Now, Fred Brown expected to see me at the tournament on Saturday. It was official. I had to tell Gabriel the truth. If he ever got here...
Spinning around on my heels, my stomach about dropped to the floor when I saw a familiar figure walking into the club. He wore a dark gray sweatshirt with the hood pulled up tight around his face and the remnants of raindrops all over his head. As soon as he cleared the entryway, his blue-eyed gaze landed on me and he took confident strides in my direction. I closed my eyes briefly, praying for a last surge of confidence.
I was going to need everything I had.
“Hey.” I opened my eyes and tried my best to smile at him. “Thanks for meeting me. I wasn’t sure if you got my note.”
“Sure.” He nodded and then walked straight past me to look at the board. “I like the look of this.”
“Yeah, me, too.” I glanced over at my secret name printed beside his head. It was now or never. This was the time, even if my stomach felt heavier than a cannon ball.
“Should be a good game,” he said, bending closer to look at his name printed on the wall.
“Yeah, about that. It’s actually why I wanted to meet.”
“Don’t tell me you want a piece of the cash prize when I win.” He chuckled and then scrubbed a hand over the beginnings of his beard.
I pulled back, slightly enraged by the very suggestion. I’d never even mentioned the prize. Why would he make such an accusation? I hoped Gabriel knew me enough by now to know that I wasn’t interested in stuff like that.
Maybe in preparing myself for this big reveal I’d become extra sensitive. I was just touchy. In need of a bite of chocolate, as Lexi would say. With a calming breath, I smiled at the side of his face and tried to brush off my irritation.
“No, that’s not why I wanted to talk. I actually wanted to confess something before it comes out. It’s something I did. And something I’ve been keeping from you.” I swallowed, doing my best to keep my words straight in my head. I’d rehearsed this a million times in front of my mirror at home last night, but now it was all coming out in a rambling mess. “Before we get into any of that, I just want to say that I am so very sorry. This was all before I knew you. When I thought you were like Michael. And before we kissed. Twice.”
“He kissed you?” His chin snapped up and he glared at me with cold, dark eyes. “Are you serious?”
A wave of cold water washed over me as I searched his face straight on. The hoodie had done a good job obscuring it when he wasn’t looking at me, but now it was all too clear that the scar was missing, along with all of the soft mannerisms that I’d come to recognize in the boy I’d fallen for. This wasn’t Gabriel.
“Michael.” I breathed out his name like a curse.
His lips twitched in a cruel smile. “Bingo, baby. Guess you got the wrong locker and the wrong twin. Lucky you.”
My stomach convulsed with disgust as he looked me up and down with cold disinterest. I could’ve sworn I’d put the note into Gabriel’s locker, but they were assigned by alphabetical order, so it wouldn’t have been impossible to mistakenly get Michael’s locker instead. I wrapped my arms around my torso, the same old dislike for the boy in front of me bubbling up into my esophagus like a bad case of food poisoning.
“You could’ve done the decent thing and passed the note on to the rightful owner,” I snapped.
He leaned his elbow on the bulletin board and smirked. “True, but then I would’ve missed this lovely confession. What were you about to tell me? I’m sure my brother would be very interested to know that you have a secret.”
I could feel the blood drain from my face. My hands shook slightly as I grasped the hem of my sweatshirt. I’d just been about to confess everything to my tormentor. What would’ve happened if he’d found out before Gabriel? I never would’ve recovered from that. And Gabriel never would’ve forgiven me.
“Nothing,” I lied, taking a step back. “It was nothing.”
His eyebrow rose. “Really? Didn’t sound like nothing.”
“Just that...I’m sorry if my friends give him the evil eye when we go to the dance this weekend because of all the times I’ve complained about him,” I said, my brain moving quickly to get Michael off my back. There was no way I was confessing this to him. Not with the predatory way he was looking at me.
His lips pressed into a disbelieving smirk, but he remained silent. With the slight tilt of his head, he redirected his gaze toward the bulletin board and his name printed there. “Looks good, right? It’s too bad for you that I’m going to win on Saturday and put a damper on your stupid dance.”
