Dating the Quarterback (The Bet Duet Book 2)

by Maggie Dallen

  “Three,” she said with wide eyes. “Do you spoil them?”

  “Of course I do,” I said, feigning insult, which made her smile. I let the silence build as we drew close to the exit. Sure enough, she broke it after a few seconds.

  “I never had siblings. Never wanted any. I definitely didn’t ask for an annoying stepbrother who thinks he’s god’s gift to man.”

  I laughed at her description. “That bad, huh?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “You have no idea.”

  “How long have you been stepsiblings?”

  “A few weeks.”

  “Wow, that’s…” I stopped even trying to find the word. “Wow.”

  “Yeah.” She glanced up at me with a rueful little smirk. “Welcome to my life. I got myself a new town, a new house, a new mom, and a new pain in the butt.” She nodded toward the parking lot where the new guy was strutting toward his car like he didn’t have a care in the world. The way he walked was the exact opposite of Harley’s shuffle through the hallway like she was trying to hide in plain sight. From the little I’d heard of Conner, that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to their differences.

  I wasn’t one to believe the rumors at this school, but everything I’d heard about this guy was rattling around in my skull and it was bad news, all of it.

  “Is he bothering you?” I didn’t even try to hide my anger and she peered up at me like I’d grown another head.

  “Why do you care?”

  I held back a sigh. “You’re doing it again. Answering a question with a question.”

  She grinned and the sight was so sudden it sent a jolt of awareness through me that left me stunned. “Sorry. To answer your question, no…he’s not bothering me. Well, at least, no more than any annoying sibling would, I suppose.”

  I relaxed a bit.

  “You didn’t answer. Why do you care?”

  She was serious. I met her gaze and she didn’t look away. Her big eyes stared back at me like she could see everything. It was unnerving, but so incredibly refreshing. “Because I care about you.”

  She frowned and I knew I’d said the wrong thing. “You don’t know me.”

  “But I’d like to.”

  She shook her head and I could practically see the questions in her eyes. One question, mainly…why? She still didn’t believe that I was serious about this. Her words came back to me from earlier. Everyone had a good laugh.

  At her expense.

  “Look, Harley, you’ve been burned before. I get that. But I’m serious when I say that I’d like to get to know you.” Before she could say it, I beat her to it. “Why? Because you’re different. You’re a breath of fresh air in this school which has felt way too stale for years now.”

  She bit her lip and narrowed her eyes.

  “You’re not like everyone else,” I said. “And that…appeals to me.”

  “So, what, I’m a challenge?”

  I groaned and rolled my eyes up toward the ceiling as I said a silent prayer for patience. “You’re just determined to think the worst of me, huh?”

  When I looked back at her, she’d widened her eyes in surprise and maybe even a little hurt. Well tough, she’d been hurting my feelings, too, ever since we met.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I said, handing over her bookbag so she could go meet her stepbrother. “I’ll be around and maybe eventually you’ll see that you have no reason to be suspicious of me. I don’t want to hurt you, just…” Kiss you. I cleared my throat as the thought took hold and wouldn’t let go. All it would take was moving closer by a few inches. Closing the distance and pulling her into my arms and…driving her away for good.

  She was watching me closely, her gaze heartbreakingly vulnerable.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” I said again. “I just want to get to know you. Maybe we could even be friends.”

  She blinked. “You want to be my friend?”

  No. I wanted to be way more than her friend. But for now…?

  “Yeah, Harley. I want to be your friend.”

  7

  Harley

  Friends. Not a difficult concept to wrap one’s head around…not if one were, say, well-adjusted and used to socializing with others. But that was not me. I was a lone wolf, thank you very much. I didn’t need friends at this new school, and I definitely didn’t want one like Tristan.

  Although, to be fair…he wasn’t what I’d been expecting.

  True to his word, he’d sought me out a few more times throughout the week. Each time was just as bizarre as that conversation in the hallway after art class. I guess maybe I’d thought he’d be turned off after that first conversation. I mean, who brought up their dead mom on a first…well, not date. But first chat. Idle chit-chat did not typically include that level of sharing.

  But he’d shared too, and not only that…he’d seemed to like it. Being honest, talking about something real…

  I’d liked it too.

  One reason I’d avoided friends was because I overheard so many conversations and almost always had to resist the urge to roll my eyes or stifle a yawn. I’d thought all high schoolers did was talk about boys or girls or sports or gossip. None of those topics appealed to me, and I had yet to meet someone who wanted to talk about anything that interested me.

  Until now.

  Janice peeked over the can of paint in front of her as we regarded the blank wall before us. So far she was the only one from art class to volunteer to help, and I was actually glad to have her on board. The girl wasn’t much of an artist, but she was smart and she loved art history so she was now one of two people in this school I actually looked forward to talking to. The other was Tristan but I wasn’t quite ready to admit how much I enjoyed our little chats in the halls when he’d track me down and walk me to class.

  I wasn’t even sure I wanted to acknowledge how much I looked forward to those chats to myself, and there was no way I’d let Tristan know.

  “You’re going for pop art, then. Like Andy Warhol?” she asked.

