The Catch (Smart Jocks #0.5)

by Rebecca Jenshak

  Where Have All The Bad Boys Gone?

  Vanessa

  I don’t date nice guys. I don’t date mean guys, either, but in the past I’ve been a lot more likely to entertain nights with the latter. I like the honesty of knowing exactly what a bad boy can give me or, rather, can’t give me.

  When you date nice guys, you are opening yourself up to falling in love and settling down. I decided long ago that looking for Prince Charming in college wasn’t a good idea. Blair calls me a cynic; I say I’m a realist. Sure, more and more people are finding their significant others in college, but the divorce rate is also at an all-time high. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

  But here I am anyway.

  Mario sits across from me in the booth. Blond hair neatly combed, big smile—he’s kind of impossible to not like and that’s a real problem. I don’t think he’d intentionally do anything to hurt me, but hearts don’t mend any faster when they’re politely broken instead of shattered with a sledgehammer.

  “You look nice.” There’s sincerity in his blue eyes and even the blackest part of my heart thumps to life.

  “Thank you.” I try for a little snark, but it’s lost somewhere between the touch of his fingers as they wrap around mine on the red tabletop and the somersault happening in my stomach.

  The waitress appears at the end of our table and I withdraw my hand.

  “Can I get a water with lemon, please?” I ask.

  She nods and looks to Mario.

  “Same and can we get the pretzel bites with cheese?”

  “Sure thing.” She looks between us with a smile. “You two make a real cute couple. Pretzel bites are on the house.”

  When she leaves I shoot him a playful glare. “What if I didn’t want pretzel bites?”

  “Good. More for me.” He settles back and puts his arm around the back of the empty chair beside him. His confidence is unnerving.

  Once I have my water, I grab a straw, take a drink, and then fidget with the straw wrapper. “So, how come you’re single?”

  “Damn, woman. Straight for the balls.”

  I arch a brow.

  “I dunno. I’m sure it’s not the perfect answer you’re looking for, but I just haven’t found anyone I’ve really wanted to date before now. Baseball takes up a lot of time and…” He shrugs.

  “And you’ve never had to work for sex, which is what you really want.”

  He leans in and lowers his voice to a deep, sexy rumble. “Make no mistake about it, I very much want to have sex with you, but if you think that’s all I’m after, you’re wrong.”

  Heat rushes to the bottom of my stomach, and I take a drink of my ice water.

  “So.” He sits back. “You said you grew up in Utah. What was that like?”

  I clear my throat. “Umm… normal, I guess. I had your average, middle-class, divorced-parents upbringing.”

  “Did you play any sports? Homecoming queen?” He narrows his gaze. “I can’t picture you as the class president type, but maybe I’m wrong. You are bossy, after all.”

  The waitress brings the pretzel bites and we order a few more appetizers to share instead of individual entrees.

  “I swam and I was on the dance team.”

  He grins. “I can see that.”

  “What about you? Besides baseball, obviously.”

  “I went to a small high school, so I did lots of things, but baseball was always my main focus.” He pops a pretzel in his mouth and chews before asking, “Did you go home for summer break?”

  “Just for a couple weeks. I had a job working at the admissions office. You?”

  “Went home for most of it to help my dad. He has a repair shop. Spent the break sweating my ass off fixing cars. It was great.”

  It’s a good visual—Mario covered in grease and sweat.

  “So, I looked up these BTS guys…”

  I laugh. “You did?”

  “I wanted to understand what it was about them you liked so much.”

  “And?”

  He rubs at the back of his neck. “I don’t get it.”

  “Well, you had to have at least one fault.”

  One side of his mouth pulls up into a grin.

  By the time we finish eating, I realize I haven’t stopped smiling in a while and am completely at ease around him. I tried to look for flaws or signs that he was too good to be true, but he just met them with reassurances. He’s not perfect, I know this, but his intentions are sincere.

