I blinked. Practice. Practice?
“You joined the charity football league?” Levi asked. I was glad he asked because I was speechless. I mean, I was always speechless, but right now I didn’t even know where to begin. The only question I could think to ask was why are you talking to me?
Even I knew that was unforgivably rude.
Tiffany didn’t look at Levi. Instead, she batted her lashes at me. “Of course,” she said. “I wouldn’t miss it.”
I stared down at her in confusion, though I’d been told my confused look was also a glare so I was surprised to find that her smile hadn’t faltered. She leaned in. “I’m hoping you can give me some pointers.” With that she gave me a little wink and then walked away.
What the…what?
“What. Was. That?” Levi said what I was thinking.
I shrugged. After the initial interest at the sight of a new kid that first year I’d transferred, I’d become largely invisible to the female population at Fairfield High. Every so often there was a determined cheerleader who just wanted to hook up with a guy from the team, but even they lost interest in the guy who never talked back.
Every girl lost interest in me.
Except for Maddie.
Levi surprised me with a laugh. “Well, it looks like Maddie’s evil plan is working, huh?”
I glared down at him.
“What? You didn’t hear?”
I stared, wondering how long I should give him before shaking the words out. I didn’t have to resort to violence. Levi was all too happy to spill. In fact, he was laughing as he explained. “Oh yeah, Kate told me all about it. Apparently, Maddie is pitching this league as some sort of singles’ thing.”
A curse shot out of me, low and fierce.
Levi grimaced and nodded. “My thoughts exactly. Now I’ve got to go spend my weekends with a bunch of lonely single girls? Once upon a time that might’ve sounded appealing but now?” He clapped a hand over his heart. “Now I’m a man in love.”
I made a sound of disgust but Levi ignored me, his grin broadening as he caught sight of Kate walking toward us. “Speaking of my gorgeous girlfriend.”
He was off, sidling up to Kate and wrapping an arm around her waist as she smiled up at him.
The two of them were nauseating. But not nearly as sickening as the thought of being on a team full of people looking to hook up. Or worse. Maybe they wanted more than that.
I didn’t do more. I didn’t do any of it.
I looked in the direction where Tiffany had headed and sighed. And girls didn’t want that from me either. Or they hadn’t until Maddie had done…something.
Whatever had just happened with that redhead, it had Maddie written all over it. I growled low in my throat. That was it. It was time Maddie and I had a chat.
Levi was right, she wasn’t acting like herself. And now, on top of that, she was meddling in my life. I caught up with her before our next class. “Maddie.”
She stopped short outside the classroom at the sound of her name. She spun around and looked up at me and I knew.
Something was wrong.
Damn it. Levi was right.
Her brilliant smile was fixed in place but it was brittle. The light in her eyes was filled with the usual laughter but there was an edge to it as well. Like one wrong move and it would go from laughter to anger.
“What can I do for you oh co-captain my captain?” She tilted her head to the side and for a second I forgot what I’d been about to say.
I swallowed thickly and tried not to notice the way the oxygen seemed to grow thicker when she was around. I could feel the gravity around us, pulling at me, making me want to lean forward to be closer to her. Making me want to help it along and tug her into my arms.
What the hell was happening here?
She arched her brows. “Ox?”
I cleared my throat and took a half step back.
She shifted from one foot to the other before planting her hands on her hips and tilting her head back. “You know, it’s kind of uncomfortable to look up at you like this. I’m getting a crick in my neck.”
She was teasing. Her voice sounded like normal—light, carefree, happy. For a second I forgot about Levi’s dire pronouncement and the fact that she’d apparently yelled at her friend.
“This is a singles’ event?” I said.
She beamed at me. “Brilliant, right?” She shrugged. “What can I say? It was an inspired idea.”
She was serious.
Reaching over she patted my arm, sending electric volts into my skin. “You can thank me later.”
“Thank you?” I repeated. This girl never ceased to amaze me with her brazenness. She had more confidence than the rest of our classmates combined. How she’d ever ended up dating someone like that jerk Alex was beyond me.
I frowned down at her. Not that it was my place to ask.
She patted my arm again and this time it annoyed the hell out of me. The touch itself felt too good, like my body had developed some sort of dependency on her. No one’s touch should feel so good.
But I hated the patronizing attitude behind it.
She was trying to help me. Trying to save me.
Hell, this girl was going to be the death of me.
“I don’t need a girlfriend.” It came out through clenched teeth and in a growl that I couldn’t help but that would send most people running.
It had Maddie beaming up at me. “I knew you’d say that which was why I helped to spread the word for you.”
I towered over her but she didn’t so much as blink at my glare. “I don’t want a girlfriend.”
She stared blankly as if that idea were incomprehensible. “Of course you do. Everyone wants someone to love. Everyone deserves to be loved.”
She made it sound so simple. So easy. “It’s not worth it.”
I didn’t even mean to say it aloud and as soon as I did her eyes narrowed on me with laser focus. “What’s not worth it?”
Dealing with the inevitable pain, the heartache, the betrayal.
I didn’t answer.
She opened her mouth and I knew she was going to keep prying so I beat her to it. “What about you?”
