The Man, The Myth, The Nerd: High School Billionaires #3

by Dallen, Maggie

  But still…I was watching Daisy laugh at something Allison said when Brady nudged my elbow. “Hey, man, are they with you?”

  I looked over toward the turnoff where we’d all parked our cars and trucks and saw a van pulling in. I cursed under my breath. Daisy headed over to us with a questioning look.

  “Reporters,” I muttered, steeling myself for the nightmare to come as I fought my way past whatever paparazzi had managed to find me here.

  Allison ran over. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I just posted one video of Tieg singing Kumbaya and—”

  “It’s fine,” I said. Allison had always been a sweet girl, and she looked utterly devastated that she’d screwed up. It wasn’t her fault. I should have known better. I knew Mary and Jamie were already spreading the word about my appearance at the concert. I’d known local reporters would be trying to find me…

  I guess I’d just wanted to have one night of normalcy, a taste of all I’d been missing all these years since I’d left home.

  I found myself adopting a look of amused nonchalance. It was my default setting in public, or in moments like this one when I was about to be confronted by cameras and microphones. “I’ll give them a couple sound bites and then lead them away from here.” I broke character to give Allison a quick wink. “They’ll be out of your hair in no time and you can celebrate in style.”

  “I’m really sorry,” she said in a high whisper.

  “It’s really not a big deal,” I said. “I’ll go talk to them—”

  “I have a better idea.” Brady stepped between us. “Allison and I will talk to these reporters, we’ll tell them they just missed you.”

  I opened my mouth to protest but Allison was nodding, her blonde curls bouncing. “Yes! You guys go.” She gave me and Daisy a shove toward the thick woods.

  I reached out to steady Daisy, who made a little squeaking noise as she tripped over her feet. Allison was surprisingly strong for such a small girl. Even now Daisy and I were slowly but surely being railroaded toward the trees by the feisty little blonde. “Wait, why do I have to—”

  “Because you know where you’re going,” Brady said, his tone final. He gave me a mocking grin. “We can’t have our pretty-boy rock star getting lost in the woods, now can we?”

  Daisy’s brows drew together—she clearly wanted to protest but couldn’t come up with a good argument. I almost missed Brady’s wink behind Daisy’s back. He was pushing her to go with me for my benefit. I found myself gaping at him, my eyes wide with surprise.

  He knew exactly what he was doing sending me and Daisy off into the woods together.

  A rush of gratitude had me shooting him a big grin as I grabbed Daisy’s hand. “Come on, let’s get out of sight before they spot me.”

  She didn’t need any more encouragement. No matter how much she might’ve distrusted me, there was nothing that got Daisy moving like a good cause.

  Even if that cause was me.

  After a few seconds, she took the lead, tugging my hand. I knew exactly where she was leading us. Sure enough, after a few minutes of scrambling through the brush and overgrowth we stopped at the base of a familiar tree.

  “I can’t believe this is still here,” I said.

  “I can’t believe you remember it.”

  “How could I forget?” I shot her a look of disbelief. “This was our fort.”

  She eyed the old hunting platform. “It truly was the best base for capture the flag.”

  I found myself grinning at her. I loved how serious she sounded, like she was speaking at a dedication ceremony. Even as a kid she’d had this dry sense of humor, understated and awesome…just like Daisy.

  She looked over at me. “Want to go up?”

  I arched my brows, looking from her to the old, most likely rotted wood platform. “Do you think it will hold us?”

  Laughter warmed her eyes and made her lips twitch. She was still trying not to laugh at my jokes or smile when I sang to her at the campfire. She was still trying to protect herself from me, keeping me at arm’s length so I couldn’t hurt her again.

  Probably because you told her you love her, you moron.

  In my defense, it had just sort of…slipped out. It was the truth, and I’d admitted it to myself many years ago, so I guess in my head it was a simple fact.

  The sun was hot, the snow was cold, and I loved Daisy Lou Whittaker.

  I also had a terrible sense of timing. I mean, the girl was only now just starting to look at me like I wasn’t some evil demon, it was hardly the time to go declaring my love. We should start as friends. That was the logical place to start.

  The only problem was, what I felt for Daisy was so not friendly. It had been so much more than friendship for me for such a long time…

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Her eyes were narrowed on me with suspicion.

  I blinked, trying to shake off the intensity of these feelings. Me and my first love angst had to take it down about twenty notches or risk scaring her away for good.

  I gestured for her to go first up the makeshift ladder. “Ladies first.”

  She pursed her lips. “So I can be the one to fall if it doesn’t hold?”

  “Exactly.”

  She gave a reluctant laugh. “Give me a boost.”

  I tried not to notice how she felt in my arms as I wrapped my hands around her waist and hoisted her up to the bottom-most rung. She scrambled inside the little tree hut and turned back around, poking her head out. “I survived.”

  “I see that.”

  She grinned. “Your turn.”

  I climbed up after her and lunged inside, grinning as she laughed at me and my graceless entrance.

  “If all your screaming fans could see you now,” she teased.

  I sat up and pushed my hair out of my face with a sniff. “They’d be amazed by my physical prowess.”

