Dare You to Kiss the Quarterback (Rock Valley High Book 1)

by Lacy Andersen

  I walked back onto the field, feeling too low to even wave at the audience. My fellow cheerleaders were taking a break just below the stadium to watch the game. I joined them and scanned the field for Collin. He stood in a huddle near the opposing team’s forty yard line. We’d just taken possession of the ball.

  The Warren High Titans’ defensive line was already in place at the line of scrimmage. They were big guys. So big, that I swore they should’ve been in college already. One in particular, number 58, looked like he ate a bucket of protein powder for breakfast every day. His arms were massive, his thighs like tree trunks. He hammered his fist on his helmet, growling at the Rock Valley guys as they took their positions. I gulped, dread entering my veins. Collin wasn’t small by any means, but this guy made him look puny. I could only hope that he was as slow as molasses.

  “Don’t you dare think you can leave without my permission again,” Savannah charged at me, hissing through her pasted-on smile for the crowd behind us. “Next time, there will be consequences.”

  “Right.” I rolled my eyes, although she couldn’t see it through my helmet. I’d just about had it with her attitude. Collin was right, Savannah needed to come down a peg or two. She didn’t get to control me — not anymore. And she certainly didn’t scare me.

  The only consequences I cared about were the ones that affected my mom. I glanced over my shoulder at the stands. She’d purchased her hotdog and was sitting on one side of Lexi, Dad on the other. By all outward appearances, they were the perfect family. Dad had worn his Rock Valley High sweatshirt that Mom had bought him four years ago. He was sipping on a Coke, eyeing the play on the field. It was as if the last year had never happened. Like I’d entered another timeline.

  If Mom was comfortable enough to sit next to Dad in the stands, what did that mean for me? Was it time to start the healing process? I couldn’t be sure. A big part of me was still so angry at him. I hated him. But I loved him, too. He was my dad. That would never change. Just like Collin had said yesterday, he was my blood. He wasn’t perfect, but at the very least, he’d always been around when I needed him.

  I wanted so desperately to talk this through with Collin. To know what he’d say about it. My gaze trailed back to the field, where we were now third and five. Thirty yards from the end zone. Collin had just called a play, his receivers shifting on the line. And when he hiked the ball, a frenzy of activity took place as each team moved forward.

  Reaching up to my tiptoes, I cheered and screamed. One of our receivers had broken free from the defense and was sprinting toward the end zone. Collin wound up, his bicep bulging as he threw with all of his might. The ball sailed through the air in a perfect spiral. My blood pressure spiked as it came down, landing right in the receiver’s outstretched arm.

  He’d done it! It was a perfect pass. No wonder Collin was the starting quarterback. He was amazing.

  But as I grinned back at Collin, I cried out in horror. Number 58 on the Titans was still hurdling forward, his massive form headed straight toward defenseless Collin. And when 58 smacked into him, it made a noise so loud that everyone in the stands could hear it. Collin went down hard. He lay still on the grass, his body limp.

  Everyone in the stadium quieted down quickly. Coaches Goodwin and Erickson rushed out onto the field, surrounding Collin. I ripped off my mascot head, horror filling my gut as the image of Collin lying there became clearer. He hadn’t moved yet. He wasn’t responding to their questions. And now the standby EMTs were being called out onto the field.

  “Please move, please move, please move,” I whispered, biting my lower lip so savagely I could taste blood.

  The EMTs secured his neck and moved him onto a stretcher. The crowd behind me had begun to mutter and groan. They loved their star quarterback. The thought of losing him was devastating. But not as devastating as it would be if I didn’t see him at least move a leg. Something to indicate he was all right.

  Coach Goodwin leaned over Collin as they began to roll him off. He nodded, as if he were saying something to him. And finally, I saw Collin squeeze his hand into a fist. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Tears formed at the corner of my eyes. He was going to be all right.

  He had to be.