I bristled at his claim, my nostrils flaring. “There’s no way you’re going to win, so I don’t even have to worry about it.”
He laughed. “And who’s going to beat me? Gabriel? If he’s too distracted to see through you and your lies, then he definitely won’t be focused enough to beat his own brother. Nice try, but it’s never going to happen. I’ve got big plans for that prize money and no one’s going to stand in my way.”
I wanted to lash out at him. To stand up for Gabriel and myself and put Michael in his place. But I remained silent, using every bit of strength left inside of me to simply glare at Michael as he smirked at me one last time and then headed toward the door. Along the way, he turned and walked backwards, making a kissing motion in my direction. I had the instant desire to scrub off the invisible kiss from my cheek.
How could I be falling for a boy related to that? I shook my head, wondering what had happened to make Michael so very different from his sweet and kind twin brother. Had he been dropped on his head as a child? Or maybe all the decent genes went to Gabriel. Whatever had happened, it was a medical mystery.
With Michael finally gone, I leaned against the wall, feeling all of the energy leave my body at once. That had been utterly exhausting. Not only had I not ended up confessing to Gabriel, but I’d nearly outed myself to his brother. What a terrible mistake that would’ve been.
The only thing left to do was tell Gabriel tomorrow after we presented our project in anatomy class. It couldn’t wait any longer than that. The truth would finally be out and then Gabriel could do what he wanted with it.
Even if that meant he never wanted to see me again.
Chapter Nineteen
“Is it too late to transfer schools?”
I stared hopelessly at the entrance to anatomy class, Lexi and Charlotte standing on either side of me. They were both watching me with pity in their eyes. They knew what came after this class. The big confession that I’d almost made to the wrong person yesterday. It had come time to make amends.
“Too late, sister,” Lexi said, prodding me gently with her elbow. “Go get your man.”
“He’s not my man. Not until he knows the whole truth and forgives me.”
I bit down hard on my bottom lip. The truth was always better than lying. It was something my mom had taught me as a young kid. I wished I’d followed that mantra from the beginning, but I knew she’d tell me that it was still better to fess up in the end. It would cleanse my soul from the burden of keeping this secret.
“Speaking of your man.” Charlotte nodded in the direction of the hallway.
Gabriel had just turned the corner, wearing a pair of khaki pants and a pink fitted polo. He looked amazing. We’d both agreed to dress up for our presentation and I’d worn the only dress in my closet—a simple black cotton dress with purple tights and a pair of boots I’d borrowed from the clothes my sister had left behind. As I stared at him walking towards us, my gaze went immediately to his scar. After my brush with Michael last night, I couldn’t help feeling a little suspicious of that extremely handsome face. But it was totally unnecessary, because when his eyes met mine, his whole face lit up in a way Michael’s never could.
“Hey.” He strolled to a stop in front of us, his gaze never leaving mine. “Ready for this?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” I gulped, knowing that Gabriel and I were talking about tw
o different things.
“Good luck,” Lexi whispered before she headed toward her own class.
The three of us remaining walked into Mr. Hart’s classroom and Gabriel and I took our seats at our desk. The whole class was buzzing with excitement and nerves. My attention darted around the room, taking in the sights of the other kids checking their notes and computer slides.
A hand tentatively touched mine beneath the desk and fire shot up my arm. I tore my gaze back to Gabriel, who gave me a sexy smile that made my stomach quiver, as he lightly caressed my palm.
“You look really pretty,” he said in a low voice.
I laughed nervously. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to get used to his compliments. “Thanks. You do, too.” He grinned harder as I blushed and backpedaled. “I mean, you look really nice.”
“Thanks.” He bit his lip in a way that had me staring at the gorgeous curve of his mouth. “Any chance you want to skip next period and just go make out backstage the whole time?”
That really made my face heat. I stuttered out a nonsensical response while he just grinned at me in that maddeningly cute way of his.