  “I was thinking more Takashi Murakami,” I said.

  She narrowed her eyes and studied the wall like she was imagining it. “I like it.”

  I smiled over at her. “Think the rest of the school will?”

  She sniffed and pushed her glasses up her nose. “Who cares?”

  I laughed. The more I got to know this girl, the more I liked her. “Good point.”

  In the distance we heard the bell ring. One more period until this epically long, never-ending first week of school would be over.

  “So?” she asked. “What are you doing this weekend?”

  By the sing-songy tone she’d used, I had no doubts about where this conversation was headed.

  “No plans,” I said.

  “Didn’t Tristan ask you out?”

  I cringed because…he had. Janice was the only person I’d told because, as she’d pointed out—who was she going to tell? Besides, she understood. She was too nice to say it, but she was just as weirded out as I was by the star quarterback’s undivided attention.

  “You should go,” she said.

  I rolled my eyes. “Of course you’d say that.”

  She grinned and nudged my shoulder. “Hey, as a lifelong geek who’s spent a lifetime crushing on the guy, do it for me. Take one for the team.”

  “What team is that?”

  “The loser team,” she said. Her smile softened the insult and made me laugh. “Seriously,” she said. “You’re being handed popularity on a platter!” She shook her head, the awe in her voice apparent. “I mean, even the cheerleaders are trying to be your friend.”

  I shook my head with a wince. I should never have told her about how Tara and the other junior cheerleaders had asked me to go to the diner with them tonight.

  Yeah, a diner. Apparently that was what people did around here on nights when there was no football game and no big ragers planned. This was just further proof in my mind that my dad hadn’t just moved us to a new
town but a new decade.

  “I would kill to go to the diner,” Janice said.

  I stopped to face her. “Then why don’t you go?”

  “With whom?” she asked.

  The fact that she used the word whom instead of who? That right there was why I was glad to have this girl as my new…well, I guess I could say it.

  Friend.

  Huh. Would you look at that? I’d gone and made a friend in my first week of school.

  “Sorry, Janice, but I have no desire to go to the diner,” I said.

  “Not even to spend a little more time with Tristan O’Hottie?” she teased.

  I smothered a laugh and shook my head. For the record, I’d never called him that. Only Janice called him that as far as I knew, and she said it in a sing-song voice that was kind of hilarious. “Please don’t call him that,” I said.

  She grinned. “Don’t avoid the question,” she said. One thing Janice and Tristan had in common—the only thing—was their insistence that I answer their questions directly and stop evading by throwing questions back at them. Honestly, I hadn’t even realized I had that tendency, but neither of them let it slide. It was annoying.

  Yes, because people wanting to know what you’re thinking is so very wrong.

  Oddly enough, that voice in my head sounded suspiciously like Conner. The two of us had definitely been spending too much time together this week. Understandably, I supposed, since we lived together, but still… At what point had he become my voice of reason?

  I shuddered at the thought.

  “You can admit you like him, you know,” Janice said.

  I shot her a glare that made her grin widen.

  “Seriously. I know I haven’t made it a secret that I’ve had a crush on him for forever but I swear I won’t go all Single White Female on you just because he likes you and not me.”

  The fact that she referenced an obscure nineties thriller like it was totally commonplace? This was another reason why Janice was my friend.

  “You can admit it,” she said again, this time her eyes were wide and earnest.

  I sighed. “There’s nothing to admit.”

  “So you’re not interested?” Janice asked.

  I bent my head as I gathered up the paint supplies that hadn’t even been opened. I’d been a little too optimistic about how much we might accomplish on our very first mural outing. I had a lot of work to do before we dove in.

  “You’re suspiciously quiet,” she said.

  I sighed loudly. “Fine, you want to know the truth?” I straightened and threw my hands up in resignation. “I don’t know.”

  “You…don’t know?” Her tone was filled with disbelief.

  I heaved another sigh. “No, I don’t know because I don’t get it. I don’t know if I trust him, and I don’t know what he’s trying to get from me—”

  “You do realize how jaded you sound, right?”

  I shot her sidelong look.

  “Right.” She picked up a paint can and we started walking toward the school. “I get not trusting guys, especially ones who wear jerseys and lift weights.” She cast another look in my direction before turning to face straight ahead. “Danny and his friends used to mock me.”

  I drew in a quick breath at the unexpected admission. “Used to or do?” Anger had me clenching my fists. I had no idea what I’d do about it. Nothing, no doubt. But I still wanted to know.

  “They used to,” she said. “Back in junior high. A little bit in freshman year. It’s stopped over the last year or so.”

  “They grew a conscience?” I asked.

  She snorted. “Nah. I don’t think they’ve matured or anything, I think they just got bored with it.”

  I nodded. “Same with me.”

  She didn’t seem surprised to hear it. “These days they’re so self-absorbed, the only time they take the time to mess with someone is if they’re a threat.”

  “Like Conner,” I said. The jerks of this school were still giving him a hard time, spreading rumors and making jokes at his expense.

