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Chapter 13
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Every morning ride for the rest of the week went back to normal. Well, almost normal. The air filled with dark tension. Now her body knew it wanted Beckett’s touch rather than thinking it did. Every time they were together in the close confines of the truck, she felt her body stand at attention, waiting, and craving his nearness.
Her imagination would take flight thinking about how his hands felt on her. As soon as the ache between her legs made it impossible to sit still, she would freeze, berate herself and think of anything else to make the pictures stop. The pattern would continue in a loop until they reached school and she could escape the truck.
Neither of them mentioned the encounter, but his words were always, frustratingly, in Greer’s head. This morning at practice, some of the guys had come over to her to make sure she was coming to the game. Beckett had been standing several feet away and she could feel his brooding stare.
“I’m going.”
She had hoped her quick agreement would get everyone to leave. And by everyone, she meant Beckett.
“Don’t disappoint us. You promised us” Evan reminded her.
She looked up at him and made her lips smile, ignoring Beckett. “I’ll be there.”
With her promise, they walked toward the locker room. Pepper and Greer had already agreed to go together, but Greer wanted more reinforcements around her. She picked up her phone and saw it was 7:30, Lexi should be up by now.
“You are going to a football game?”
Greer laughed at Lexi’s disbelief. At public, she and Lexi hadn’t gone to any football games. Jenn tried to persuade them but was never successful. “I know, but I told the guys I would be there, and I want you to go with me.”
“Do we get to have a sleepover at your new house?”
Greer hesitated. “How about your house? I’ll have my stuff in David’s car then he and Mom can drive us over to your house?”
“Actually, I’m going to drive.”
It took a second for Lexi’s little tease to sink in. “Lexi Phillips, did you get a car and not tell me?”
“Last night,” Lexi burst out. “It’s a blue Ford Fusion, and so cute!”
They both squealed and excitedly began talking about how they could see each other more often now. It was decided they would meet at the stadium, watch the game, and then go to Lexi’s.
Greer knew Lexi was disappointed, but she didn’t want to have to worry about what would happen if Lexi and Beckett met. Rationally, she knew Lexi wouldn’t do that to her, but even she was tempted by Beckett and he hadn’t even used his full force of charm on her.
Lexi wasn’t model beautiful, but she was pixie cute. At 5’3” she was below average in height, but everything she had was in perfect proportion. She had natural blonde hair cut in a blunt, chin-length bob that made her baby blue eyes pop. Greer was never sure why guys weren’t swarming around her. A few had tried, but her natural reserve seemed to be taken as coldness.
She wasn’t sure what she would do if she lost Lexi. They had been best friends since elementary school. There were times Lexi had been her only friend. Greer would have to make sure Beckett and Lexi didn’t meet or at least had limited encounters.
««« »»»
For the first time, Beckett was distracted by a girl, and it was annoying the shit out of him. Greer Smith was messing with his head, but he was determined to prove she was just another girl out to find herself a rich guy.
His whole body tightened whenever he felt her come in a room. Damn, he didn’t even have to see her, he instinctively knew she was close. He knew when her eyes were on him. As soon as they left, his frustration began.
Even after he told himself not to give a fuck, he would find himself searching for what or whom her attention was directed at. When he found her looking at another guy, his irritation surfaced. If she was talking with another guy, he would catch the guy’s eye and silently warn him away.
He should just sit back, watch, and let her reveal her duplicity. After all, she was proving his point. She was out to snag a rich guy and at Oak High, they were all rich, so she had her pick. But after a few tense minutes of watching her, he had to act.
The guys on the team didn’t help. At every opportunity, they were talking and flirting with her. Greer, he begrudgingly admitted, never approached any of them, unlike every other girl he had ever known.
Greer would talk, laugh, and charm everyone on the team. The guys competed with each other to get her attention. She never seemed to notice they rushed to be the ones to talk to her in her bleacher seat or sit by her at lunch.
The Oak High girls were carbon copies of each other. They might have different hair colors, but in the end, they all came to school with their designer shoes and professional hair. They spent hundreds of dollars on cosmetics, haircuts, shoes, manicures, pedicures, and spa treatments.
Greer’s hair could actually move and the caramel highlights in her auburn hair were natural. He wasn’t even sure she wore makeup. After she had made her make-over splash and attracted everyone’s attention she had gone back to minimal make-up. Once in a while, it looked like her lashes were darker, but he damn well knew she didn’t were lip gloss or lipstick. His eyes were always drawn to where she sucked her bottom lip in between her teeth. The sight made his dick hard every time he saw it. It took a ridiculous amount of will power to not suck that lip between his own.
Now he felt like a twelve-year-old boy excited for his first football game of the season because a girl was going to be there. The guys had been talking about the first game of the season at lunch earlier in the week, and when they turned to Greer to make sure she was going, she actually said, “I’m really not into football.”
