by Nana Malone
It was during a good-natured ribbing after the first party he'd brought her to that the rumors about Becker's exploits, or rather, her lack thereof, were brought up in his company. He'd walked a fine line between letting things slide and defending her honor.
He spun on Daniel. “You and I both know I'll get the points. As for Becker, she's none of your business. Don't let it keep you up at night what we got going on. You were never gonna get it,” he said, with a cocky grin he'd seen Dax use a hundred times. “See, we Coulters don't really do the whole settling thing. You're looking at a second-generation starter, and as for the points thing…” He rolled his eyes. “Plenty of you guys couldn't score off the court, with or without this points thing going on. It'll become an excuse for all the guys who know that no real woman would have them anyway.”
“Well…we'll just have to see about that, then.” Daniel said, a touch of menace in his voice, breaking away from Gage as he headed for his dorm in a building on the other side of campus.
Gage sighed. Maybe it was a good thing Becker just wanted to be friends. He had no doubt he would get be able to hit the hundred points. It might take him more than five games to achieve it, though, especially if he was sharing starts with Daniel.
He wasn't going to worry about that shit right now. It wasn't a problem until it was a problem. Besides, that wasn't why he wanted to be with Becker. Not that he hadn't thought of over a hundred uses for that cardigan. He wanted to see if her skin was that soft all over. He wanted to know if she tasted sweet all over. The idea kept him up most nights.
He just wanted to be with her. So, yeah, the points were annoying. But they weren't a problem, yet. Getting out of the friend zone was. He shook his head. What the hell was going on that he couldn't get out of the friend zone? Someone was going to demand he turn in his player card.
Funny thing was, he couldn't give a shit about that. Right now, he was just going to focus on getting Becker to see that they could work together. Good luck with that.
Fifteen
Becker watched Gage as he drove. She had thought he'd be more upbeat, but he was silent for the most part. He'd managed to do even better in English than she had dreamed.
She doubted he needed that much help anymore. Maybe he was thinking it was time to stage a breakup or something. But he didn't say anything like that.
“You okay?” She asked.
He was silent for a beat. “Yep. Good.”
“Well, I’m glad you could come tonight.”
“What are friends for?” Gage muttered.
Gage parked the car, and Becker shook her head before climbing out of her seat. “I’m going to sneak you in the back and leave you with the caterers while I run upstairs and grab my shoes. Don't fill up on the hors d’oeuvres; the best stuff will be held back until they set up the buffet.”
Gage was waiting right where she left him when she got back down and slipped into the sleek burgundy heels that matched her floor-length evening dress. She'd also thrown on the diamond necklace, earrings, and hair combs her father had given to her mother as Christmas presents over the years. Each piece was a burst of diamonds set in platinum. And the last piece was her mask. “Dad doesn't like Halloween, but I don't care. I've always wanted to go to a masquerade ball.”
“You look…wow,” Gage stammered, as she shifted anxiously from one foot to the other and turned to double-check that everything was right with her dress before she turned her attention to Gage.
He wore a charcoal-grey suit with a stark-white shirt and burgundy tie that happened to match her dress. She reached up to straighten it, running her hands down the front of his suit jacket when she finished.
“You clean up nicely, yourself,” she remarked quietly, trying to control her breathing as his hand floated up to examine the diamonds in her ears. “They were my mother's,” she whispered.
“You wear them well. Now, I believe meeting your father was at the top of the To-Do list tonight, followed closely by drinking.”
She chuckled and slipped her hand into his. “How about we start with the grand tour in reverse? The kitchen here looks bigger when it isn't full of cooks and catering staff. And then through here we have my father's office…and the family room…but for now, everyone's gathering in the dining room, I'll show you the rest later, as an excuse to get us out of small talk.”
“I look forward to it,” he whispered.
“Becker,” a deep voice called from the large dining room's front entrance.
“He likes to stand there so he can socialize with the guests who are here, and be ready when someone new arrives,” she whispered to Gage under her breath as she led him forward.
“Mr. Johnson.” Gage nodded and held out his hand for Becker's father to shake. “I'm Gage Coulter.”
“The boyfriend,” Cain Johnson said slowly, his eyes assessing him. Becker recognized the look on her father's face. It was polite disapproval, an expression that made him look like he had something bitter in his mouth that he wanted to spit out but couldn't. “I've heard a lot about you. Unfortunately, not as much of it comes from my daughter as I might like.” He turned his eyes on her and Becker felt Gage's hand rubbing small circles into the small of her back for reassurance. She met her father's eye defiantly.
It was clear that he was determined not to like Gage. She was used to his disapproval when it came to the choices she made in life; Gage was hardly the first boyfriend her father hadn't liked. It surprised her how much his obvious displeasure stung this time. She was glad to have Gage to hold on to through the exchange.
“I should have invited Gage to join us for one of our weekend dinners,” she conceded, “but he's been so busy with practices, and we've both been overwhelmed a bit studying for our finals that making our schedules work has just been impossible till now.”
“You're an athlete,” Cain Johnson stated, with as much feeling and disgust as if he had said Gage cleared road kill from the streets.