“I’m not sure I got that,” he said, squeezing my hand.
I cleared my throat, willing it to work properly. “Actually, yeah, let’s meet backstage after class.”
His eyebrows about disappeared into his hairline. “Really? I mean, I was just joking about the whole making out thing, but if you’re into it...”
Oops. That was so not what I meant. I coughed, my throat suddenly dry. “Actually, I have something I wanted to talk to you about after class.”
“Oh, okay.” The right side of his mouth quirked in a slight grin. “I suppose we can table the whole making out thing...for now.”
The seductive way he was looking at me was going to sap me of all the strength I had left. I would’ve liked nothing more than to meet backstage with only the intention of kissing Gabriel as much as I wanted. But that wasn’t what I’d set out to do today. At least, not until he knew the whole truth and had forgiven me. Hopefully.
With a gulp, I tore my gaze away and focused on getting my computer ready for our presentation. Everything was there: the video clips of the game, the slides we’d used to demonstrate the body’s movements in hockey. It was weird to think that this whole anatomy project had kind of been the thing to ruin my ultimate payback plan. Not that I cared. If not for this project, I probably never would’ve known what a great guy Gabriel was—and what a mistake catfishing him had been.
“Everyone ready to present?” Mr. Hart said as he strolled into the room with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand. He wore a massive grin, even as half of the class groaned into their hands. Looking down at his list, he tapped a finger on his chin. “Hmmm...let’s pick a random victim, shall we? Gabriel and Beth, why don’t you go first?”
A jolt of nervousness went through me. Normally, I wasn’t so worried about giving a class presentation, but this one was so different. We both scrambled out of our chairs and to the front of the room before plugging in my computer to the smart board projector. The beginning of our presentation was a clip of Gabriel’s game. I took a spot next to him off to the side of the classroom as he darkened the lights and the footage rolled. A little bit of heat darted up my arm when he brushed his pinky finger against mine. At first, I thought it was just an accident, but then he did it again. It was a good thing the room was darkened, because I was pretty sure my face was turning beet red.
His gaze shot to mine and he shot me a quick smile before returning his attention to the classroom. I would’ve been lost in that sensation of him secretly touching me, if my gaze hadn’t landed on Michael sitting in the second row, his cold eyes trained solidly on me. There was a conspiratorial tilt to his mouth, as if he knew something I didn’t. It was unnerving. I shifted slightly away from Gabriel, putting a few inches between us, so Michael would focus somewhere else. My eyes flitted toward Charlotte sitting in the front, where she gave me a thumbs up.
At least someone in the audience was on my side.
The shot ended and Gabriel hit the light switch again, the florescent light filling the classroom with an unnatural glow. He brushed by me on his way to the computer, leaving my whole body tingling.
“So, as you’ve seen, we decided to focus our project on hockey and how the human body adjusts to the rigor and stress of the sport,” I managed to eek out in a decibel a little higher than normal for me.
“You’re just trying to get on my good side so I give you an automatic A,” Mr. Hart said with a wink. He’d grabbed a spot next to Charlotte’s desk and was busy writing on his clipboard.
Gabriel chuckled next to me, the sound of his low laughter sending another warm tickling sensation down my spine. “Does that mean we’re already done here?”
“Not yet.” Mr. Hart made a circle motion in the air with his finger. “Keep going and we’ll see about that A.”
That was right. One battle at a time. We both wanted this A.
With a deep breath, I dove into our presentation about the human body and hockey. When my part was done, I sat back and listened to Gabriel speak. He might not have been a man of many words, but when he did talk, it was powerful. The whole class went deadly quiet. I had a hard time doing anything except for stare at his mouth. It was such a nice mouth. And his teeth were perfectly straight, except for the slight overlap of his bottom teeth. That was a detail I never would’ve noticed, if I hadn’t spent so much time around him lately. I learned a lot more about Gabriel every day.
And how much I’d been misjudging him.