  While I’d be the first to admit that I’d enjoyed it that first day…okay maybe the first couple of days, it was definitely wearing thin. I didn’t exactly pity the guy—it was really hard to pity someone who thought he was the best thing that’s ever happened to Talmore High. But I wasn’t enjoying it, and I was more than ready for it to stop. Mainly because the tension seemed to grow with every day that Conner refused to back down from that stupid bet. See, I’d bet that he couldn’t get Rosalie to go to homecoming with him and that was a big mistake on my part.

  I should never have issued the challenge. I got that now. I guess I’d known that even as the words had come out of my mouth, but every time I went to take it back, to let him off the hook…he’d say something so insanely egotistical. He’d make a dig about me or brag about himself and… I’d just stooped to the lowest level every single time. Turned out, taking the high road was not my strong suit when it came to Conner.

  I’d start the conversation ready to end that bet and find myself egging him on.

  He was seriously a bad influence.

  Or maybe I was the bad influence on him.

  Ugh. Whatever it was—we were stuck together for the next two years so we had to find some way to deal.

  “My point,” Janice said, pulling me back to the present, “was that Danny and his friends used to make fun of me, but Tristan never did.”

  I stopped to look at her because she sounded so earnest. “And that’s supposed to make me like him?” I said, a little too defensively. “Just because he wasn’t mean? I bet he didn’t do anything to stop it either, so I’d hardly say he’s a contender for sainthood.”

  “Actually,” she said slowly. “He did. Whenever he saw them picking on me he intervened.” Her eyes shone bright with hero worship and now, knowing that, it was easy to see how she could have developed a crush on the guy.

  You know, along with the fact that he was crazy hot and built like an action hero.

  But Janice struck me as someone too smart to fall for looks alone, and this helped fill in the missing pieces.

  It also made it that much harder to hold onto this idea of him as some thoughtless, conceited meathead who only cared about himself.

  Guilt gnawed at my gut because, truth be told, I’d been clinging onto that idea of him all week, even though the more I talked with him, the more I saw of him, the less true it seemed.

  But if he wasn’t that guy, if none of this was a joke, if he was being truthful and genuine then…

  I sucked in a deep breath as a whole new level of fear made me forget all about what we’d been talking about. I couldn’t name it. I didn’t want to think about it.

  Luckily for me, I didn’t have to because the next bell rang and we both ran to make it to our next classes.

  By the end of that day, I was certain of two things. Tristan still confused the crap out of me, and I couldn’t go on being a party to any sort of bet about another human being. Every time Conner mentioned this stupid bet about Rosalie I thought of Tristan’s response when I’d told him how my old crush had asked me out as a joke. That’s cruel.

  Exactly.

  Playing with other people’s emotions—even the emotion of a girl who purportedly didn’t have emotions—that was cruel.

  Immature bickering and sibling rivalry be damned. That was no excuse. It was time to put an end to this thing once and for all.

  Or, at least, that was the intention.

  A little later that day I was back in Conner’s precious car that he loved to lord over me. He got a kick out of the fact that he had a ride and I didn’t. Just one of many ways our lives were inherently unjust.

  “I’m back, baby!” he shouted after telling me how Rosalie had taken pity on him and given him her class notes. All this proved to me was that she actually did have a heart, and that only made me feel worse.

  “You’re an idiot,” I said. In my defense, he really was an idiot.


  He looked amused. “You’re just bitter because you’re going to lose.”

  I arched my brows. “I don’t have anything to lose, loser.”

  He knew I was right. I knew I was right. This whole stupid challenge couldn’t even really be called a bet because I wasn’t even really a part of it. I’d just issued a challenge and watched his massive ego go to town.

  “Would you quit smirking?” he snapped. “You know, I don’t have to drive you to and from school every day.”

  That was a low blow, and just another prime example of how he lorded his stupid car over me. “So, just to be sure we’re on the same page here,” I said. “You’ve been trying to woo the ice queen for a full week now, and I’m supposed to be amazed because…you got her notes from class?”

  “You’re just jealous.”

  Ha! Me jealous of Conner. That was laughable. “I am?”

  “Yeah, because I at least have a shot at a date for homecoming, whereas you will be stuck at home with Frank and my mom watching the Hallmark channel because no one asked you.”

  Homecoming. A stupid dance that I’d never attended, never wanted to attend, and meant absolutely nothing to me. And yet…

  Tristan asked me to go.

  This stupid car didn’t have enough oxygen. I leaned back and tried to get more air in my lungs but it was futile. Sure, he hadn’t really meant it. But it was still out there, in the ethos, and the mere memory of him asking was enough to make me dizzy. I wasn’t sure how long passed before Conner cut the silence.

  “I was just kidding, Harley, I’m sure—”

  “Tristan asked me to homecoming.” Annnd there it was. The words just kind of came out. Not that I wanted to talk to Conner about Tristan. I didn’t. Precisely because of this reaction. He was staring at me like I’d sprouted a second head, confirming everything I knew to be true. Tristan asking me to homecoming was ludicrous. It made no sense. I mean, Conner was so dumbstruck by this news, he couldn’t seem to stop staring at me. “Watch the road,” I snapped.

  “Tristan, as in…the quarterback?”

  I didn’t bother to answer that question. We didn’t know any other Tristans.