“You win father of the year.” Ali rolled her eyes at me. “Now please come meet my date.”
Ali’s dad dropped his magazine and stood.
“Dad, this is—”
“Dax DeLeon. I’ve seen you play.” He stuck his hand out to shake my hand.
“Coach Frost?” What the heck? Ali’s dad was Coach Frost? I blinked over at Ali before turning back. “Sir. It’s nice to meet you. Again. I met you once before. Sophomore year.”
“I remember. You threw three touchdown passes and scored your own rushing touchdown even with a weak offensive line.”
“You still beat us.”
“We did, but you made us work for it. How’s your season going?”
“Good. We’re undefeated.”
“I know that. I mean, how’s your season going? Different question.”
“Right.” I nodded and huffed out a breath. “Not stellar, but…”
“What’s Coach Devlin telling you?”
“To get out of my head. To stop overthinking and play for love of the game.”
“That’s what I would tell you. Devlin’s a great coach. You’ll work it out,” he said. “Where are you two heading?”
“Have you heard of the McDonald Observatory?” I asked.
“Great place. Ali loves going there.” Coach Frost smiled. “Don’t let me hold you up. You guys have fun.”
“Thanks, Dad. I’ll be in by two,” Ali said, flashing me a grin.
“Good try, kiddo. Midnight sounds good.”
“I’ll have her back by midnight, Coach Frost. You can count on it,” I said.
Ali laughed and steered us out the front door and down her driveway to my truck.
“I can’t believe your father is Coach Frost.” I opened the passenger door for Ali, shutting it once she was in and buckled. I was still shaking my head when I slid behind the steering wheel. “That’s crazy. How did I not put that together?”
“Frost is a fairly common name.” She shrugged. “Honestly, I didn’t think about you two knowing about each other either, but the schools are in the same conference so it makes sense.”
“Your dad has a pretty big reputation in our part of Texas and the football world.” I started my truck and pulled away from the curb. “My girlfriend’s father is Coach Frost.”
“Your fake girlfriend’s father is Coach Frost.”
“Right. That’s what I meant.”
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to get back closer to eleven-thirty.” Ali’s gaze darted to me and away quickly. “This is the first time I’ve gone out in a while—since my parents’ divorce actually—and I know my dad will be anxious. I want to make it a little easier on him.”
“No problem.” And considerate on Ali’s part. Plus, I didn’t mind looking good in Coach Frost’s eyes.
“So, we’re going to the McDonald Observatory? I do love that place.”
“We’re not going to the McDonald Observatory.”
“Wait, what? You lied to my dad?”
“I didn’t lie. I never said we were going to the Observatory. I asked him if he’d heard of it.”
“Maybe not a lie, but misleading. Why in the world—”
“Ali, how do you think your dad would have responded if I told him I was taking his only daughter to one of the darkest places in Texas to lay in the bed of my truck…to stargaze?”
“Oooh, yeah. He wouldn’t believe that for a minute.”
“Nope.” I flashed her a grin. “He’s been around teenage boys for too long to trust us.”
“We are just going to stargaze, aren’t we? Because I should let you know my dad taught me a few tricks for boys trying to cop a feel.”
“Just stargazing. I imagine we’ll talk too, but that’s it.” I glanced over at her. “You can trust me.”
“I’m not great at the trust thing. I don’t trust many people.”
Rumors had gone around about what had happened over at Cox and to Coach Frost. Rumors about his daughter which weren’t good. Rumors were rarely accurate but either way I couldn’t take the look in Ali’s eyes.
I pulled over to the curb and stopped my truck. Turning my head, I made sure she could see my face and looked firmly into her eyes.
“Anything that happens between me and a girl—between me and you—will only be mutual. Nothing happens without consent. Period. Full stop. I’m glad your dad taught you how to protect yourself although I hope you’ll never have to use it. If I want to kiss you, I’ll ask first. Or you could ask.” She sighed and relaxed against her seat. “We don’t have to go stargazing. I’d be fine grabbing a burger or catching a movie. Or—”
She gently shut me up with a finger over my lips. Her smile made my chest tighten.