  Where have all the bad boys gone? Why couldn’t Mario be one?

  I realize it’s dumb to wish for him to prove my jaded theory about college relationships, but that’s so much easier to accept than letting my walls down. But that’s exactly what he’s doing. Pushing them down and working his way deeper under my skin.

  After much debate, Mario agrees to split the bill. The dinner rush has long since gone, and we’re still hanging out when the waitress lets us know her shift is ending.

  “You two lovebirds are welcome to stay as long as you want. Tara’s taking over for my section if you need anything else.”

  “Thank you,” Mario and I say at the same time.

  She flashes us a smile before she leaves us alone again. “We should probably give them their table back.”

  He nods his agreement and stands and waits for me to pass before following me out of the diner. He opens my car door and once we’re both inside, holds my hand while he drives back to the sorority. After parking on the street, he gets out and walks me up the stairs to the front entrance.

  My heart is thumping wildly in my chest. We’ve already kissed, but there’s something about that end of the first date kiss that even a skeptic like me can’t help but anticipate.

  “Thank you for tonight.” I stop on the stoop in front of the door and face him.

  “Welcome.” He uses our joined hands to tug me closer and his lips catch mine.

  First-date kisses are different than other kisses. They make a statement in a way kisses of naked passion don’t. They say I had a good time and I want to do it again.

  And I do.

  I float up to my room, humming under my breath. I can’t wait to tell Blair. She’ll be ecstatic to hear I had a good time. She’s been rooting for him since the first night we met.

  When I fling open our door, she’s on the floor with pictures scattered all around her. Photos of her and David. Tears streak her face.

  “Oh, honey, what are you doing?”

  “I was going to burn all of them and then I got to looking and reminiscing. See how happy we were?” She picks up a picture of them, their faces smushed up together, cheesing for the camera.

  “David was not the guy for you. He was a blip on the radar.” I take the photo from her. “You look happy here because you were. It’s okay that you were happy and now you’re not. It doesn’t mean you should get back together.”

  “I know. I know. I don’t even want to get back together with him. Not really. I’m just sad.” She sniffles and looks me over. “You look so pretty. How was your date?”

  I sit down on the floor next to her, the photo timeline of her and David’s relationship laid out in front of me. Would this be me and Mario if I let things go farther?

  “We had a nice time,” I admit. While some people might want you to hold back and be miserable with them, Blair wasn’t like that. She wanted to believe in the good no matter what. “He seems like a really nice guy. And his smile…” I put a hand to my chest. “I don’t think there’s a woman alive that could go on a date with him and not fall just a little bit.”

  “I’m glad.”

  “But… where can it go? Really?”

  “V, just because your parents didn’t work out doesn’t mean all college relationships are doomed.”

  My parents met their first week of college and married a month after graduation. They’d missed out on this great time in their lives and now my dad was driving a ridiculously expensive car he couldn’t afford and my mom was on a juice cle
anse. They’d hit that midlife crisis and they’d hit it hard. I didn’t want to get halfway through life and have regrets about the things I missed out on.

  “Maybe. But the only thing I’m betting on is you and me.”

  She smiles. “Love you.”

  “Love you too.” I glance down at the photos. “Now, let’s take these out back and set them on fire.”

  Good to be Good

  Mario

  Friday night when all her sorority obligations are complete for the day, I let Vanessa drag me out to a frat party. All right, fine, it took very little convincing even though the guys were all headed to The White House. One look at the short white dress and purple shoes that perfectly match the color of her lipstick, and I was ready to follow her anywhere.

  My preference was to follow her up to my room, but here we are in the back yard of Sigma Kappa. I’m bracing myself to be pulled into the middle of the party where a group of girls shake their asses, hands overhead, but Vanessa hangs back with me on the outskirts of the party and we sip flat beer from our plastic cups.

  When mine’s empty and I start to think about a refill, I notice she’s barely drank anything.

