’t seem to care.
I stopped and waited for him. When he was only a few yards away, he said, “You waited.”
Not knowing how to respond to that, I shrugged. But a smile pulled at my lips, betraying me. “Good game.”
“Thanks. Is this your brother?”
“Yeah. This is Ryker. He’s my usual Friday night date.” My eyes widened as the words came out of my mouth. Why did I just say that?
Jason raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. Instead, he smiled at Ryker and held up his fist.
Ryker bumped it. “You’re the guy who got my Gatorade.”
“He’s the tight end,” I said, talking more than usual. “He had some good receptions tonight.”
“So you were watching.” He sounded way too satisfied.
I pressed my lips together in embarrassment. “That is what I came for.”
“Did you like what you saw?”
Yes.
Once again, he’d taken my words in a completely different way than I meant them. And what made it worse was that his interpretation was close to what I was actually thinking. “I meant that I came to watch the game, not just you.”
“Huh. What was the final score?”
I gaped at him like a goldfish, my mouth hanging open. Had my brains gone on a permanent vacation? “Who cares? We won. Look, I’ve got to get Ryker home.” But as I turned to walk to my car again, Jason fell into step beside me. “What are you doing?”
“It’s dark. I’m walking you to your car.”
“Well, you shouldn’t. You’re probably tired, and I’ll be fine.”
“I want to anyway.”
Defensive players couldn’t move him on the field. I could feel the same determination in his voice now, and I didn’t hate it.
Even though I was walking quickly, he easily kept up with me. “Next week is an away game,” he said, just as if I wasn’t acting as prickly as a cactus. “But if you come to the home game after that, we can go get some pizza afterward. You can bring your date too.” He nodded toward Ryker, who was trotting at my side.
Holy crap! Was he asking me out? “Why?”
He stopped and looked at me like I was a test he hadn’t studied for. “I’m always starving after the game. If you don’t like pizza, we can get something else.”
“Do you mean as a date?”
“Boy, princess, you don’t make this easy, do you? Yes, as a date.”
This was it. The moment I had to stick to my guns. Draw a line in the sand. Stand firm. “Okay, so, the thing is…I don’t want to get involved like that.”
“Why not?”
His simple question knocked me off balance. “I made a decision to not date anyone while I was in high school. It’s just stupid to get all emotional and make yourself vulnerable for something that won’t last.”
“Who says?”
“Who says what?”
He looked annoyed now. His jaw clenched for a few seconds before he said, “That it won’t last.”
“How many people keep dating after high school? For that matter, who even makes it that long? Haven’t you noticed? Most people break up after just a few weeks…months at the most. The girl is a big heartbroken mess for days. Not to mention all the pressure of…” I shut off my words immediately, not wanting to pursue that line of thought with him. “I don’t need any distractions from my grades and volleyball.”
“Sure you won’t be distracted anyway? I have been.”
My heart thundered in my chest. It was so tempting to just let everything go hang and give in. Especially with his whole attention focused on me, his eyes almost willing me to change my mind. Any girl would melt into a puddle at his feet. But what would happen when he broke my heart?
“I’m sorry, Jason. I want to be friends, but anything else…it just isn’t worth it.”
“You mean I’m not worth it.”
Appalled at the bitterness in his voice—at the way he’d taken things—I stepped toward him. “No. Jason, that’s not what I meant.”
But he was already stepping back. “See you around, rich girl.”
5
When I woke up Saturday morning feeling as shattered as I had the night before, I knew I needed help. It had never occurred to me that I might hurt Jason. To me, he was so tough and aloof. But clearly, I had. And I didn’t have a clue what to do about it.
Turning over, I grabbed my phone from where it was charging on my bedside table and sent out a text to Charlotte and Maddie. They knew way more about boys than I did. The extent of my boy knowledge was precisely...nothing.
I need pool time and girl talk ASAP.
They both had to work until after lunch, so I had time to kill. I dragged myself out of bed and went for a long, long run. It was a mile from my street to the beach, and once I got there, the real workout began. There was nothing better than running on sand to build up endurance and strengthen your legs. I had to be careful with my ankle, since the sand shifted under my pounding footsteps, but with my brace on, all it did was make my ankle ache. I was used to that.
When I got home, my mom and stepdad had left a note saying they’d taken
Ryker to go visit his grandma. They knew I didn’t want to be included in the invite because Cole’s mom tended to show her partiality for her blood grandchild. They’d be gone all day and evening probably, which was fine by me. Now my friends and I could have the place to ourselves.
I chugged a bottle of water, ate a protein bar, and went to the home gym Cole had put in the bonus room over the garage. There I had everything I needed for some weight and resistance training. With my workout playlist blasting through the sound system, I zoned out, working my body mercilessly to keep from thinking about things…about him. When my muscles were twitching and jerking like I’d had an electric shock, I gave it up.
I changed into the bikini I wore to sunbathe, grabbed some suntan lotion and filled up my water bottle. The summer was basically over, but the weather hadn’t caught on to that fact. It was still hot and humid. After my workout, I definitely needed to cool off before I laid out. Our pool was longer than it was wide, so that we could swim laps, and deeper at one end. I dove in and swam the length of the pool several times before dragging myself out. Water dripped off me, making dark splotches on the concrete pool deck as I went to towel off. I was about to lie down on one of the loungers when I heard Charlotte and Maddie’s voices from the driveway on the other side of the fence.
As soon as I opened the gate, I realized how exposing this whole conversation was going to be.
“You look fierce,” Charlotte said, setting her stuff down on a table next to another lounger.
“Yep. You’re smoking hot in that bikini,” Maddie added.
“I meant her expression.” Charlotte was studying me closely as she wound her red hair up in a bun. “So...what’s up. You’re never interested in girl talk.”
“I’ve never had a boy problem before. I need help.”
Maddie dropped her things and sat down facing me, her eyes wide. “Spill.”
I couldn’t help laughing a little. “I think Jason was actually interested in me, but now he might hate my guts.”
Charlotte held up her hand. “Slow down. What happened?”
“He asked me out after the game last night, and I turned him down.”
Flirting with the Bad Boy Page 3