“Stargazing works.” Her hand slid from my mouth.
“Absolutely. Just stargazing.” And because the air between us felt too serious and crisp, I added, “No matter how badly you want me, Ms. Frost, the answer’s no.”
17
Just Stargazing
Dax
Forty-five minutes later—after a detour through the Starbuck’s drive-through for hot chocolate—we were stretched out side-by-side in the bed of my truck. I’d thrown two foam pool rafts into the back for comfort and a couple of wool blankets.
We’d been lying there looking for five minutes in complete silence. Because the sky was stunning.
“I don’t even know what to say,” Ali whispered. “Even in a small town like Devil’s Lap, we don’t see this. This is…”
“I know. I don’t know if there’s a word that comes close to describing it.”
“It’s one thing to know all these stars are out there in the universe. But to see this”—Ali waved her hand at the expansive sky laid open above us—“is mind blowing. This is the starriest and most beautiful sky I’ve ever seen.”
After a long moment of reverent silence at the dazzling sky, we went hunting. I found Orion and the twinkling blue-white Sirius. Ali pointed out Pleiades and Pegasus off to the east. Together we found the Milky Way and argued over which was Polaris, the North Star. It was hard to pick the brightest star when an infinity of stars and constellations spread out forever in every direction. Once we’d picked out all the stars and constellations we knew, we lay for a while in quiet appreciation.
“This might have the McDonald Observatory beat.” She wiggled next to me on the foam mat, settling in more. “When I look through the telescope at the observatory it’s amazing but distant. The stars are off far away in space. Out here—lying under this—it’s like I can reach out and grab one. Like I’m part of this whole dazzling sky.”
“Like we’re just another bright speck of light suspended inside in a constellation.”
“Yes. Exactly like that.”
I turned my head toward her. “Would you have guessed that day we met in the counseling office that we’d have so much in common?”
“Heck no.” A giggle escaped her lips before she slapped a hand over her mouth to smother it.
“What’s so funny?”
“I sort of thought you were a douche-canoe.”
“Hey now.” I reached out and tickled along her ribs.
“Stop,” she said, laughter in her voice. “I have since revised that opinion.”
“Good,” I said, turning back to the stars. “I, on the other hand, was totally intrigued by you that day.”
“I guess that explains why you added the bowling class.”
“Absolutely. Can I ask you a question?” Now that I knew who Ali was, I needed to know if the rumors about Coach Frost’s daughter were true.
“Not if it’s about kissing.”
“It’s not.” Not at all. Sure, I’d thought about kissing Ali. But only when we’d discussed it as a “couple” thing. Okay, maybe one or two more times after that. It hadn’t been on my list of the top five things I needed to survive. Until right now. Which, where the heck had that come from? Ali rolled her head toward me. The darkness made it hard to re
ad the emotion on her face. “Not yet anyway.”
“What do you want to know?”
“What happened at your old high school? There were rumors that Coach Frost got divorced and quit coaching before the end of last season.”
Ali released a sigh that cut through the cool, quiet night. “My mom had an affair with the assistant football coach. You know, my dad’s assistant coach. Dad had no idea and neither did I. Not a clue. If there had been rumors floating around, we hadn’t heard them.”
Oh, man.
“A student walked in on them.” She paused for a moment, sucking in a shaky breath. “It was shocking and painful and ugly. There was no escape from the sordid details flying around school. It was like running from a swarm of killer bees we couldn’t shake.”
“Wow. That had to be awful.”
“It was. It was bad. And then it got worse.”
“You mean the divorce?”
“That. Definitely that. But also, the fallout. Dad and I tried to pick up the pieces and keep going. Even though my mom and the assistant coach were moved to another school district right away, I still had school and dad still had the football team the coach.