Gabriel got us to the conclusion part of our presentation, in which we showed the footage from one of the fights that I’d filmed. I liked the way his blue eyes lit up as he watched the screen. He might not have been going to college for hockey next year, but there was no doubt that that boy loved the game. And I loved that it had brought us together.
“And that’s why hockey is no game for sissies.” Gabriel ended with a good-natured laugh that probably shocked everyone in this room—including me. Talking was one thing. Laughing in front of the entire class was another. He was usually the steady, calm one with the extreme poker face.
A smattering of applause started as people got over their shock. We’d nailed our presentation. I grinned at Gabriel, feeling light-hearted for the first time in the past two days. No matter what my worries were, no matter how much I was dreading spilling the beans to him, I couldn’t resist his good mood. It was infectious. Even Mr. Hart was smiling.
“All right, all right, you get your A+,” he said, making a mark on his clipboard. “And that’s not even because of the hockey. It was just that good. Next up, the other Corrigan twin, Michael, and his partner Everett.”
An A+ on our project was like an omen—an omen that things were going to be fine between Gabriel and me. No matter what.
Suddenly, I wasn’t feeling so nervous anymore. One battle over and won. Gabriel went to sit back down at the desk as I unhooked my laptop from the projector. Our gazes met and I had to smile. He had the softest gleam in his eyes, like he just knew this was a good sign. I tucked my laptop under my arm and made a move toward him, when a shoulder bumped hard into mine.
“Watch where you’re going, Frye,” Michael whispered as I faltered. He held a laptop in his arms, his eyes sparkling with cruelty. Had I been a smaller person, that hit wouldn’t knocked me to the ground. Still, it was going to leave a bruise. He always had to be a jerk. Glaring hard at him, I turned to make my way up to my desk.
“Are you okay?” Gabriel asked as I took my seat. I nodded at him, resisting the urge to rub my hand on my injury. He already looked worried enough. “I’m sorry, Beth. After class, I’ll tell him once and for all to leave you alone.”
“It’s fine,” I murmured. Really, today of all days, I didn’t need to deal with the Michael drama. There were plenty of other things to worry about. “Thanks, though.”
I reached under the desk and grab
bed his hand. He squeezed it tight and then laced his fingers through mine. Inhaling deeply, I tried my best to push out all the bad with the comforting scent of Gabriel’s cologne. It seemed to be working. Already, my anxiety was coming back down.
“Just a second, need to get this plugged in,” Michael said from the front of the class as Everett stood nearby, looking ready to puke.
The kid was seriously bad at public speaking. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he let Michael talk the entire time. Not that Michael needed encouragement to talk. Getting him to shut up was the trick.
Immediately, Michael’s screen appeared on the smart board. As Gabriel gently massaged the back of my hand with his thumb, Michael’s eyes found mine and his face lit up with a haughty grin. “We’ve got some footage to show, too. With sound. I think you’ll like it. Hold up.”
Everett hit the lights and suddenly there was a video playing on the screen. Except, this wasn’t a clip from a sport. That was me, on the screen, standing next to Fred at the club. It had been shot in a vertical screen, as if it’d been recorded with a cell phone.
“Please, call me Fred.” Fred’s voice was kind of faint, as her back was to the camera, but it was still clear enough to understand. “Are you in the gaming tournament?”
I sat up straighter, adrenaline spiking through my veins. That couldn’t be what I thought it was. Me...waiting for Gabriel to show up at the club. Right before I was going to confess everything to him. And right before his horrible brother got in the way.
The camera was too far away to show the nervous expression on my face, but in the film I shifted my feet and shrugged. “Yeah, sort of. I mean, yes. Yes, I am. It’s kind of a secret, actually. No one is supposed to know that I’m playing. But that’s me, right there.”
And then I pointed at the wall—directly at the name CurrerBFighting. My stomach sank as I watched the video. Gabriel’s massaging thumb had frozen on the back of my hand, his grip loosening slightly as he remained glued to the screen.
Dare You to Catfish the Hockey Player (Rock Valley High Book 6) Page 14