  Her laugh warmed me all over, and I made a point of studying the cramped, dirty space around us before speaking. “Was it always so small up here?”

  She nodded. “I think we’re the ones who got bigger.”

  I eyed her from head to toe. Even in the fading twilight and the shadows of this fort, I could see the blush creeping up her cheeks. I wanted to tell her how beautiful she was. How utterly, breathtakingly lovely.

  Slow your roll, dude.

  “Some of us have grown,” I said with a teasing smirk. “Others are still too short to reach the bottom rung by themselves.”

  She feigned annoyance. “Hey, I’ve grown.”

  I arched my brows.

  “One inch,” she said with a haughty tone that made me laugh.

  I held my hands up. “Oh, well then…I stand corrected.”

  I had to smother every thought that came up before it could come out of my mouth. She wasn’t ready to hear how I thought she was more beautiful than ever, or how she’d grown up in other ways…just not height. How she’d become the gorgeous young woman I always knew she would be.

  She looked away from me, peering out the window of the hut. “How long do you think we need to stay away?”

  “Why? Are you in a rush to get back?”

  She shot me a sidelong look. “I don’t want my friends to get the wrong impression.”

  “And that would be…?”

  She met my gaze evenly for a long moment. “That there’s something going on between us.”

  Ouch. I flinched as her blow hit. She was putting me in my place after that epic slip-up back there. Understandably, I’d clearly been moving too fast. But with this girl? I didn’t know how else to move. This was about as far from a typical relationship as it got, and I wasn’t about to pretend like I didn’t feel something for her. This was my chance, and after the concert I’d be gone again…but I’d meant what I’d said before. I would come back. For her. Or I would take her with me. I would find a way to make this work if I thought there was any hope for us.

  Now I just had to make her see that I was worth a second chance
.

  “So you’re saying you don’t want to go to prom with me?” I said.

  She blinked, her eyes filled with confusion. “What prom? I thought you got your GED a while ago.”

  I arched my brows. “So, you’ve been reading about me, huh?”

  She glared at me and I dropped the teasing. “Actually, what I meant was your prom.”

  “At Jordan Springs High?” Her voice rose in disbelief.

  I nodded.

  “You want to go to a high school prom.”

  “I want to take you to a dance. Yes. I never got to do that.”

  She opened her mouth and I cut her off. “The fifth-grade fling does not count.”

  “Why not?”

  “There was no slow dancing.”

  She clamped her mouth shut, and I let her process her thoughts. I’d been waiting three long years for another chance with the girl of my dreams. I could wait another few seconds to let her catch up.

  “So, let me get this straight,” she said slowly. “You, Mr. Billionaire Famous Celebrity Guy, want to take me to the Jordan Springs prom.”

  “That’s correct.” When she just stared at me, I added, “Also, while I love the nickname, it’s not exactly short and catchy. You can probably just call me Tieg from here on out.”

  That made her smile, at least. But I was no closer to knowing what she was thinking.

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  She gave me a look that said ‘don’t play dumb.’ “Why do you want to take me to a dance?”

  How much to say? That was the question. I wanted to be honest without scaring her. “I want to date you,” I said.

  There. At least I hadn’t declared my love, right? So why was she looking at me like I’d grown a new head?

  “You want to date me,” she said.

  “I want to date you,” I said again.

  “Why?”

  I let out a long exhale. “Seriously? You’re worse than Beth right now.”

  Her sudden grin made my heart do a weird backflip in my chest. “I forgot that she used to do that all the time,” she said, her smile growing as she adopted her littlest sister’s four-year-old voice. “But why, Tieg?” She shook her head with a laugh. “You were so patient with her.”

  “Somebody had to be,” I said. “The rest of you just rolled your eyes. How was she ever supposed to learn why water ran downhill if you didn’t answer her.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Daisy said. “You didn’t have to live with the girl. She drove us all nuts with all her questions.” She tilted her head to the side. “Still does, actually.”

  We shared a smile and for a moment there it was…nice. No tension, no walking on eggshells as I tried not to scare her away. We were just us, and Daisy wasn’t pushing me away.

  “You still haven’t answered my question,” she said. “Why me?”

  I arched my brows. “I thought I already answered that.”

  She blushed and looked away again, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of her thin, worn sweater. “Yes, but you’ve clearly moved on, Tieg. And so have I.”

  “Have you?” It came out soft and low. I couldn’t feign anything casual because this was what I needed to know. “I know I hurt you, Daisy. And I know I ruined what we had, but—” I shifted so I was beside her, close enough that I could see everything in her eyes. “But tell me honestly if I ruined our chances. Tell me right now if you really don’t think there could ever be a chance for us.”

  Her eyes widened at the pleading in my tone. “I-I-I don’t know.”

  I let out the breath I’d been holding. “That’s good enough for me. For now.”

  She drew her brows together. “Is it?” She threw her hands up. “I don’t understand what’s happening here, Tieg. First you leave, then you ignore my existence for years…I know very well that you’ve dated other girls—”

  “They don’t mean anything to me.” I let out a long breath. “I know what you’ve seen, but trust me when I say you can’t believe any of that. Those girls I hung out with…they never knew the real me.”