Gage ignored the man's tone and responded with the enthusiasm and passion the other lacked. “I am. I play point guard for the basketball team. I come from a long line of athletes, actually.”
“Yeah, I'm familiar with the Coulters.” Her father looked away to the door where more guests were arriving, but not before she caught him rolling his eyes. “Your family started that little equipment chain.”
“My grandfather did, yes,” Gage confirmed, saying nothing about how her father made Legacy Sports sound like a quaint mom-and-pop shop.
“I heard it took a big hit in the stock market when your—was it your father or your grandfather who stepped down?”
Becker glared at her father for his deliberate insensitivity.
“My father.” Gage remained impeccably polite, but his voice was tight as he added, “He stepped down for health reasons, but from what I understand, the company is actually doing well through this transition. My mother was more than capable of taking over. I'm not directly involved, as I'm at school. My father and grandfather had hoped to get me and my brothers or sister involved in the company so one of us could really take over and keep it in the family, but they've realized that sometimes you have to let go of ideas like that and accept that just as they built their own lives, the rest of us want to do that too, pursue our own dreams.”
Becker pressed her lips together as she caught sight of the twitch in her father's jaw. He kept his head turned to the entrance, as though he hadn't been paying attention to Gage's blatant dig at how her father was treating her. But she knew he was dying to strike Gage or scream in his face, and was only able to refrain because of the crowd of guests whom he couldn't afford to have bear witness to such a loss of control.
“What is it you plan to do after college?” her father asked, when he'd regained his composure. Becker didn't miss the edge of mockery. “The life of an athlete is all well and good while you're young, but it isn't something to build a lifetime on. You hardly see any professional athletes now beyond the age of thirty, thirty-fi
ve if they can avoid injury. Unless you can play professionally and make top dollar doing so, it's not generally something you can count on to provide for the rest of your life. So what's your fallback? Business? Marketing? The Coulter name won't open doors for you forever.”
“I'm undeclared for now, sir,” Gage said with a polite smile. “My advisor tells me I have plenty of time to decide, try a few things out and see what works best for me. They do a real good job at the university of making sure we students figure things out for ourselves. That way, we can make sure that we're not being pushed down a certain path by someone else.”
The twitch was back, and Becker decided it was time for her to intervene.
“Dad, it looks like the Paulsons just arrived. You should go ask them how their daughter's wedding was last month,” she prodded, using a hand at her father's back to guide him into the foyer, where a middle-aged woman was adjusting her hair in front of a mirror, while her older husband was examining a painting on the wall next to it. “I need to finish giving Gage the tour. We'll come say hello again after everyone's here.”
She hoped her father picked up on the warning in her eyes as she drew Gage along to the empty study across the hall, only aware of the knot between her shoulder blades when it vanished.
“Sorry about that,” she apologized, as they moved into the room and their view of her father was successfully blocked. “I don't talk to him a lot, at least, not about the details of my personal life, so other than letting him know I was bringing my boyfriend…”
“It's all right, Becks,” Gage assured her, lounging on a lush sofa and looking around at the shelves of books with various awards and plaques scattered in front of them. “He could give my Gramps a run for his money, but it's nothing I can't handle.” He patted the space on the sofa beside him for her to sit down. When she did he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. “Perfect. We can strategize how you want to play this, and anyone who walks in will just think we're trying to fool around,” he whispered in her ear.
“Strategize?”
“Sure. Are we aiming to keep antagonizing your father, 'cause he's obviously trying to push both our buttons and I have no problem pushing his right back, or do you want to try and bring him around to your side of things? That’ll be harder to do, and would probably take a lot longer than today, but if you want…”
“I don't know that I really care what my father thinks anymore, though it would be nice to be able to feel like I was getting through to him sometimes…” Becker mused, leaning her head on Gage's shoulder so that she was almost nuzzling his neck. “I wonder what he meant by 'he's heard a lot about you.' He must have looked you up.”
“You think your father ran a background check on me?” Gage said lightly, teasing.
Becker chuckled. “That wouldn't surprise me at all. Didn't I tell you about the trust-fund conditions? If I ever get married, I have to have a prenup, or I forfeit whatever's left of the trust fund. Yeah, he would absolutely run a background check on a guy I brought home. He's probably run one on Daniel, and he's already got my dad's stamp of approval.” She paused for a moment. “So what about you? Besides Dax and Asha, have you told them about me at all?”
“When they asked me if I was seeing anyone, what was I supposed to say?”
Gage teased, glancing over her shoulder to the doorway they'd passed through moments before. He must have spotted someone there, because he pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her, his hands settling at the small of her back, caressing the curve created by the layers of tulle under the fabric of her skirt. “I'm nothing if not thorough when it comes to these things,” he informed her, ducking his head towards hers and hovering, his lips not quite touching hers.
“The best students are,” she whispered, her heart pounding. “And you…are an excellent student.” She pushed in even closer, and pressed her lips to his, knowing that it was for the benefit of whomever it was he'd caught sight of, but not caring because his mouth was warm and firm against hers.
