The Dating Dare

by A. R. Perry

  “Truce is over. It was over the second you busted in on my date after fawning all over Tracy out on the water. Hypocritical much?”

  “Now who’s jealous?” I took a step toward her, watching carefully as the fire in her eyes burned brighter. She looked like she was on the verge of slapping me, but I didn’t care.

  “Jealousy would entail me having feelings toward you, which I don’t.”

  “It didn’t seem that way yesterday.”

  There it was, the slight twitch around her right eye that always gave away one of her lies. It was a good thing her parents never figured it out because we would have been busted on plenty of occasions when doing something we weren’t supposed to do. But I had picked up on it when we were nine.

  “Screw you, Parker.” She shoved her hands into my chest knocking me backward out of surprise.

  I grabbed her wrists as she went to hit me again, pulling her against me so she couldn’t lunge at me like she had in the living room. The next thing I knew my lips were crashing into hers. Or maybe it was hers crashing into mine. Rough and raw and still everything I had ever hoped for.

  Lily’s hands reached for my chest again. For a second I thought she was about to push me away, but instead her fingers knotted in my shirt, pulling me toward her. An involuntary groan escaped me as I slipped my tongue past her lips, testing the waters to see how she would react. She responded with a moan of her own, not only allowing me to deepen the kiss, but brushing her tongue against mine in an expert motion that left me wondering where the hell she learned it.

  “Parker…” Lily gasped as I broke away to trail kisses down her neck. The moment was everything I had ever dreamed about and I wasn’t about to let an opportunity slip by. If she hated me after, I would at least have as many sensations as I could hold on to.

  Lily gripped my shoulders as I hoisted her legs up and wrapped them around my waist. Her back pressed into the green felt as I set her down on the pool table. Her legs remained hooked around me, anchoring my hips to hers and it took every bit of strength I possessed not to lose my ever-loving mind when they bucked into me.

  Her hands dropped to my back pulling me closer, fusing our chests as she tortured me with the slow twist of her tongue. If I had known it would be that good, I would have set aside my pride sooner. Though good was a serious understatement.

  One of my hands drifted to her thigh, gliding up her smooth skin toward her hip before bringing it back to her knee. As much as I wanted to take the act further, I wouldn’t, not with her feelings of hate suspended in the air. I wouldn’t want to be a regret she had. That would kill me.

  In the distance I heard what sounded like a door slamming. Footsteps. A voice. Definitely a voice.

  “Parker? Lily?”

  We flew apart with impressive speed. Lily pulled down her dress as I wiped a quick hand across my lips and knocked the balls out of the rack. Seconds before my dad entered the room, I grabbed a ball and leaned over pretending that I was setting up for a game of pool.

  My dad stepped through the door and stopped. “There you guys are. I’ve been calling your names.”

  “Dad.” I dropped the eight ball and forced a smile. “You’re here early.”

  I shot Lily a wary glance praying she wouldn’t totally give us away. The deep flush in her cheeks and the way she kept fidgeting told me we would be dead if my dad took a closer look.

  “Yeah, we wrapped up early and I figured I might as well head up. This way we have all Saturday on the water. Plus, I have a surprise.” He made his way to the bar, not giving us a second glance.

  And why would he? As far as he was concerned we were friends who drifted apart. Not hormonal teenagers who had been dangerously close to breaking every rule he had laid out for me. A big one being don’t mess around in his house.

  Thus, the bed of the pickup truck.

  “I felt bad that I left you guys hanging. It couldn’t have been too much fun holed up here alone.”

  “Dad, we aren’t kids anymore. We have a car and you sent plenty of money. We had fun. Don’t feel bad.”

  Lily’s face darkened, and she hid it with a brush of her hair.

  “I get it. I still felt bad for bailing so I talked to Hunter and told him to invite some of your friends for a party tomorrow night. Might as well break the place in, right?”

  “A party? Here? Really?” My dad had never been big on parties. He said they were a waste of time.

