Before she could disappear at the end of lunch, I wrapped an arm around her waist, hauled her against me, and kissed her cheek. She seemed flustered and her cheeks flushed a beautiful pink. I liked that look on her, and it just became my mission to do it again and again. After all, a flushing, babbling, blushing Hadley couldn’t keep shooting me down.
Chapter Three
Hadley
How did I end up at the ice cream shop with Tyler? I lapped my tongue against my double scoop of Very Berry Strawberry and watched Tyler like a hawk. I didn’t trust him, especially with that easy, flirtatious smile on his face. If he thought for one moment I was going to fall for the same lines he fed every other girl, he’d better think again. I wasn’t one of those cheerleaders who hung on his every word, or any of the girls on the swim team who giggled every time he was near.
Oh, who was I kidding? The boy could recite words out of the dictionary, and I’d think it was sexy. I had it bad, and no matter how much I pushed him away, that wouldn’t change the way my heart thumped wildly in my chest every time he was near. And I had to admit, the way his eyes smoldered at me, as he licked that vanilla cone, made me shiver in the best of ways.
“You know, if you’re cold, Red, we could go sit outside.”
The smirk on his lips told me he knew exactly why I’d shivered, and it had nothing to do with the air conditioning being cranked to fifty below, and everything to do with his sexy self. Gah! The guy was good; I’d give him that. Here I was, ready to resist, and all I could do was stare like some lovesick calf, no better than any other girl he’d ever dated.
Not that we were dating!
“I’m fine,” I lied.
His lips twitched and he went back to molesting his ice cream cone. Some juniors walked in and noticed us sitting together. I felt like I should get up and move before I ruined his reputation. He seemed to read my mind though, reached across the table, and locked our fingers together. A gentle tug proved he wasn’t letting go and I narrowed my eyes.
The girls paused by our table, giggling like crazy, and I focused on them for a moment. Brittany? Bridget? Heck, I couldn’t even remember the blonde’s name, but I knew it was something with a B. She hadn’t even looked my way, her eyes fastened solely on Tyler. And could I blame her? Mr. Sexy was eating ice cream in a way that was guaranteed to fuel the dreams of every female under the age of fifty.
“Becca, right?” Tyler asked, finally looking up at her.
She giggled again. “I can’t believe you remembered my name.”
Gag!
“You’re on the cheer squad with Bethany, right?”
She nodded eagerly, obviously thinking she was getting somewhere with him. If she’d noticed he was holding hands with me, she didn’t let on. Or maybe she only saw and heard what she wanted to see and hear. Becca had been standing by our table for at least two minutes now, and she still hadn’t even acknowledged my presence. Talk about rude!
“I can’t wait for Friday’s game,” she gushed. “I bet you score the winning touchdown.”
“If I do, it will be because my good luck charm is sitting in the stands.” He fastened that molten gaze on me again. “You will be there, won’t you, baby?”
Baby?
“I’m sorry. Are you two…” Becca trailed off, her eyes wide as if she couldn’t believe what she’d just heard.
Something inside of me snapped. I was tired of being seen as inferior, of lacking the female wiles to attract a guy like Tyler. Sure, I was a band geek, but I was every bit as pretty as Becca and her gang of giggling idiots, wasn’t I? If anything Tyler had said or done today was to be believed, then I was attractive to the male population.
“You know I wouldn’t miss it.” I smiled at him, leaning across the table a bit. “You are going to win the game for me, aren’t you?”
The laughter in his eyes was enough reward, but the steam coming out of Becca’s ears was way better. She didn’t even bother saying bye. She just stomped her foot like some irritated horse, made this weird huffing sound, then stormed off in the opposite direction, apparently forgetting the ice cream they’d come in for to begin with.
“That was pretty good, Red. I almost believed you.”
“What makes you think I didn’t mean it? Because if I have to sit on those hard ass bleachers, you’d better win the game. I’m not sitting there, letting my butt go numb, just to watch the team lose and hear the fans boo and hiss you off the field.”
“You come to the game, and I promise to do everything I can to win it for you.”
I eyed him over my ice cream as I took another lick. “Why do you want this so badly? I mean, you could ask any girl in the high school to go out with you. Why would you pick me? It isn’t like we were childhood playmates, or middle school sweethearts that went wrong. You’ve barely spoken to me since our first day of school when we were four.”