She dared a glance up into his eyes, unsure of what he might be thinking. The moment stretched between them just a little too long, and became awkward. Becker broke the silence by clearing her throat and glancing down. She noticed his tie was askew and straightened it, as he loosened his embrace.
“If, uh… If you told your family that that we were dating to cover up the whole you-needed-a-tutor thing, I suppose it would only be right for me to offer you proof…for their benefit. I mean, you coming here tonight was…above and beyond, and I really appreciate it. Having you here has been…I'm not sure what I'd have done tonight without you.”
“Are you saying you'll call me during midterm break?” he asked quietly.
“Well…yeah. It'll be weird if we don’t talk all week. Video chatting with your girlfriend would help with…” she rambled, unable to bring herself to meet his eye.
“So you'll be doing it to help me out?” He was obviously teasing her now, which made it easier to play it off as a favor.
“Naturally.”
“I look forward to it,” he said, pressing a light kiss to her forehead. “Come on. Come with me.”
Becker glanced down to Gage his hand dubiously. “Where we going?”
“You're going to have to trust me. It will be fun. And bring comfortable shoes.”
She looked at his hand, then at his face. “Gimme five minutes to change.”
A few minutes later, they were sneaking out of the back of her house. The Halloween party was still in full swing. Honestly, who had a Halloween party but forbade costumes? The whole thing was decidedly not fun. They were out front in moments, pulling his car out of the garage, bypassing the valet altogether.
“Okay, we're out of the house. Now, why don't you tell me where we're going?”
“You know what, Becker? You’ve got to learn to go with the flow. I think that's the problem. Just go with the flow. Sometimes things work out.”
“Yeah, but sometimes they don't.”
“You really want to be the person who thinks things can work out all the time?”
“No.” She rubbed her nose. “And I do believe things work out. Sometimes they just take a while to do so.”
He pulled up one of the apps on his phone to direct them to where they were going. They drove through downtown and for several minutes, until they pulled into an empty parking lot.
“What's this?” she asked.
“Doesn't it say The Legacy Sports Complex?”
“Yes.” She laughed. “But what are we doing here?”
Gage shook his head, even as he took her hand. He tugged her along with him and she giggled, punctuated by the chime of the car's door locks closing remotely.
“Seriously, Gage. This place is closed.”
“Oh, ye of little faith.” He marched them straight up to the security guard, and he showed the guy his license.
The man's eyes went wide. “Mr. Coulter. I—I wasn't expecting anyone.”
“It's cool. Listen, we just wanted to use the top floor for a while. We'll put everything back where we found it. Would that be okay?”
The guy looked from Gage to her, and back to Gage again. He seemed to waffle and consider saying no, but, he eventually gave in. “Of course.” He handed Gage a key card. “That'll get you straight up to the top.”
Gage gave him a wide smile. “What's your name? I'll arrange for a pair of tickets to be waiting for you at the box office for the first Billings basketball game.”
The guy's eyes went wide. “Holy shit, you serious?”
Gage nodded. “You bet. I know you're not technically supposed to let me in.”
The guy shrugged. “Hey, it's your family's sports complex. What am I gonna say, no?”
Gage chuckled. “Thanks, regardless. It's cool that you're letting me take my girlfriend in and show her around.”
Becker bit back her smile. She tried to quell the warmth that spread through her. But she couldn't. She liked the sound o
f that. Gage Coulter's girlfriend. Because you are a moron. You're smarter than that. Don't buy into it. But still, there she was, trailing after him, her sneakers squeaking on the linoleum. “So your parents own this complex?”
“More like they donate heavily. Technically, it's a non-profit. This is where most of the kids from the volunteer day that we did come. They use the facilities, they get access to some really great coaches. There's an understanding that anybody who comes through here that ends up going pro, comes back and helps out as often as they can. It's a pretty cool deal.”
He tugged her into the elevator, and she couldn't help but smile up at him. “Thank you for showing me this.”
He held her gaze for a long moment. “Well, I didn't come here to show you how altruistic my family is. I brought you here to play.”
“Play?”
He nodded. “Our last date, I don't know, I was really nervous. And I clearly said something to upset you. And, instead of fumbling around trying to ask you out on another date—a real date this time—I just figured I'd take things into my own hands.”
Oh, boy. And there it was, that tingle low in her belly that short-circuited every useful brain cell in her head. On a normal day when she was around him, she had about two that were firing on all cylinders. But when he was kissing her or being this sweet, they were completely obliterated. And that turned her into a copy of every other mooning girl. “Okay, Mr. Coulter. Show me what you want to show me.”
His gaze dipped to her lips. “Yeah…I don't need any encouragement for that. But, how about we play little basketball, first?”
Becker frowned. “But I don't know how to play basketball.”
“That's okay, because I'm going to teach you.”
For the next hour, Gage ran her through drills and taught her how to shoot. Just like she was one of his students. She wasn't very good, but it didn't matter, because she was having fun. With Gage, she always had fun. Which worried her. And scared her. Because what happened when he got bored?