  “Why not? After this week you’ll be so deep into swimming practice you won’t have time.”

  There it was.

  Little did my dad know I had no plans to follow through with his body-breaking schedule.

  “I talked to your mom, Lily. She called Madison and invited her, but if you have anyone else in mind feel free. There’s plenty of room.

  “Okay. Yeah. Sure.” Lily kept her gaze fused to the ground and my dad shot her a curious look before pouring a glass of scotch.

  “You guys breaking in the pool table?”

  I nearly choked on a laugh. Yeah, we were just not in the way he meant. Lily bit down on her lip and glanced in my direction. Her face was beet red. I had to get her out of there before she gave us away. But before I could speak, she made a swift exit.

  “I’m going to go call Madison, see when she’ll be up here,” she called over her shoulder.

  Of course she ditched me. I groaned internally and leaned up against the bar.

  “A party, huh? Since when are you big on parties?”

  “I just thinking that you missed your birthday this year due to district tournaments and since school and swimming will take up most of your senior year, I figured why not have a bash while we’re up here. This house could use some fun—it’s been years.”

  Yeah, I had missed my birthday but not because of the tournament. My birthday fell on a Sunday but my dad was so hell-bent on keeping my diet and practice on schedule he wouldn’t even let me have a small kick-back. I was practically a prisoner and I couldn’t wait to graduate and get the hell out.

  “That’s nice, Dad. I’m sure everyone will love to have a few days on the lake.”

  My dad nodded and took a sip of his drink. “So, how have the last few days been? Sorry I couldn’t get the boat out for you but at least you had the Jet Skis. Lily doing okay?”

  “Everything is fine, Dad. We took the skis out one day and have just kind of been chillin’. The shore has been crowded so we’ve avoided it.”

  “You break in the new hot tub?”

  “Uh-huh.” If I hadn’t run away from Lily, I would have broken it in a hell of a lot better. I tossed the triangle in the middle of the table and scooped up the balls, praying that this conversation would come to an end.

  “Lily has grown up to be quite a young lady.”

  “Young lady?” I winced. “Please. Don’t.”

  “I talked to Ms. Holladay before I left. Did you know that not only is she on the honor roll, but she regularly volunteers at the animal shelter and the children’s ward in the hospital? She brings in books and reads to them. I tell ya, that girl has always been too sweet for her own good. The kind of girl you should keep an eye out for in college.”

  Yup, the conversation definitely needed to end. Not only did I know all those things about her, because I had in fact kept tabs on my ex-friend’s life, but how could I explain that I wouldn’t be looking for a girl like Lily when all I wanted was her. No replacements. No carbon copies. I wanted Lily and judging from her reaction, she wanted me too. It might have been clouded in hate, but I could work with that.

  So I said what I always said when my dad brought up girls. “I’m not getting married, Dad. Not for a long time.”

  “Of course.” He waved away my statement and filled up his glass again. “Just want you to keep an eye out. Your mother isn’t here to give her blessings so I get to dole out all the wisdom she would have. And your mother adored Lily.”

  Ice filled my veins. I hated when he talked about her like that
. Four years had passed, but I didn’t need him reminding me that she wouldn’t be around to gush about my girlfriends. Thus the reason I had stuck to a strictly non-serious relationship MO.

  “What time did Hunter say he would be up?”

  “Hmm? Oh.” My dad blinked out of a daze and focused on me. “He said late afternoon. If there are any other kids you know up here, invite them. I’ll go early and get stuff for the grill.”

  “Sounds good.” I gave him a fake smile and made my way to the door. “See you tomorrow.”

  A party with my dad sounded like hell on earth. A party with my dad, Hunter, and a bunch of classmates that would no doubt find a way to reverse all the progress I had made with Lily… That sounded like the freaking apocalypse relationship addition.

  “You’re such a bitch you realize that?” I caught the bag of marshmallows Madison tossed my way and stepped back as she climbed out of her beat-up Civic.

  “Oh, you love me.”

