by Amanda Abram
Instead, he walked over to Emma, swooped her up into his arms and gave her a congratulatory hug.
She responded with her three hundredth giggle of the night.
“Isn’t that cute?” Riley said behind me.
“What?” I asked, noting the sudden irritation in my voice but choosing to ignore it.
“Those two.” She pointed over to Emma and Matt, who had broken apart but were now talking and laughing about something we couldn’t hear. “I think they would make a cute couple.”
Instinctually, I snorted. “Those two? They couldn’t be any more different—” My mouth clamped shut. No, wait. It was a good thing Riley thought they’d make a cute couple. That was the whole point of all this. Why was I suddenly losing sight of what I was trying to accomplish here?
“You know what they say, opposites attract.” With her forefinger, Riley traced a line down my arm. “Then again, sometimes it’s nice to be on the same playing field. Don’t you agree?” She smiled up at me seductively.
“Um, yeah, I suppose,” I said, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. Riley was obviously referring to the two of us and I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that.
Did I find Riley attractive? Hell, yeah. Did I think she would be fun to hang out with? Sure—and probably fun between the sheets, too. But Rachel was right; she was too much like Grace. Been there, done that, not looking forward to doing it ever again. The last thing I needed was another girl trying to pressure me into being a reliable boyfriend. I just didn’t have it in me.
Although, Riley was only up here for the summer, so it wasn’t like she’d be looking for a long-term relationship. And we probably could have a good time together. Maybe after I got Emma and Matt together and some of my time freed up…
“Hey, Logan,” Riley said, snapping her fingers in front of my face. “Are you okay?”
I blinked. “Yeah. Why do you ask?”
“Because you just zoned out and started frowning for no apparent reason.”
Weird. I hadn’t even noticed.
“Okay, losers, time for ice cream,” Matt called over to us.
Gritting my teeth, I put on a fake smile and said, “Great. Lead the way.”
Riley bounced over to Matt and Emma. I didn’t know what she was so excited about; she was going to have to pay for half the ice cream bill.
The four of us returned our putters and headed toward the ice cream shack. Halfway there, Matt stopped walking and turned to the girls.
“Hey, why don’t you two go pick out what you want? Logan and I will be right there.”
Emma and Riley exchanged a curious glance before nodding and walking away.
I sent my own curious glance Matt’s way. “What’s up?”
Matt stuffed his hands into the pockets of his shorts and shrugged. “Are we cool? I’m sorry for ribbing you so much back there. It was all in good fun.”
I could tell he was being sincere. I knew his harassment hadn’t been malicious in any sort of way, but that didn’t stop it from being annoying. Still, he was my best friend and I couldn’t stay mad at him.
“Yeah, man, we’re good.” I smiled and slapped him on the back. I began to move forward again, but his next words stopped me dead in my tracks.
“So, um, what’s up with you and Emma?”
I stared blankly down at the ground for a moment, letting his question swim around my head before turning back around. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, are you guys, like, dating?”
I burst out laughing. “No, we’re not dating. Don’t you think if we were, I would have made her my golfing partner tonight?”
Matt nodded like he thought that made some sense. “Okay. Well…do you want to date her?”
My laughter abruptly came to a halt. Swallowing hard, I said, “What kind of question is that?”
He thought about it for a moment. “A valid one.”
I began to laugh again, but this time it sounded strained and inauthentic. “Well, I think it’s a dumb question.”
“One that you haven’t answered yet.” Matt’s eyes searched my face. “Do you like her?”
“Dude,” I said, taking a step back. “What’s with the sudden interrogation?”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m just curious. I mean, you’ve practically spent all summer with her so far, and you’re always bringing her along to things. You even skipped my party yesterday to hang out with her. It just seems like maybe you like her.”
I guess I could see why he might think that. I had been hanging out with Emma a lot lately. But I couldn’t tell him the real reason: that I was grooming her to be his love interest.
“Yeah, well, I don’t,” I said, biting the inside of my cheek.
Matt smiled. “Cool,” was all he said before walking past me. “Let’s go get some ice cream.”
I watched him for a second before starting to follow him. Why was he suddenly so interested in what was going on between me and Emma? And why did he look so happy when I told him I didn’t like her?
More importantly, why did that suddenly put me in a really bad mood?
Chapter Twenty-Two
EMMA
For the first time in my life, I held an open book in my hands, but I couldn’t concentrate on reading it. And not just because it was like a hundred degrees out by the pool, or because the book was boring.
I couldn’t concentrate on it because I couldn’t stop thinking about the previous night.
After mini golf, we all got ice cream and hung out for a while. Matt and Logan hit some balls in the batting cages, leaving me and Riley alone to sit in awkward silence as we watched them. I tried on a few occasions to spark up a conversation with her, but every time she would just nod, say, “Mmhmm,” and pull out her phone to text someone.
At one point, I could tell she had texted Logan because as soon as she sent it, Logan paused, took his phone out of his pocket to read it, and then glanced over at her with a smirk on his face. She responded with a suggestive smile and a small wave. I just rolled my eyes as I tried not to think about what she might have texted him. She’d been throwing herself at him all night, constantly putting her hands all over him, and he seemed to really be enjoying it.