  Chapter Twenty

  My hands trembled as I knocked on the Kingsley’s front door. I’d been a mess all night long. They’d announced at the end of the game yesterday that Collin had suffered a concussion and been taken to the ER for scans. I’d tried to text and call him about a million times since then, but he hadn’t replied. When I couldn’t take the silence any more, I’d hopped on the bus this morning and headed straight for his house.

  “Audrey?” Gina opened the door, blinking at the brightness. “What are you doing here so early?”

  I ducked my head, suddenly feeling guilty. It was 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Most sane people would still be in bed. Not knocking on their injured friend’s door.

  “I’m sorry, but I had to see Collin. He’s not replying to any of my texts. Is he okay?”

  Her face softened and she opened the door farther. “He left his phone in his locker last night, so he wasn’t able to call. Come on in. I was just getting his breakfast ready. He’s fine, but on bed rest today. Tripp’s orders.”

  I sighed in relief as I stepped through the door and followed Gina to the kitchen. During the span of the last ten hours, my mind had come up with a million different reasons why he hadn’t returned my calls. Each one more horrible than the last.

  “Why don’t you take this down to him?” Gina asked, picking up a tray from the island countertop. It held an egg omelet, orange juice, toast, and a muffin. “He’s probably starving. That boy eats more than any land mammal I know of.”

  I took it from her and descended the stairs to the basement. Collin’s door was closed. The last time I’d been in there was for our kiss. Whenever we practiced for our performance, it was usually in the back yard or living room. I ignored the nervous grumbling of my stomach and walked right up to his door and knocked.

  “What is it?” called out a sleepy voice.

  “Collin, it’s me.” I cleared my throat. “It’s Audrey. I have your breakfast.”

  There was a pause and then the distinct sound of someone scrambling around the room. I waited patiently by the doorframe, eager to see him for myself.

  And then the door opened, and there stood Collin in a pair of athletic pants and a disheveled and wrinkled gray t-shirt. He was chewing on a piece of gum, the aroma of sweet mint filling the air. His hair was mussed and there were still pillow lines on his cheek. Regardless, the sight of him took my breath away. Even minutes out of bed, he still looked effortlessly sexy.

  “Hi.” He smiled softly, his gaze meeting mine.

  “Hi.” My eyes scanned him over, searching for some kind of physical injury. So far, all clear. “How are you feeling?

  He rubbed his head and shrugged. “I’ve got a headache and a wicked bruise on my thigh, but that’s pretty much it. Doctors said it was just a mild concussion.”

  I nodded, pressing my lips together and feeling an unexpected wave of emotion come over me. “That’s good. It’s just that...that when you collapsed on the field. Not moving. It looked like...like you were...” I turned my face away, tears forming in my eyes.

  Dang it, I’d sworn to myself that I wasn’t going to let this happen. That I wasn’t going to become a blubbering mess in front of him. So not cool.

  “Audrey.” He swiftly took the tray out of my hand and set it on the nearby desk before pulling me into a hug.

  The scent of him filled my head and I couldn’t hold back a shuddering sob. All the emotion I’d been feeling last night was shooting back up like a geyser.

  “I’m okay,” he said, his arms tightening around me. With his thumb, he caressed my cheek, making my skin burn. “That hit knocked me out for a second, but I woke up before they took me off the field. I’m fine. I promise.”

  I swallowed and nodded, feeling l
ike a complete loser. I hadn’t come here to sob into his arms like a little kid. I’d come here to take care of him. To make sure he got better.

  “You need to get back in bed,” I said, glancing over at his unmade bed. “You shouldn’t be up. Gina says you’re on bedrest. You’ve got breakfast here and I can get you anything else you need. If you want a movie to watch, I’ll go rent one. Or you can sleep. Or whatever. Anything you want, I’ll get it. We just need to get you better.”

  He chuckled and tugged on my hand when I started to break away from him, giving me a serious look. “Audrey, I’m not going to break.”

  “But you need to rest.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You could have a traumatic brain injury,” I shot back, trying to recall every single episode of Grey’s Anatomy and all the potential things that could go wrong. There were so many. “What if they missed something on the scan?”