She blinked. For the first time in our friendship she was at a loss for words and not me. Frowning, she crossed her arms. “What do you mean?”
Really? She was going to play dumb now? I was pretty sure my expression spoke for me because she rolled her eyes. “This isn’t about me. I just want to help you.”
I narrowed my eyes in a glare and she quickly added, “And all my other single friends.”
“Is this about Alex?” I didn’t even know where it came from but it felt right. She was avoiding the topic and I had a feeling she wasn’t just avoiding talking about it to Kate and her other friends.
She wasn’t going there.
While denial was something I could understand, I couldn’t condone it. I was all for avoiding the problems of the world, but not by pretending they didn’t exist. That only led to more trouble down the road.
Of course, I didn’t say any of that.
“Alex,” I said, noticing with a jolt of anger how she flinched at the sound of his name.
“What about him?” she asked. She looked genuinely confused.
“Are you trying to get back together with him?” That…wasn’t what I’d meant to ask. It was a question that had been plaguing me ever since I’d seen her reaction to him in the parking lot. Ever since it became clear that she had feelings for the guy.
She shook her head. “No. Of course not.” A bitterness I’d never seen before flickered in her eyes and it made my chest tighten because it was like her normal laughter but so very different. “You heard him, Ox. Alex and I were never even a couple to begin with.”
I stared at her, trying to figure out what she was thinking. What she was feeling. It had been so long since I’d worried about another person’s feelings that this felt alien. Trying to sort out what was going on with her
was like learning a new language.
She took a deep breath and some of the bitterness seemed to fade. “This isn’t about him or that jerk from the party. I just want to do something nice for my friends.” After a moment she added, “I’m not looking to meet anyone.”
I found myself saying the first thing that popped into my head, one fact she’d made clear over and over again during our short friendship. “You always want to meet guys.”
She let out a short laugh. “Yeah, well. I’m on a hiatus from dating.”
“Since when?” I knew the answer. Since that party.
Earlier that same night she’d talked my ear off about how she wanted to meet a hot college guy. Then she had, and now…now she was on a hiatus.
What did that mean?
And what the hell had that Alex guy done to her?
Chapter Nine
Maddie
Ox wasn’t the only one who didn’t believe that I was over dating.
Kelly and Tiffany were standing on either side of Ox on the sidelines, either not noticing or not caring that he looked about as pleased to be a part of their small talk as he was about being on this field at all.
“Of course Maddie would think to make this a singles’ event,” Tiffany teased. She gave an eye roll that said leave it to boy-crazy Maddie.
I turned to look for Kate—out of habit, more than anything. She always had my back when my other girlfriends were on the “make fun of Maddie” bandwagon. I spotted Kate’s back as she chatted with Noah, who’d agreed to help out when he wasn’t away for the weekend visiting Callie.
I turned back to Kelly and Tiffany. “All right, ladies, line up.” They both ignored my shout. In fact, everyone seemed to be ignoring my attempts to get the next game underway.
Kelly giggled as she leaned around Ox to talk about me like I wasn’t right there. “She had to organize a singles’ event that was open to everyone since she’s been through all the guys at Fairfield.”
Tiffany laughed.
It wasn’t clear if Ox even heard her.
But I had, and my chest tightened to the point where it hurt to breathe. She was kidding. This was how we joked around. I knew all that. Heck, I was the one who perpetuated the whole boy-crazy Maddie persona. I wasn’t ashamed of the fact that I liked guys. But still…something about her words stung more than it ought.
I saw myself through their eyes and the whole Alex fiasco just seemed so pathetic. I mean, I’d finally fallen in love. Flirty, sassy, always-up-for-a-good-time Maddie had finally fallen fallen in love.
And he hadn’t loved me back.
A football hit the side of my head with a painful thud. Levi’s mocking voice called out, “Better stick to softball, Maddie.”
Laughter filled the air and I cursed as I spun around to find that the next game had gotten underway as I’d stood there gawking at Ox.
To be more precise, I’d been staring at my two friends who were hitting on Ox.
Anger rose up so quickly it hurt. They only liked him because I’d told them he was a guy to like. They were pathetic, and catty, and shallow…and it took everything in me not turn back around and tear their hair out.
I clenched my fists as I struggled to get control.
Who was this person? This wasn’t me. I didn’t do girl fights. I didn’t fight with my friends or get weirdly possessive over my guy friends. I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. My back was still to Kelly and the others, so when Ox’s low voice was right next to my ear I jumped.
“You okay?”
I looked up to find him glowering down at me. But here’s the thing. At some point during this odd new friendship with Ox, I’d started to understand his glares. Not every stern stare was the same. Sure, some were glares of anger, but others were of frustration or annoyance, and some were out of concern.
This one was the latter. Some of the tightness in my chest eased under that glare. “Yeah,” I said. “I’m fine.”
Was it a lie? Yeah. It was. But sue me, I had a charity league to run and a Halloween party to plan. People were counting on me—I didn’t have time to fall apart.
But I wasn’t fine. Not even a little bit. As I jogged toward the line of scrimmage to actually play in the game rather than be used as a goal post, I was pretty sure this day couldn’t get any worse.