Whatever. It was none of my business.
What was my business was Matt. While it’s not like I really got anywhere with him, he did talk to me a lot. And then there was the moment he helped me out with my golf swing…standing behind me, his hands on mine, speaking softly into my ear…
I bit my lip to prevent myself from smiling at the memory, but I couldn’t help it. The whole thing made me so giddy I could squee.
Squee. I was not the type of girl who would squee over anything. I even hated the word itself because it wasn’t a real word. But after last night, it was the only word I could think to use.
As I struggled to remove the goofy smile from my face, my phone rang on my lap. Assuming it was either Chloe or Sophia, since I hadn’t talked to either one of them for a couple days, I didn’t bother to look to see who it was before answering it.
“Hello?”
“Hey, book nerd,” said a smooth, masculine voice into my ear. Even if I hadn’t recognized the voice as Logan’s, I still would have known it was him. I was currently wearing a tank top that said, Book Nerd on it, which meant chances were good he was spying on me from his bedroom window. Assuming he was, I glared up in that general direction.
“What’s that look for?” he asked defensively, confirming my assumption.
“What do you want, Logan?” I asked, sighing heavily. I still hadn’t fully forgiven him for last night, when he tried to make me look like a dork in front of Matt.
“I wanted to know if you were interested in hanging out,” he replied. “It’s the hottest day of the summer so far, and I thought maybe you’d like to come over and go for a swim.”
Funny he should mention that. I’d put on my new bikini underneath my shorts and tank top on the off chance I wa
nted to take a dip in the pool. It was crazy hot out and it wasn’t even noontime yet.
“If I want to go for a swim, I’ve got my own pool to swim in.”
“Yes, but you shouldn’t swim alone,” he said. “You should always swim with a buddy in case you almost drown—that way, there’s somebody there to give you mouth-to-mouth if necessary.”
I snorted. “Well, in that case, I’m definitely not coming over.”
“But I give great mouth-to-mouth. I could provide you with testimonials, if you’d like.”
“I’m good, thanks,” I said, fanning myself with my book, due to the fact the air around me suddenly felt about ten degrees hotter.
“Okay, we don’t have to go swimming. Come over anyway. I have a nice air-conditioned basement we can chill out in.”
“My house is air-conditioned as well.”
“Oh my God, Dawson,” Logan said, “why do you have to be so difficult? Just get your butt over here, alright? I have some information regarding Matt that I think you might find interesting.”
I sat up in my lounge chair and dropped my book onto the deck. “Oh yeah? Like what?”
“Like, I’ll tell you when you get here,” he said and hung up.
I narrowed my eyes at my phone. Was this a trick? A bait-and-switch? Like I’d get there and his “information” would be something dumb like, “Matt likes girls who hang out in basements on hot days”? That would be just like him. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
Still, it could be something legit. And for that reason, I foolishly began my trek over Logan’s house.
He was waiting for me at the front door when I arrived, wearing a cocky grin on his face.
“I knew you’d come,” he said as I ascended the porch steps. “It was the possibility of mouth-to-mouth with me that convinced you, wasn’t it?”
I brushed past him into the house, where it instantly felt about thirty degrees cooler than it did outside. “So, what’s this information you’ve got about Matt?” I asked, cutting right to the chase.
Logan shut the door behind us and put on his best hurt expression. “You know, I’m starting to feel like you’re just using me to get closer to my best friend.”
“Good call,” I said with a smirk. “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”
Logan just shook his head and said, “Follow me to the basement.”
When Logan said he had an air-conditioned basement, I was expecting to see something similar to the basement at my house: dark, dirt-scented and full of spiders. But it was nothing like that. It was bright, bug-free and fully-finished, with a large TV, ample seating, an air hockey table, and a mini-fridge. The place was like a man cave on steroids.
“Welcome to the Man Mansion. Have a seat.” Logan motioned to the loveseat in front of me. “Can I get you anything to drink?”
I shook my head as I sat down. “No, thanks,” I said as he took a seat next to me. “I just want you to tell me what information you have about Matt that I supposedly would be interested in.”
“Boy, you have a one-track mind, don’t you?” He grabbed two PlayStation controllers off the coffee table and handed me one. “You play video games?”
“I’ve dabbled,” I said with a shrug. My dad owned a few video games and occasionally he and I would play racing games together.
Logan turned on both the TV and the console. “You should try out this game. It’s mostly a button masher, so you don’t have to be worried about not being an experienced gamer. I think you’ll like it because you’ll get to beat the crap out of me.”
I smiled at that. “While that does sound enticing, I didn’t come over here to play video games with you. I came over to talk about Matt.”
“We’ll get to that, I promise,” Logan said as the game started up. He picked a character out of a list of male avatars and instructed me to do the same with the list of females. “I’ll tell you what you want to know after you win a round.”
I scowled at him. “That’s not fair. I’ve never played this before.”