“I tried. I really tried to keep it together, but I was just so devastated. And angry—so, so angry at my mom. I cried a lot. Lost weight. Just sort of shut down.”
She got quiet and the silence dragged on.
I should have let it go right there. But I needed to know one more thing.
“Is it true you tried to commit suicide? After your parents’ divorce?”
“What? No. God no.” She stiffened up next to me and shook her head. “Stupid rumors.”
“What did happen? I mean, if you’re okay talking about it.”
“What happened was my dad was seriously worried about me. So he quit. He resigned as the football coach. Three weeks before football playoffs, he quit to focus on me.”
“Man, I knew Cox had lost all their coaches suddenly, but… Wow. We live and breathe football here in Texas. Trust me, I know. That couldn’t have been easy.”
“It wasn’t fun. That’s when the notes started. It was my fault Cox’s winningest football coach quit. My fault Cox didn’t make it to the state championship for the first time in six years. My fault two of Cox’s star players didn’t get to set playoff records.”
“That’s bullshit. It wasn’t your fault.”
“That’s not how every student at Cox saw it.”
“You didn’t tell anyone about the notes? Not even your friends?”
“Ha! What friends? The friends I thought I had turned on me too.”
“That sucks. That totally sucks.” I reached out and took Ali’s hand in mine.
“I put up with the notes, the whispers, and the names for four months. Then one day…I couldn’t. I was at my locker swapping out my books between classes… And there was another note. I lost it.” She turned her face back up to the sky. “I screamed, cried, tossed my books out of my locker all over the hallway.”
“What happened after the meltdown?”
“When I finally stopped acting like a raging, rabid dog, I took the stack of notes from my locker and marched them down to the principal’s office. I guess someone had already called my dad because he was there. They only made it through half of the stack of notes when Principal Vale suggested I transfer schools. I transferred to Jackson the next day.”
“It’s weird. While you were going through hell—I was in football heaven. We beat your old school to make it into the championship game, and it only happened because your dad had quit. Because of your pain. We had never beaten Cox before. Your dad was too good of a coach.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I’d give it all back if it meant saving you from all of that.”
Ali blinked into my face, searching my eyes.
“I think you actually mean that,” she whispered.
“I do.” I turned fully on my side toward her.
“I lost everyone.” She faced the sky again. “Everyone I loved and trusted. Everyone except my dad. I felt betrayed, isolated, and angry. But more than anything, I hurt. Between my mom, my friends, and watching my dad’s pain, my heart broke.”
“Ali?”
She turned her face toward me. “Yes?”
“One more question…”
“I think that’s everything.”
“Not quite. Because now I’m asking…would you mind if I kissed you?”
She rolled onto her side, putting us face to face. “Is this because you feel sorry for me? I don’t think I could stand a pity kiss.”
“Not pity.” I pulled in a breath of cool, crisp air. “That’s not to say I don’t feel bad about what you and your dad went through. I do. But if all of that crap hadn’t gone down, you and I might never have met. That would have been my loss.”
“Mine too,” Ali whispered and leaned into me.
Into our first kiss. Nothing crazy. Nothing wild. Just her lips against mine. And it was the best kiss I’d ever had. Slowly, I pulled back an inch. “Was that okay?”
“That was perfect.” She rolled back, her face to the stars and a smile on her lips.
I rolled back too, face to the sky. Lying here next to Ali…it felt like the universe got something right. I reached my hand over and found hers, interlocked our fingers and held tight.
18
Do You Think We’re Stupid?
Ali
Dax had me back home by eleven-thirty and insisted on walking me to the door. If you’re wondering if Dax kissed me goodnight, the answer is…sort of. He stood close, his deep, dark eyes hot on my lips. Then he pulled me in even closer, pressed a kiss on my temple, and whispered, “That’s in case your dad is watching.”