  “Not much of a drinker?”

  “Sometimes.” She shrugs a shoulder, making her brown hair bounce with the movement.

  Now that I’m paying better attention, she seems off. Quieter and not as sassy.

  “Everything okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  As discretely as I can, I brush my chin against my shoulder and take a whiff of my armpit. Deodorant’s still working. I run a hand along my jaw and then sweep under my nose. Hopefully nothing on my face. If it’s not me, then I don’t know what it is.

  “Are you sure?”

  “It’s stupid.”

  “Maybe. I still want to hear about it anyway.”

  “I’m worried about Blair. She was supposed to come tonight with some of the other girls.” She nods toward a group of girls dancing. “But she flaked at the last minute. Ever since she and David, her douchecanoe ex, broke up, she’s not the same. She hardly wants to come out and even the other night when she did, she wasn’t herself. I thought she’d get over it this summer. They weren’t even that serious.”

  This is so beyond my area of expertise. “Anything I can do to help?”

  “Have any hot friends I can set her up with?”

  “If I do, you’ve already met them. I mostly hang with the team. A few guys from other sports.”

  “Jock loyalty, huh?”

  I shrug. “Not intentionally, just works out that way. We have similar schedules and demands. We get each other.”

  She nods.

  “Hey.” Her hand is warm to the touch as I wrap my palm around it. “We can get out of here and you can go check on her if you need to. I’ll come with you if that’s what you want.”

  “No. No.” She shakes her head like she’s realizing that’s really the answer she wants. “She’s probably organizing her textbooks for next week or listening to self-help podcasts. Blair’s always enjoyed a good Friday night in, I just hope she’s not setting anything else on fire without me.”

  I raise my brows. That sounds dangerous.

  “You’re a good friend.”

  “Not that good. I should have realized he was wrong for her straight away. The guy irons his jeans. Seriously, who does that?”

  I slouch, casually glance down at my freshly pressed jeans, and clear my throat. “Yeah, uh, I don’t know. Only real losers, probably.”

  “Sorry. I’m being such a downer. It’s been a long week.”

  “It’s cool. You don’t have to be anything but what you’re feeling.”

  “You’re always so nice.” She says the word like it’s toxic. “Tell me, have you ever broken a girl’s heart?”

  “Not that I’m aware of.”

  “Broken a law or even a rule?” When she reads the answer on my face, she sighs. “Have you ever done anything bad, mister hero?”

  “Off the top of my head… no.” She starts to scoff and roll her eyes playfully, but I grab her hip and run my thumbs along the curve of her waist. “What is it with you and the nice guy thing. I can’t decide if you don’t like me because I’m good or because you think secretly I’m bad.”

  “I believe you’re truly one of the good ones.”

  “Then, what gives?”

  She squirms a bit under my embrace and I hold on tighter in an effort to comfort her and maybe hold her hostage until I figure her out. “College is the time to be wild and crazy. If we don’t get it out of our systems now, then someday we’ll be in our thirties or forties and realize life passed us by. Which inevitably leads to changing careers or buying a sports car or… getting divorced.”

  I nod, finally feeling like I’m understanding, putting her story together piece by piece. She mentioned her parents were divorced, but I hadn’t figured them into her hesitancy. “Is that what happened with your parents?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I didn’t know, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s fine. They’re happier now, but it’s why I don’t think we should take relationships in college that seriously.”

  “Just because it didn’t work for them—”

  “Doesn’t mean it can’t work?” She nods. “That’s what everyone says, but time and time again I see it. I mean look what happened to Blair—she thought she found a great guy and now she’s wasting time at home being heartbroken over a guy that doesn’t deserve it.”

  “I really like you.”

  She chuckles. “Did you hear anything I said?”

  “I did and I get it, really. But even with all your solid reasoning, I want to take the chance. And yeah, I generally try to be a decent guy, but I’m not a hero, Vanessa.”

  “No?”

