They ran back on to the pitch, each of them looking at the sky in concern. The rain spotted on and off, but the black clouds hovered ominously like a serious storm was coming and the air felt unseasonably muggy.
The game took on a new intensity as it got closer to full time and there was still no score. The ground was becoming a mud bath and there was a distant rumble of thunder.
Matt was playing a strong game in defence, but with only minutes to go the Marlow’s team really stepped up their attack formations.
Kelly went down on her behind for about the tenth time and stood up again with a pronounced limp. As she hobbled to the edge of the pitch, Beth rushed from midfield to try to make up the gap. Then everything happened at once.
The ball came flying down the middle, hotly chased by two Marlow’s players, and Toby, Beth and Matt all ran to help Bryn defend the goal. Beth slipped and slid several yards, crashing straight into Matt. Then the heavens truly opened.
Torrential rain thundered down, making the world disappear in a blur of water. But the only thing that Beth was aware of was Matt, lying in a heap directly underneath her.
She looked down at him in concern, but he laughed back up at her as water streamed off her hair.
“Are you alright?” she spluttered.
“Never better.” He pushed his hands up into her hair, cupped the back of her head, and pulled her face down. Her lips met his and she knew she would always associate the sound, smell and taste of the rain with the first time she and Matt kissed.
After a long magical moment where they simply clung together in the heat of the kiss, there came the shrill blast of the final whistle and Beth reluctantly raised her head.
The Marlow’s team were cheering and slapping each other on the back, and the ball was wedged firmly in the back of the goal.
“Oh dear, I think we just lost the game.” Beth tried to get up off the grass, but Matt pulled her back down.
“I don’t care,” he said. “We might have lost the game, but I think I just won the girl.”
Chapter Thirty-seven
PAIGE STOOD IN FRONT of the full-length mirror in her bedroom and ran a critical eye over her outfit. “This skirt is too short,” she grumbled.
Beth looked up from the bed, where she was sitting cross-legged flicking through Paige’s sketch pad. “Don’t be silly, you look very respectable. It’s literally only just above the knee. Quite suitable for a party.”
Paige sighed, “I wish you were coming. I won’t know anyone there except Leo and Rose, and Toby of course.”
Beth grinned. “Then you’ll just have to talk to Toby, won’t you?”
“Let’s not go over this again.” Paige blushed. “I’m not going to date Toby. He’s your ex-boyfriend, and besides, I don’t think he likes me that way. It was Rose and Leo who insisted I come to their engagement party, not Toby.”
“He does like you that way, he told me.”
Paige spun round. “What? When?”
Beth waved a hand languidly, clearly enjoying herself. “Relax, it was only yesterday, during football practice. He even suggested I should kiss Matt, so I did.”
“Holy moley, Beth! You did what? Why haven’t you told me any of this? Tell me about you and Matt – no, tell me about Toby first. No, forget that, I don’t want to know about Toby, whatever he might have said. Tell me about Matt.”
Beth laughed. “I’m not going to tell you a thing about Matt unless you take me seriously about Toby. I mean it, I want you to get together with him; you have my absolute blessing. Plus I’m not sure that Matt is going to be very comfortable until Toby moves on either. So please, will you just give Toby a break already? At least just admit that you like him?”
Paige threw up her hands in surrender. “All right already – yes, I like him. I daydream about him constantly, but I genuinely don’t think he thinks of me in the same way. What did he say?”
“Just that he likes you and wondered if you liked him back.”
“Oh geez, what did you tell him?”
“I told him that you were crazy about him, but staying away out of some silly misplaced loyalty to me.”
Paige shrieked in horror, “You did not!”
“If you say so. But he does like you, so you should go for it.”
“But what did you tell him?” Paige persisted.
Beth looked innocent. “Just what I said. Now, do you want to hear about me and Matt kissing today or what?”
PAIGE STOOD NERVOUSLY outside the Lower Hall of Compass Court and listened to the sounds of the private party going on inside. Leo and Rose had hired it from the school for an unofficial engagement party with all their friends, but most of the people there were from Year Thirteen, the year above Paige. She would have said no, except she had to bring the cake.