There had been a stunned silence among the 5-6 guys sitting by her and he had been one of them. She said it without looking up, just continuing to eat the chicken nuggets in front of her. The guys had all looked at him like it was his job to do something about it.
Pepper came to their rescue and voiced what they had all been thinking, “Greer! You have to go to the game.”
Greer looked up and saw everyone staring at her and the familiar pink started staining her cheeks and her lower lip was sucked in, queue his hardening dick. Her eyes flicked to his and he made sure he made his displeasure known before she looked sheepishly back to Pepper
“Oh, I just meant that at Public I never went, so I hadn’t really thought about going.”
“How are you going to know which of our asses is the best, if you don’t see us in our tight whites?” Mark input.
Her cheeks turned red and those startling green eyes flitted to his again. He made sure to stare impassively back at her even though he was hanging on her words as much as the rest of the team.
“You have to go and sit with me, Greer!” Greer’s eyes left him with Pepper’s exclamation.
Beckett was liking Pepper more and more. When he looked around, the whole team nodded their heads, silently urging Pepper to convince Greer.
“Come on, Greer. You’ve seen how impressive we are in practice, we are better in games! Don’t let your boys down!” Jason piped up from the other side of Mark.
Beckett turned his head and found both Jason and Mark grinning at him evilly, so he growled lowly at them across the table, “Shut it.”
They both just started laughing like stupid hyenas, which caused Greer to look between them. “What’s so funny?”
That just made them laugh louder and he would have kicked them under the table if he didn’t think they would cause more trouble. Instead, he snapped at Greer, “Nothing that concerns you.”
It came out harsher than he intended and Greer immediately lowered her eyes and went back to eating. Jason and Mark had stopped laughing and glowered at him with a look that said they wanted to punch him.
Pepper glared at him before she sto
od up. “Come on Greer, I want to show you what I’m working on in art. Greer looked at Pepper gratefully, before getting up with her tray and leaving with Pepper.
“What the hell, Dawson?” Mark leaned across the table and got in his face. “Why do you insist on being an asshole to her?”
The whole table was very interested in the conversation and he met each face with a glare. When he got to Jason, the asshole drawled. “Just ask her out already Beckett.”
He refused to acknowledge Jason’s taunt and glared a little harder hoping he got the message to shut the hell up. Jason’s lip lifted and without breaking eye contact he shrugged and said. “Fine. Then I’m asking her out.”
“Leave her the fuck alone.” The words flew out of his mouth before he thought them.
Suddenly Jason wasn’t so casual anymore and they were having a silent battle across the table. “Either own it or pass, Beckett. If you don’t want her, then I do.”
The need to get up and haul him up by the shirt and beat his best friend up tore through him and he fought the red haze clouding his vision. “She is mine.”
He didn’t even have to think about it. She may be an opportunist, but she was his until he figured it out. Jason’s posture relaxed and he shot Beckett a shit-eating grin. “I knew it.”
The rest of the table exhaled, and normal conversation resumed. Shit, he’d just been played. He wiped his hand down his face as Jason and Mark laughed.
“Fucking hilarious,” He bit out.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you that pissed. I’m trying to help you out, man.” Jason claimed.
“How do you figure?”
“You need to get your shit together Beckett and ask her out.” Mark chimed in.
Beckett swung his glare toward him. He was tired of talking about this, but Mark didn’t get the clue. Mark heaved an exasperated breath and rolled his eyes. “Your team has your back Beckett, but we are not the only dudes with eyes in the school.”
Beckett swung his glance around the cafeteria as Mark continued, “Most of us have been going to school together since elementary. We’ve fucked the same plastic girls since middle school and the whole school sees how genuine Greer is. You don’t think there’s interest in that?”
Beckett shrugged. “She could be playing us. Thought of that?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jason reinserted himself.
It was Beckett’s turn to look at them like they were stupid. “Do you know where Greer used to go to school?”
At their clueless stares, Beckett filled them in. “Public High.”
“You think she’s white trash?” The undertone of warning in Jason’s voice rubbed him wrong.
“No.” He stared down Jason, so he would understand. “I’m not sure she just doesn’t want to take advantage of the fact that we all have money.”
“Dude, she has a job that she goes to every day after school,” Mark said, like it explained everything.
Jason was quick to insert his two cents, “Do you understand most of the girls come to school wearing about five grand worth of accessories? Greer’s accessories are her backpack and shoes, worth about a hundred dollars. I’ve never her seen look at them with envy or talk about money. It’s like she doesn’t even know the disparity between us. Has she asked you or your dad to get her anything?”
“No,” he admitted, begrudgingly. But he wasn’t an idiot. “She’s smart. Maybe she is just luring us in and then plan on taking us for a ride.”
They both looked at him in disbelief and then Jason shook his head like he was a lost cause. “Well while you are waiting for that to happen someone else will be claiming her.”