  I shake my head. “I can be wild and crazy.”

  “Prove it.” Her purple lips twist into a feisty smile. There she is. The haughty sass is back, and I dig it.

  “All right.” I look around. “Come on, I have an idea.”

  I lead her around to the side of the frat house and help her up a tree, trying suuuper hard not to look up her dress, and to the Sigma roof overlooking the party.

  “This isn’t what I expected. What are we going to do up here?” she asks with a surprised smile.

  I pull out my phone and hold it up. “I was hoping reception was better up here… and it is.”

  “Are you planning on making a call?”

  “What’s the most embarrassing song on your playlist?” I ask her.

  She thinks for a moment. “I Touch Myself.”

  “Really?”

  She punches my shoulder playfully. “The song, perv.”

  Fingers tapping against the screen, I pull up the song, press play, and cross my fingers this works.

  The music booming out of the speakers stops and soon Divinyls I Touch Myself starts playing. Everyone at the party glances to the guy sitting behind the DJ booth. He checks the laptop screen, eyebrows drawn together.

  “What the hell?” someone yells. A few other people chuckle.

  As it gets to the chorus, Vanessa sings loudly, “I don't want anybody else.”

  By the time she gets to the next verse, enough people have joined along that the DJ’s stopped stressing and looks around trying to play it off like he knows what’s happening. Her infectious smile makes my chest feel funny. She belts out the entire song from the rooftop and when it ends, erupts into wild cheers with everyone down below.

  “Do I want to know how you hacked the speakers?” she asks as the next song starts up.

  “Wasn’t that hard. Tony, the guy pretending to DJ, is a football player. He’s always taking over the sound system in the workout room.” I hold my phone up and shake it victoriously. “Apparently he hasn’t changed his password.”

  She laughs. “I’m not sure that counts as breaking rules. At best, it’s a G-rated prank.”

  She looks so beautiful sitting up here
. The breeze is tossing her hair around her head, but she doesn’t make any move to tame it. I love that about Vanessa—she doesn’t worry about being perfect. She’s just present.

  I scoot closer so our bodies touch from shoulders to thighs. “I can’t seem to think of a single bad thing I want to do right now.”

  Brushing her hair away from her face, I bring my lips to hers. The heat of the night is nothing compared to the inferno inside me for this girl. Tasting and teasing, nibbling… we’re a panting mess when Tony’s voice comes over the speakers. We pull apart as he summons the cleanup crew to the ladies’ restroom to mop up a flood. Her face is flushed, and her chest rises and falls at the same rapid pace of my own. As the music starts back up, so do we—this time with no attempt to hold back all of what we’re feeling. Well, maybe some holding back. I don’t have any desire to fall off this roof with my pants down around my ankles.

  “Maybe we should get off this roof,” she murmurs as my hand makes its way under her dress.

  “Probably so,” I say, pulling my lips away from her gorgeous neck.

  I climb down first and then help her.

  “Do you want to go back to the party?”

  She shakes her head.

  “Want to come back to my place and hang out for a while? All night? All week?”

  She giggles. “Tonight anyway.”

  My roommates are still gone when we hurry inside and up the stairs to my room. Shoes off and legs tucked underneath her, she sits on my bed waiting for me while I close and lock the door. When I walk over to her, she sits up onto her knees on the mattress. With warm fingers, she lifts the hem of my t-shirt up and over my head.

  “You sure you want to do this?” I ask even as she’s going for the button of my jeans, making it pretty clear.

  “I’m sure.”

  I help her get her tight dress up and over her warm body. My heart is damn near beating out of my chest when it slips over her head into my hands. I hold the warm fabric in one hand at my side and take in every glorious inch of Vanessa James. “You’re perfect.”

  A smile pulls at her lips and she reaches forward and places her small hand on my chest over my heart. I wonder if she can feel how fast it’s beating. If hers is racing anywhere close to this fast.