“Congratulations,” he said.
“For what?”
“Winning queen,” he said.
Duh. I should have known that. Was that why he was there? Because I won, and he wished he had, too? That didn’t seem very Cole-like, but there didn’t seem to be any other explanation.
“I voted for you,” he said, his eyes looking away.
What!? “You did? Why?”
Cole’s cheeks turned a touch pink. “I wanted you to win.”
“You’re probably the only one.”
“Apparently not.” I forgot. As far as he knew, a ton of people voted for me.
We didn’t say anything for a minute, we just danced. But I couldn’t really enjoy it. There was still something pressing on my mind. “What about Jaydin? She’s going to be angry that you’re dancing with me. I’m not exactly her favorite person.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
I waited for him to explain.
“We broke up,” he said.
Was I his consolation prize because his girlfriend dumped him? Would he go running back to her if she changed her mind? “Oh.” Cole didn’t go into detail about what happened, but I needed to know. “Why?”
“I didn’t like the way she talked to Max . . . or about you.” He looked right at me and gave me one of his amazing lopsided grins. “But I thought it was pretty cool the way you came to Max’s defense.”
Suddenly everything made sense. Cole and Jaydin didn’t look super intense when they were dancing because they were expressing their love for each other. It was because they were breaking up.
I smiled back at him. “I’m really sorry for the way I’ve been acting.”
“It was weird. One minute you were carving into my tree, the next you wouldn’t even speak to me.”
This time I knew I was the one with the pink cheeks. He had to go and mention the tree? I couldn’t look at him. “I got embarrassed after you saw the initials. I realized it may have been too much too soon.”
“Maybe a little,” he said. “But it was kinda cute.”
All that worrying and he thought it was kinda cute!
“And then there was everything going on with my dad, it made me kind of bonkers,” I confessed.
“You could have told me about him,” he said. “I would have understood.”
That’s what he thought. “I know. It’s just complicated.” I glanced down at my feet and then back up at him. “You forgive me?”
He nodded and our eyes locked. My pulse moved to turbo speed and fireworks started exploding in my stomach. Only this time I was able to keep them there as Cole moved in close and finally kissed me.
Shani Petroff is a writer living in New York City. Bedeviled: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Dress is the second book in the Bedeviled series. She also writes for news programs and several other venues. When she’s not locked in her apartment typing away, she spends a whole lot of time on books, boys, TV, daydreaming, and shopping online. She’d love for you to come visit her at www.shanipetroff.com.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Dress Page 14