I was wrong.
So wrong.
“Thanks for inviting the hottie,” Tiffany said. She came to a stop beside me in the lineup, looking way too pretty in short shorts and a halter top. Had she worn that for Ox?
I glanced back at him.
Was he falling for it?
“He’s cute,” Kelly added as she joined me on my other side.
Cute? Ox? I mean yeah. I thought he was hot. Sexy, even. But cute? That was a word I’d never thought to associate with the big burly beast.
“Introduce us,” Tiffany said.
I frowned. Introduce them? They’d known Ox for two years. I looked over to her in confusion and it was only then that I realized they weren’t looking in Ox’s direction. They were looking past him, further down the field.
They weren’t talking about Ox.
Alex.
Alex?
For a second I thought maybe I was imagining it. I’d been thinking of him so often these past two weeks, maybe I was hallucinating. But no. That was his shaggy dark hair and his confident swagger. And there was no mistaking that sexy grin.
The sexy grin which was currently aimed at me like a weapon.
I waited for the heart racing, the sweaty palms—all the physical responses I’d become accustomed to during our short time together.
Or not together, as he’d so kindly pointed out.
My heart pounded furiously in my chest, all right, but this response had nothing to do with attraction and everything to do with anger.
I ran off the field, hoping to head him off at the pass—or at least, before Ox spotted him. “Hey,” Levi called. “The game’s this way, Mads.”
I ignored him. It was bad enough that Ox had gotten into a fight on my behalf, and even worse that he’d gotten in trouble for it. I refused to let it happen again. Not over this cocky little turd.
“What are you doing here?” I snapped the moment I reached him.
His gaze moved from me to a spot over my shoulder, his grin never faltering. “Hey, babe. Good to see you, too.”
I narrowed my eyes at him because I’d seen where he’d been looking. At Ox. “If you’re here to start more trouble—”
“I’m not,” he said quickly. His smile was still in place as his eyes met mine. Then he looked pointedly over his shoulder. “Do you really think I’d try to take on your boyfriend without backup?”
Not if he had a brain. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want him to take it as a challenge.
Besides, he had a point. Alex excelled at looking out for himself. Selfish and self-centered, that was my ex.
Boy, I really knew how to pick ’em.
His point was valid, though. He wouldn’t have come here outmatched and alone only to have his pretty face messed up.
I crossed my arms. “So what are you doing here then?”
His smile grew and he took a step toward me. “It was good seeing you the other day.”
I knew that look. I used to love that look. It was a look that said you’re the only person on the planet. It said you’re so beautiful and I could spend the rest of my life gazing into your eyes. It said I love you.
I hated that look.
“It was good seeing me,” I repeated under my breath, as if that might help to make sense of it. “Yeah, it was a real blast.”
Amusement made his dark eyes seem warmer. Almost like he had a soul and wasn’t the devil. “It was good to see you,” he said. “The circumstances might not have been ideal, but I’ve missed you, Maddie.”
I stared at him. He couldn’t be serious.
He eyed me from head to toe. “You look good.”
Oh he
ll no. He could so not be serious. “You came to my school to beat up my boyfriend,” I reminded him.
The fact that the words “my boyfriend” slipped out so easily rattled me for half a second but I shook it off.
Alex dipped his head a bit and his smile turned sheepish. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that.”
I kept my mouth shut but my expression must have given away my disbelief.
“I am,” he insisted. “Todd can be a real jerk sometimes.”
I had to assume Todd was the drunken idiot. Todd was such a fitting name for him. I merely arched my eyebrows.
“I don’t know what he said to you or what he did, but I’m here to apologize on his behalf.”
“Uh huh.” My tone was flat. It was the best I could manage. “You came here to apologize for your idiotic friend.”
I meant to stop there. I should have stopped there. “So, are you saying you didn’t tell him I was a slut?”
He blinked, his head jerking back slightly in surprise. “What? No, of course not.”
My nostrils flared as I tried and failed for a calm, steady inhale to cool my anger. But like every other emotion lately, it reared up out of proportion. I fought for control—for a smile or a laugh or anything other than rage.
Anger won out by a landslide. My hands clenched at my sides. “I suppose you didn’t lie to me while we were together either, right Alex?”
He took a step back, holding his hands up in defense. But his gaze was no longer on me. He was eyeing something—or someone—over my shoulder.
“Are you going to tell me that you didn’t let me believe that we were a couple? Are you going to deny that you told me you loved me?” I opened my mouth to continue but stopped at the feel of a familiar hand on my shoulder. I recognized the big, heavy weight of Ox’s hand. I felt his reassuring presence behind me.
My breathing was shallow and my head felt faint. I realized distantly that I’d said all that too loudly. I couldn’t bring myself to look around and see who else had heard.
Alex was backing away from me but his smirk had turned to a sneer as he eyed Ox. “Relax, big guy, I just came by to say hi to an old friend.”
Then Alex met my gaze and widened his eyes. “You know where to find me if you want to talk this out.” He turned but looked back with a smug smile. “I meant what I said, babe. You look good.”
The Perfect Score (Kissing the Enemy Book 3) Page 9