Leo had secretly commissioned her to make an engagement cake as a surprise for Rose. It was a single tier cake, with a sugar work top shaped to look like an artists paint palette. Both Leo and Rose were passionate about art, and the subject had played a hand in getting them together.
Paige shifted the large cardboard cake box in her hands and then pushed open the door to the party. She would drop off the cake and then slip away, she decided.
The plan went straight out the window as Rose spotted her immediately.
“Paige! I’m so glad you came. Please tell me you didn’t bring a gift?” Rose looked at the box Paige was holding.
“Actually, I asked Paige to bring this.” Leo appeared by her side. He lifted the lid and then gave a broad smile. “You could say it’s my gift to you Rose, or to us. Thank you, Paige, this is perfect.”
Rose peered into the box and then clapped her hands in pleasure. “That’s so beautiful, thank you so much!”
“I’m glad you like it,” Paige handed it over to Leo who took it to a buffet table and set it right in the centre. “And congratulations to you both.”
“Thank you.” Rose smiled at her, clearly filled with love and happiness at the official announcement of their engagement. “You look like you want to go, but you will stay won’t you? At least for a short while? As a favour to me?”
Paige rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “If you insist.”
“I do,” Rose assured her strongly.
Ten minutes later Paige found herself sitting with Leo, watching people dance.
“So, when are you going to let Toby off the hook for whatever he’s done?” Leo asked her.
Paige turned brick red “But he hasn’t done anything,” she said.
“Ah.” Leo nodded. “That must be the problem then.” He winked at her and Paige laughed.
“Stop it, there’s nothing between Toby and me, okay? There never has been and there never will be.”
“I’m devastated to hear it.” Toby’s voice said from over her shoulder, and Paige turned even redder.
“Can I have your chair?” Toby asked Leo, who replied “With pleasure,” winked at her again and disappeared into the crowd.
Paige cringed with embarrassment as Toby moved into Leo’s place. He coughed and looked a bit embarrassed himself, but he pulled his chair even closer, creating some intimacy for their conversation.
“Hello, Paige. Will there really never be anything between us? Because I have it on good authority that you’re crazy about me.”
Paige closed her eyes and wished the floor would swallow her up whole. “Oh no, I can’t believe she actually did say that – I thought she was just teasing me. I’ll kill her when I see her.”
“So is that a yes or a no?” Toby persisted.
Paige cast a wild look around at the crowd and dumbly shook her head.
Toby correctly read the look and picked up her hand, leading her out of the party into the empty corridor outside.
“Paige, look at me,” he said as she leaned against the wall of the dim corridor and stared down at her shoes.
“Do you like me, even a little bit?”
“Yes, of course I do,” she mumbled.
/>
He started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” she asked, feeling nervous.
“I’m just remembering when we first met. You were so confident when it came to cooking, and I was a wreck. I thought you were smug and far too perfect to be real. But I’ve seen a whole new side to you recently and now I’m the one having to be the traditional man and do all the chasing.”
Paige smiled shyly, remembering their conversation about the roles of men and women, comparing themselves to their parents.
“I like you being traditional,” she said.
“Good, in that case I’m going to man up and kiss you, and then we’re going to go back inside and I’m going to tell Rose that you’ve agreed to be my girlfriend and really make her night. Is that okay with you?”
Paige thought about it for a long moment. Beth was okay with it, and Toby definitely did like her. He was a good guy too; he’d become a genuine friend despite her trying to keep him at arm’s length. And all that time they had spent together cooking, even when they were barely talking, she had been happy. Properly happy.
Paige grinned and nodded, then closed her eyes as Toby bent his head and kissed her.
The End
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Also by Stella Wilkinson
Blue River Boys
The Boyfriend Plot
Kiss Me Confused
The Fake Valentine
Game, Set, Mismatch
The Flirting Games Series
The Flirting Games Trilogy, Books 1 - 3
The Flirting Games
More Flirting Games
Further Flirting Games
Good @ Games
Flirting with Friends
Best Frenemies
Boy Girl Games
The Flirting Games Books 1 - 8
Standalone
A Christmas Gift
Crazy May
Boy Girl Games Page 15