  “You left me stranded here with no lifeline. A return text would have been nice. That’s what best friends are supposed to do.”

  Madison grinned as she popped her trunk. “And a best friend is also supposed to make you realize when you’re being an idiot. Which you are. Judging from those texts, I know for a fact that you have a thing for Mr. Next-Door Hottie.”

  “You mean the text that begged you to come get me because he’s an asshole? Makes sense, Maddy.”

  “Uh, no.” Madison hoisted a bag way too big for one night onto her shoulder. “I’m judging that based on you throwing yourself at him in the hot tub. Supper classy by the way.”

  “Screw you.” I shoved her, but she just laughed.

  I failed to mention the whole make-out sesh the night before, mostly because I still didn’t understand it and I knew she would glow as if I had told her that unicorns existed. It was bad best friend protocol that I didn’t immediately call her, but I didn’t know what to say. One minute we were yelling and accusing each other of being jealous and the next Parker’s lips were everywhere and I was tempted to rip off his shirt and feel his muscles without the pretense of a Jet Ski.

  And the worse part was, I didn’t mind it. I loved it actually. I didn’t wake up regretting or hating him. I woke up with a knot in my stomach because if his dad hadn’t walked in when he did, we would have given the screws on that pool table a test run that I’m sure they didn’t account for at the factory.

  “Uh…hello?” Madison waved her hand in front of my face. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

  Not at all. I cringed. “No. Sorry.”

  “You feeling okay?” She pressed her hand to my forehead, but I batted it away.

  “I’m fine. What did you say?”

  “I said that you might want to find Parker and tell him to go with the whole dating thing tonight. I know you said he called it off, but Hunter will be here and Hunter isn’t going to let it go.”

  “Oh. Right. Yeah, I’ll find him before everyone gets here. Thanks for coming early by the way.”

  “Duh.” She started walking toward the house and I fell in line beside her. “It gives me more time to get dolled up. Who knows what kind of eye candy there will be?”

  “It’s pretty much the same people we’ve gone to school with since elementary.”

  “Eww, not them. The guys at the beach. I plan on finding my own hottie since I’m assuming you’ll be ditching me for a piece of Parker pie.”

  I stumbled and struggled against a laugh. Egging her on was always a bad idea. “Dear God, Madison, where do you come up with this stuff?”

  She shrugged and sent me a mischievous smile as we stepped into the house. “Where am I unloading at?”

  “You can bunk with me.” I pointed to the bedroom and took the grocery bag she had. “I’ll put this stuff in the kitchen.

  Madison winked before heading off in the direction I pointed her. I hung back and surveyed the area. One additional thing I forgot to mention to her…I had been avoiding Parker since the kiss, which had become increasingly difficult when his dad seemed to be all over us trying to get us to do group outings. I had already spent all morning alone on the shore with earbuds in praying for no run-ins with Jayden or Milo.

  We still needed to talk about the whole thing, but I preferred to do it without his dad hanging around, not to mention a houseful of schoolmates.

  Madison was right though. I should mention the dating dare sooner rather than later. We would have to dust it off for the party to be safe. I only hoped that didn’t lead to a talk about the kiss because I was nowhere near ready to talk about it.

  It was great and hot and made my knees weak. But he was still Parker, my sworn enemy. A boy who hated me nearly as much as I hated him. Hated being past tense. Over the past few days those feelings of revulsion had lessened. They were not completely gone but enough that I could think of him in another way.

  I tossed the grocery bag on the counter, so absorbed in my thoughts I didn’t hear the footsteps behind me. Bad trait of mine.

  “Hey.”

  I jumped and spun around almost dropping the container of potato salad. “Parker. Hey.” My heart did a cartwheel forcing me to concentrate on keeping my thoughts off my face. I had a bad habit of being transparent when something was on my mind. Especially with Parker.

  “I didn’t mean to scare you. Madison said you needed help putting away groceries…” His gaze landed on the one reusable bag on the counter and his eyebrows shot up.