He bit back the growl working its way up his throat, disgusted with himself. Why couldn’t he control this possessiveness? He could just as easily watch her manipulate another guy and prove his point, but something in him wouldn’t allow that to happen. He needed to listen to Mark and Jason and claim her. Then she would be in his realm of control, he could keep an eye on her, and keep his dad off of his back.
««« »»»
Ever since lunch, when Beckett glowered and snapped at her, he had been acting differently. Suddenly, he didn’t seem to mind that she was around. Greer was confused and suspicious. Just a couple of hours ago he had sought her out after her last class and told her he would pick her up from work.
“Why?”
“We have a short practice since we have a game tomorrow.” He leaned his body against the locker next to hers. She ignored the familiar buzz in her body as she tried to figure out what his end game was.
“Why would you do that?”
“Then your mom doesn’t have to.”
She had reluctantly agreed, convinced it was a prank. When he had arrived at The Coffee Shack and flashed her a dimpled smile, she had almost spilled the coffee she was making. As they were leaving, he told her their parents were going out.
“So, where should we go?” Beckett asked like they were best friends.
She was pretty sure her mouth was wide open, and the words just tumbled out before she gave any thought, “Why are you being nice?”
“I haven’t been mean.”
The permanent image of him and Jenn in the kitchen with their bodies pressed together, still had the power to sting her eyes. Greer locked her jaw and stared out his truck window when she answered.
“Let’s just go to your house. I’ll find something there.”
Beckett didn’t start the truck and she felt his penetrating stare, but she refused to look at him. She was confused and didn’t want to play this new game he seemed to be starting. Finally, she heard the truck start and she let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding. It got stuck in her throat when he said so softly, she barely heard.
“It’s your home too, Greer.”
After that mind-boggling statement, Beckett put the truck in gear and finally started driving. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought she heard some regret. Beckett had never said the words, but he had made it more than clear it was not her home. She knew she was a temporary visitor, for one year. Then she would head off to college and be an occasional visitor.
She didn’t move until she saw them pulling into the parking lot of a local pizza shop and then turned to look at him quizzically.
Beckett shut the truck off and asked, “What kind of pizza do you like?”
“I don’t have any money.”
Beckett said something under his breath as he got out and walked into the restaurant. Grateful for a few minutes respite from his presence she took some deep breaths and allowed her muscles to relax.
Ten minutes later Beckett was back, with a pizza box. He put it in the backseat, climbed into the driver’s seat and took off. The uncomfortable, angry vibe was back. It was actually a relief. This was what she knew. Greer stubbornly looked out the window and refused to look at him. She could feel Beckett’s anger increase the closer they got to home.
When they pulled into the garage, Greer’s hand raised to the door handle anticipating the motor shutting off and the locks disengaging. Only Beckett didn’t shut the motor off. Without moving her head, Greer’s eyes frantically searched the door panel for a way to manually unlock the door. When she couldn’t find the button, she gave in to Beckett’s silent demand to look at him.
As soon as her head turned her eyes slammed into his and wouldn’t let go. She caught her recoil from the intensity radiating from Beckett. He held her eyes captive for a couple of beats, before slowly, but distinctly saying.
“I am going to put this pizza on the kitchen counter, get some plates, and then we will BOTH sit at the counter and have some.”
A week ago, he avoided being in the same room with her, and now he was mad that she was reluctant to share pizza with him.
“Why?”
Greer watched Beckett’s jaw tighten, but he didn’t look away. “My dad asked me to feed you and that is what I am going to do.”
Unexpe
cted disappointment flooded through her and she looked down to cover the sting of tears she felt welling up. That made sense. It hurt, but it made sense. She forced a response past the lump in her throat.
“Okay.”
The locks were disengaged and she fled to the kitchen, turned the TV on, and got the plates out. She kept a neutral expression on her face and as fast as humanly possible.
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Chapter 14
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Gameday had finally arrived and school was one long pep rally. Life-size posters of every football player were lining the hall. Players were allowed to wear their jerseys and cheerleaders wore their uniforms. Instead of music between classes, the band played the school song, or cheerleaders were doing school cheers.
Greer got her lunch and walked to find a seat, only to stop and stare. The cheerleaders, complete with pom-poms, had formed a circle around the table where the players sat. As one of the players sat down, one of the cheerleader’s blew the bull horn in her hand and everyone in the cafeteria yelled “BooYah” as he sat down.
Greer felt Pepper come up next to her. “Is it like this for every game?”
“Just the first game and homecoming. It is a bit over the top isn’t it?”
Greer laughed. “Yeah, just a little.” She gestured with her head to a corner table. “Can we sit over there?”
Pepper nodded. “I’m not sure we would make it through the wall of cheerleaders anyway. I’m not anxious to test it out.”
They started walking and were almost to their destination when Mark hollered “Yo, Matthews, Smith what are you doing over there? Get your asses over here.”
Battling Beckett Page 9