  “They didn’t.”

  “But what if—”

  His lips crashed down on mine, swallowing my words. I blinked in surprise, my whole body buzzing. This wasn’t for the song. This was a real kiss. Powerful, hungry, and sweet. It was everything I wanted.

  There was nothing to do but wrap my arms around his neck and close my eyes, utterly giving into it. Collin cradled my face, deepening the kiss. Pushing me back until my spine was against the wall, he moved his hands down my sides, his fingertips pressing into my hips.

  I sighed happily. His lips were perfect. The way his body pressed against mine was perfect. The minty sweet taste of his mouth was perfect. My skin flushed, from head to toe. It was as if someone had taken a live wire and touched it to my abdomen. Everything was electric. Sparks flew everywhere Collin touched.

  And when I thought I could hardly take any more, he pulled away and stared down at me, his hands plastered to the wall above my head and his breathing heavy. In the back of my mind, I wondered if my mouth looked as swollen as his. He ran his tongue over his lips and closed his eyes, his jaw flexing.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

  “It’s okay,” I squeaked.

  How could he know that what he’d done was everything I’d been dreaming about?

  “No, I really shouldn’t have.” He pushed off the wall and walked toward his bed, shaking his head. “It’s not fair to you. Not with everything that’s going on. I’m really sorry, Audrey.”

  “Don’t be sorry.” I chased after him and grabbed his hand. And when he looked at me again, I smiled. “I’ve wanted to do that again ever since the first time we kissed. It’s all I think about anymore.”

  Surprise lit up his eyes. “Really?”

  “Really.” My heart hammered on, urging me to tell him how I felt. If there was a time and place, it was now. “I think I’m falling for you, Collin.”

  He exhaled loudly, his hand shaking in mine.

  “No, I take that back.” I shook my head. Now was not the time to be a scaredy cat. I needed to be completely honest with him. “I have fallen for you. I like you. A lot.”

  If anyone had told me two months ago, when we were in the beach house, that I would fall for Rock Valley High quarterback Collin Preston, I would have laughed in their face. I’d been convinced that he was egotistical and a jerk. Someone who flaunted his popularity and didn’t have much else to offer the world. I was wrong. So wrong.

  Collin was sweet. He listened to me. He cared about me. He’d quickly become one of my best friends. And here I was, in his bedroom, professing my feelings, right after he’d kissed me so soundly my toes had curled. It had been the perfect second kiss.

  “Audrey.” He slipped his hand out of mine and raked it through his hair. Hesitation and confusion washed over his face. I was pretty sure my heart stopped beating as I waited for him to say something. “I just can’t.”

  “Can’t what?” That wasn’t the profession of love I’d hoped to hear. Not even close. I clasped the front of my sweater, fisting the soft material like a comfort blanket.

  “You know I can’t fall in love.” He stared down at his bed, his cheekbones appearing sharper somehow in the semi darkness of his room. “I told you that. I told you not to fall for me. I warned you that you’d only get hurt.”

  All the air left my lungs in a giant whoosh. He might as well have punched me in the diaphragm. I looked around the room, desperately searching for something to say that would change his mind.

  “How do you know?” I asked, my voice breaking. “How do you know you can’t fall in love?”

  He bit his bottom lip and shook his head. “I just know, okay?”

  “How?”

  I wanted a reason. A concrete reason why he couldn’t love me back. None of this was making any sense.

  Throwing his hands up and swearing, he turned his back to me. “I know because the one person in the world who did love me, I didn’t even feel anything when she died. Nothing.”

  I blinked rapidly in confusion. “Who?”

  “My mom.” He turned back toward me, pain so heavy in his voice, it killed me to hear. “She raised me herself. Kept me safe from my dad when he was on his benders. Gave up everything for me. She was the nicest person in the world. A saint. She died when I was twelve and I didn’t feel anything. I couldn’t even cry at her funeral. Not a single freaking tear. That’s when I knew. I’m broken, Audrey. And no one can fix me.”