“Just hit any combination of any of these buttons at any time. You’ll do fine.”
A few seconds later, the game started, and our two characters appeared on the screen. The women in these types of games could not be any more unrealistic. My character was bleached blonde, had huge boobs, a tiny waist, a bubble butt, large, muscular thighs and was dressed in hot pants, a crop top and knee-high combat boots. No woman in real life looked like this.
I did what Logan had instructed me to do, and that was just hit as many of the buttons as I could as quickly as I could. His character defeated mine within seconds and I turned to him with an angry pout.
“This is so unfair. You are obviously very experienced with this game. I don’t stand a chance.”
“Sorry,” he said with a smirk. “I’ll go easy on you next round.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t want you to do that, either. I can beat you fair and square.”
He arched a brow. “You think so, do you?”
“Yep.” I sat up straight and moved to the edge of the couch, holding the controller tightly in my hands. “Bring it on.”
The next round began, and Logan once again started kicking my butt—no matter how many buttons I mashed or how quickly. At one point, my whole body got into the action, tilting from side to side while I moved the controller up, down, and all around, in hopes that it would somehow help me win.
It didn’t.
When Logan’s character ripped mine in half and her cartoon blood started spurting out all over the place, I dropped my controller onto the table, stood and crossed my arms over my chest.
“Okay, first of all, this game is disgusting,” I said, wrinkling my nose at the gruesome image still displayed on the TV screen. “Second of all, it’s a really stupid game with no point. Third of all, just tell me the important information you have about Matt.”
Logan chuckled and tossed his own controller aside. “Okay, fine. I’ll tell you, right after you admit this game is kind of fun.”
I tapped my foot impatiently against the floor. “Yeah, okay, it’s moderately entertaining. Happy now?”
“Very.” He smiled and gave a pat on the empty cushion next to him. “Here, sit back down and I’ll tell you.”
I begrudgingly did as I was told and dropped back down onto the loveseat. I turned so I was facing him. “Well?”
His grin indicated that he seemed to enjoy leaving me hanging, which made me want to wring his neck.
“Logan, I swear, if you don’t tell me what—”
“Matt asked about us,” he blurted out.
I stopped and stared at him blankly. “Us?”
“Yes, us. Me and you.”
I chewed on my lower lip, trying to figure out what he was saying. “What about us?”
Logan shrugged and picked his controller back up. “He asked if we were dating.”
“Why would he ask that?”
“I’m not sure. He didn’t say. But if I had to wager a guess, I’d say maybe he wanted to make sure we didn’t have something going on before making a move on you.”
My heart leapt into my throat. I studied him for a moment, looking for any indication he was lying. “You’re making this up.”
“I’m not,” he said innocently.
“When did you guys have that conversation?”
“Last night, when he sent you and Riley off by yourselves to get ice cream. That’s what he wanted to talk to me about.”
“Huh.” I sank into the back of the loveseat and started biting one of my fingernails. Whenever something made me nervous, I became a nail biter.
“I think it’s safe to say you’re now on Matt’s radar.” Logan shifted so he was facing me. “It’s possible he’s becoming interested in you, but he’s not quite there yet. If he were, he likely would have just told me and then asked you out. But the interest is there. Now all you need to do is make sure you hold onto it.”
“How do
you suggest I do that?” I asked.
He thought about it for a moment. “Well… I think you need to try being flirtier with him. I mean, you were fine with him last night. You at least spoke actual words instead of just stammering a bunch of gibberish at him—which was a definite improvement, don’t get me wrong. But you’re going to have to step things up a notch when you’re around him. You need to channel your inner Riley.”
I pursed my lips at the mention of Riley and I spoke before thinking. “You mean I need to act desperate?”
He looked taken aback by that. “Actually, I meant you need to act sexy.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You really think the way Riley acts is sexy? The girl tries way too hard.”
“And it works,” he said with a nod.
My laughter came to an abrupt halt. “Yeah, it works on you. And only because you’re easy.”
It was his turn to laugh. “I am not easy.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not. Riley’s just that good.” He got up from the couch and held out a hand for me to take. “Here, stand up.”
With a sigh, I obeyed.
“Okay, let’s do a little practice run.” Logan’s eyes sparkled as he spoke, like he thought this was the greatest idea ever. “Act like Riley and try to seduce me.”
I gaped at him. “Come again?”
He chuckled softly. “I said, try to seduce me. Show me what you’ve got. I want to see if you’re capable of doing this.”
I didn’t like this. I didn’t know how to seduce someone, so I was likely going to make an idiot out of myself. But I guess that was kind of the point. If I sucked at it, Logan was there to help me. He’d give me tips and pointers, and he’d make sure the next time I saw Matt, I’d be ready.
“Okay.” I took a step back, closed my eyes and breathed in deeply. Just channel my inner Riley. All I had to do was giggle and bat my eyelashes and touch his chest. Piece of cake.
Opening my eyes, I reached up and removed the elastic band holding my ponytail in place. I ran my hands through my hair to smooth it out, letting the natural waves cascade down my back.
I could do this.