  She blinked. “What do you mean?”

  I shrugged. “It means, they don’t know the first thing about me. Jamie does, but that’s only because she befriended me before I became famous. Everyone who’s come after, they look at me and see one thing. A celebrity.”

  She squinted at me as if trying to see me more clearly in the dim lighting. “So Jamie is your only real friend?”

  I nodded.

  “That’s…” She shifted. “That’s sad.”

  I shrugged. Tell me about it.

  “You know anyone here would do anything for you, right?” She gestured toward the campfire where Brady and the others were keeping the reporters at bay.

  “Yeah, I know,” I said. “But I don’t want to kiss anyone out there. I only want to kiss you.”

  Her eyes widened, and my gaze dropped to see her lips part. The air grew thick with tension. I waited for her to push me away.

  She didn’t. She swallowed, her gaze focused on my mouth too.

  I moved slowly…so slowly, making sure to give her time to come to her senses and back away. But the closer I got the more I heard her breath hitch, and when she reached a hand out to touch my chest, I pressed my lips against hers.

  Bliss.

  Heaven.

  This right here…this was what it felt like to come home.

  She made a soft sound of surrender, and I stopped holding back. Pulling her into my lap, I wrapped my arms around her and held her like I’d never let her go.

  If it were up to me, I never would. I could spend an eternity reveling in the feel of her soft lips molding to mine, the warmth of her mouth as she let me taste and explore. I moved my lips over hers softly, tenderly, not wanting to do anything to scare her, hoping to give her the time and space she so clearly needed.

  Her answering kiss was tentative at first, like she was testing me, testing this thing between us, but I felt the moment when she gave into it. She relaxed into it and she stopped thinking and…it was the best feeling in the world. Not just the warmth of her lips or the sweet taste of her, but the feel of her trusting me to hold her, to take care of her.

  I’d never thought of kissing as a trust exercise before, but that was exactly what it was right now. She was trusting me not to hurt her…

  And I would move heaven and earth to do right by her.

  Chapter Eight

  Daisy

  His kiss felt so good. So right.

  The last three years of anger and hurt seemed to fade into the distance; they were a hazy dream compared to the vivid perfection of this moment. I’d kissed boys since Tieg had left, but those seemed like pale imitations of a kiss compared to this.

  This was more than mouths colliding and saliva swapping, it was a silent exchange, a meaningful connection. Not to get too sappy, but for a second there I had this thought that this kiss was our souls touching.

  Okay, yeah. That was totally sappy. Scratch that. Anyway, the kiss was also hot. Like, I couldn’t remember where I ended and he began sort of hot. Like a millimeter of air between us felt like a cruel separation. I wanted to touch him and be held by him, and if I could have kissed him until the end of time, I’d have been a very happy girl.

  I hadn’t even realized he’d shifted me so I was on his lap, not until the sound of laughter from the campsite cut through the sound of rustling trees and brought me back to my senses.

  We were both breathing heavily as he dropped his forehead down to rest against mine. “I knew it was still there,” he said softly.

  I didn’t ask what he meant by ‘it.’ It was obvious. It was this…us. It was this thing between us that was as terrifying and exciting and exhilarating and infuriating as it had always been since the beginning of time.

  Funny how I couldn’t remember a time when it wasn’t there between us, even as kids—of course then it was a platonic connection. And these past three years, where had i
t gone? It felt like it hadn’t gone anywhere, it had just been hiding, out of sight.

  It felt like these past few years I’d been experiencing the absence of this. There’d been a hole in my life where this intense connection had once been. And now that it was back in my life, filling that gaping hole…I wasn’t sure how I’d lived without it.

  This was energy and life and…love.

  No. I wasn’t ready to go there.

  Because here was this thing about this grand romantic connection between us. Having a taste of it again? It was a tease, a form of torture. All I could think of was how empty I’d feel when he left again.

  Which he would. He had to. His life wasn’t here anymore.

  He wasn’t mine anymore.

  I pushed against him, falling onto my butt with zero grace as I scrambled to get off his lap and put some distance between us.

  “Daisy—” He reached out to me, his voice gruff, but I slapped his hand away.

  “I just need…a second,” I said, humiliated by the fact that I was all but panting for air. “Just…” I met his gaze and saw the troubled look in his eyes. I glanced away quickly. “Just give me a second.”

  He did. Tieg managed to keep silent for all of one second, because apparently, he took me literally. He broke that silence in a rush. “I’m sorry, Daisy, I didn’t mean to rush you—”

  “Stop.” I held up my hand. “Seriously, Tieg, my head is spinning. This is all happening so quickly. I don’t know what to think or…” I swallowed. Or feel. I had no idea what I should be feeling or even what I was feeling.

  A tsunami of emotions had been hitting me nonstop since his arrival in town. Anger, fear…happiness. Too much to handle, especially in such a short amount of time.

  He stayed silent for so long that I started to get suspicious. I sneaked a peek in his direction and had to hold my breath to keep the butterflies under control. That smirk. That arrogant, confident smirk that I knew so well…it was back in full force.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?”