After saying goodnight to my dad, I went to my room planning to spend the next fifteen minutes replaying both kisses through my head on an endless loop while listening to my dad go through his lock up the house routine.
I’d been telling myself for weeks now that this thing between me and Dax wasn’t real. But that kiss under the stars felt very, very real. Real to me. It was time to face the truth.
I liked Dax DeLeon.
Was it possible Dax and I could go from fake to fact? Did he like me too or was he that great an actor? Could I even trust enough to let someone close to me again? Or had that already happened? With my teammates—now my friends. With Dax—now my… Well, that was still to be determined.
I trusted him enough to open up and tell him all the ugly details of the last year. So maybe—
A light tap on my window startled me. I whipped around and—speak of the devil—it was Dax.
Crossing the room to the window, I slid it open. “What are you doing here?”
“I forgot I wanted to ask you one more question,” he said, his voice a hushed tone. Luckily my dad’s bedroom was on the opposite side of the house.
“What?”
“Will you go to the winter dance with me?”
My pulse fluttered. “The one in two weeks?”
“Yes.”
Wait. Calm down. This isn’t about me. “This is part of the fake relation—”
“No. It’s not. I realized over a week ago, that whenever we’re together—I’m not faking anymore. I’m not sure I ever was. I like you, Ali Frost. I’d like us to go to the dance as a real couple. Would you please put me out of my misery and say yes?”
“Yes.”
He smiled his crooked smile at me. “Would it be all right if I kiss you again?”
“Yes. It would be more than all right.”
Dax leaned in, cupped my jaw with one hand, and kissed me. Kissed me breathless. And then he was gone.
Wow. Well, that settled that. Dax DeLeon liked me too.
For the next ten minutes I paced my room, anxious to get the whole rabbit rescue over with. At precisely ten minutes before midnight, I snuck out of my bedroom window and down half a block to where Bhakti’s van was waiting for me.
Was supp
osed to be waiting for me. Bhakti’s van wasn’t there. Something dark and jagged clawed at me. Doubt seeped in through those exposed spaces. You can trust us. Apparently, my new friends were no different from my old friends.
Wait. No. That wasn’t fair. This was different. Just because they decided not to come—that was nothing like what my old friends had done. Honestly, I couldn’t blame my teammates for backing out. There was no reason for them to risk getting in trouble. Not for me.
I could do this alone. I should do this alone and leave them out of it. I turned to walk home for my car when headlights cut through the darkness behind me.
Bhakti pulled up to the curb and warmth blossomed in my chest.
The side door slid open and Rowena and Shani pulled me in and we were off, heading for Old Devil’s Bridge.
“Sorry we’re late,” Shani said. “I forgot what time we’d agreed to. Ro was scared we’ll get in trouble so it took a few minutes to calm her down, and then Bhakti couldn’t decide if she should turn right or left on Porter Street.”
“You guys know I have trouble making decisions. Someone else should have driven,” Bhakti said, her gaze bouncing from the road, to the rearview mirror, to the side mirror and back to the road again.
“We’re good. We’re not late. Everyone ready?” I asked, looking around at their faces in the shadowy van. “Do you have the playbook, Gaby?”
“Yep.” She patted the book in her lap. “It looks real too.”
“Hey, how was your date with Dax?” Mari asked.
“Pretty great.” I was glad no one could see me blush. “He, um, asked me to the winter dance.”
The girls squealed their excitement.
“You have to take us shopping,” Shani said. “No way are you picking your dress without us.”
“Deal. Dresses aren’t my thing, so I’ll be glad for the help.”
“You guys, we’re here.” Bhakti turned onto Devil’s Bridge Road and slowed the van to a crawl, making a U-turn before parking. “I want to be ready for our quick getaway.”
Ali & the Too Hot, Up-to-No Good, Very Beastly Boy: A Standalone Sweet YA Romance (Jackson High Series Book 1) Page 10