  Freaking Madison. Of course she said that.

  “Oh, no. I got it.”

  Parker nodded, his eyes lingering on my face for a couple of extra seconds before turning to leave.

  “Wait.” He halted and turned to face me. It might have been my own apprehension, but I could have sworn he looked nervous, which made me more nervous. “Um…Madison—she brought up a good point about Hunter being here.”

  “What about Hunter?” Something passed through Parker’s eyes with such speed, there and gone in an instant, that I was left thrown.

  “Well…the whole dare thing. I know you said to drop it, but maybe it would be a good idea to pretend it was still going? I don’t want to make a scene.”

  Parker crossed his arms over his chest and damn if it the fabric didn’t groan from how tight it pulled over his muscles. “You want to pretend to date me again?”

  “Just for tonight. You know…keep the peace.”

  “Okay.” He could not have sounded more disinterested. “Is that all you wanted to talk about?”

  My traitorous eyes dipped to his lips. Talking was no longer what I had in mind. What I wanted was to throw him on the counter and give the pool table a run for its money. But that would have to wait until we had talked about what the kiss even meant. Judging from his face—absolutely nothing.

  “Yeah.”

  “Sure, Holladay. I’ll be your stand-in boyfriend for the night. Just let me know what you need.”

  “Whatever. Sure. Just be nice and agree if people ask about the dare.”

  “Okay.

  “Okay. Cool.” I rolled the container of potato salad in my hands, savoring the cold on my sweaty hands.

  “Is that it?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Parker nodded his head and left me standing there wallowing in my own mortification. I just asked the guy who clearly hadn’t given our kiss a second thought if he would pretend to be my boyfriend for the night. Perfect. Awesome. Not desperate at all.

  On second thought, maybe I wouldn’t bring up the kiss. If he cared to talk about it he could bring up. I would just work on forgetting it. Although even as those words formed in my head, so did the memory of his lips on mine and how he stole my breath with a simple touch.

  Stupid Parker.

  “Come on, Lily. I want to go out on the boat with the boys.”

  “Then go.” I took in her upside-down form as I let my hands fall off the bed and brush the carpet.

  I had pretty much hidden in my bedroom
most of the afternoon so I could avoid Parker. It worked to my advantage as Madison unpacked and modeled the outfits she brought for the party insisting I pick the best one. But once she got word that Parker’s dad was taking him and Hunter out on the boat, she got antsy.

  There were a few hours until everyone else arrived. Apparently, Hunter invited a good percentage of our class and several girls he met on the shore. I should have been mad, but it would just mean more bodies to separate Parker and me. He agreed, but I wasn’t sure how well I would do pretending to be his girlfriend. Not after everything. And so I planned to hide out in my room until the coast was clear.

  “I don’t want to go without you,” Madison pouted.

  “I’ve had enough of the water. You go and it will give me time to get ready for the party.

  Total lie. It’s not like I brought anything for a party since I hadn’t planned on one. And there was no way in hell I was going to wear one of Madison’s outfits. I had enough of that after Hunter’s.

  “Ugh, fine! Just know you suck as a best friend.”

  “Love you too.” I blew her a kiss as she stormed out. Five minutes on the water with shirtless Hunter and Parker and she would get over it.

  Relief turned sour in my stomach as I pictured her flirting with Parker. She said she was over it and that he was all mine, but the girl loved to flirt. Me not being there would give her an opening. She might even do it just to force me to admit I liked him.

  The thought hit me like a lightning bolt.

  Shit. I liked him. As in liked him.

  Damn it. Why did he have to go and make me fall for him again?

  I growled and flipped off the bed. If we were on the boat, I will still be able to avoid Parker and keep an eye on her. With that in mind I made my way to the living room where the boys had been camped out all afternoon entertaining Mr. Hayes with stories of junior year. Well, Hunter was telling the stories and Parker was yelling at him to shut up.

  No one was there. I peeked out the window in time to see Mr. Hayes’s truck turn the corner with the boat attached.