  I covered my mouth with my hand, torn between wanting to go and comfort Collin or argue with him that this didn’t mean he couldn’t love. But I could see from the intense spark in his eyes that he was utterly convinced. He didn’t think he could love. Nothing I said would change his mind in this moment.

  “Well, maybe I don’t care about all of that,” I said, raising my trembling chin. “Maybe I don’t need you to fall in love with me. I just need you to be with me.”

  He gave me a sullen look and then sunk into the chair by his desk, cradling his head in his hands. “Come on, Audrey. You know you deserve better than that.”

  Did I? I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more in that moment than to be with Collin.

  “I don’t care.” I crossed my arms and stared at the back of his head. “The way you kissed me just now, that wasn’t a mistake. I know that, deep down, you have feelings for me. I know you care.”

  He looked up at me, his face impassive. “I’m a guy. We don’t need to have feelings to make out with a girl.”

  I took an involuntary step backwards, his words stinging. “But that...you can’t fake that.”

  “How would you know?” he asked, standing slowly. His eyes glinted with something that looked like pain, although his voice was steady. “You’re the girl who’s never been kissed before. How do you know I didn’t use you? That I didn’t just kiss you because I was bored and there was no one else around?”

  I gasped, a cold sensation running through me. He didn’t mean that. He didn’t mean any of that. “Collin...”

  “You don’t get it, Audrey.” He stopped just short of me and huffed. “We don’t have a future. We never did. A girl like you, with your family, your college, and unlimited opportunities, doesn’t belong with a guy like me. I belong in a garage fixing cars. Just like my dad. That’s my future. I can’t change that. Just like you can’t change the fact that you think you’re responsible for everyone else’s happiness, except your own. You’re too scared to make any waves. Go on, tell me again why you joined the cheerleading squad. Or why you haven’t told your dad exactly what you think of him abandoning your family.”

  Tears burned my eyes and a single one escaped down my cheek. I wiped angrily at it, wishing Collin wasn’t seeing me like this. Maybe he was right. I was scared. I’d spent most of my time this year worrying about my parents. Taking crap from my cousin. But I thought that of all people, he could understand.

  “That’s not fair and you know it. You may not be in love with me, but I thought we were at least friends.”

  He shook his head, his cheeks flushed. “Audre
y, did you really think we would stay friends after this performance? We’re different people. We run in different circles. It wasn’t going to happen. This relationship always had an expiration date.”

  It felt like someone had stacked an entire encyclopedia collection on my chest. Collin had been the one who said he wanted to be friends. What had changed? Was he just yanking me around this whole time? I wanted to say something snappy, but nothing came out of my mouth. Instead, I backed away, trying desperately to hold in the tears.

  I needed to get out of that room. The very place I’d been obsessing about for the past few days was now my nightmare. I had to leave. But before I could make it through the door, I paused and glanced back at him over my shoulder.

  “You know, you’re not who I thought you were.”

  He stood there with his shoulders slumped, his eyes closed. It was like he’d aged ten years in the last ten minutes. “I know. And I’m so sorry.”

  I sprinted out of his room, nearly running Ally over in the hall. She tried to ask me what was wrong, but I tore past her. I couldn’t stop. Not until I’d gotten some place where I could break down in peace.

  Collin had warned me. He’d told me I’d only get hurt.

  He was right.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  I wanted to be anywhere, anywhere but here, in Mrs. Banks’ office. Her stare could’ve cut through steel as she leaned forward and fixed me with her dark eyes. “Audrey Black, are you telling me that the pair I so faithfully entrusted to represent the music department at the centennial performance isn’t working?”

  I squirmed under her gaze. Her desk may have divided us, but she still had an uncanny way of making me feel as transparent as a window. Unlike my mother, who had believed me when I told her I was coming down with something and let me stay home on Monday, Mrs. Banks could see right through me.