I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
I’d barely seen him at school, and that told me more than anything just how hard he’d been trying to get to know me. How out of his way he must have gone to run into me in the halls and talk to me before and after school.
I didn’t have such a big ego that I thought he was actively avoiding me the way I’d been doing to him. Which meant, he just wasn’t trying, and that meant I never saw him.
That should have been a good thing.
It wasn’t.
I missed him, stupid as that might be, and there was nothing I could do about it because he was right. I’d been so immature. Such an idiot.
“Harley, you missed the gate to the next level!” Rodrick sounded so incredibly disappointed in my distracted playing that I let myself die and handed over the controller. “Show me how it’s done.”
That caused an inexplicable fight over who was going to show me the ins and outs of this level.
As if I was paying attention.
Misery had me scowling over at them. This was what my life had come to. I was spending my weekends playing video games with ten year olds. Fitting for my maturity level, I supposed. And the perfect punishment for egging Conner on with that stupid bet.
Besides, Conner had promised to make me my favorite breakfast tomorrow if I bought him some alone time with his new girlfriend. And it wasn’t like I had anything better to do.
Even so, when their fight turned physical, I walked out of the room. I might not have grown up with siblings, but this looked like something they needed to work out on their own.
I was no more than two steps into the kitchen when I regretted my decision. “Ew, gross, get a room. We have to eat in here, you know.”
Conner rolled his eyes, but Rosalie grinned at me behind his back. Luckily for Conner, Rosalie seemed to enjoy our immature fighting. Unlike a certain quarterback I knew, she never got up on her high horse and gave me crap for being immature and caught up in high school drama.
Irritation warred with hurt which did a little battle with humiliation.
I’d figured out days ago that his censure would have been a whole lot more tolerable if he hadn’t been right.
I wasn’t proud of the levels Conner and I had stooped to in our sibling squabbles, but that didn’t make Tristan’s assumptions one hundred percent valid, either. I mean, high school drama? That wasn’t my deal. I wasn’t some gossip and I didn’t play the games that the A-listers he hung out with did.
Talk about kettle and pot, right? I mean, really.
My inner tirade was annoyingly interrupted by Conner. I’d just come in here to snag a bite of whatever it was he was cooking that made the kitchen smell so heavenly. I had not come in here to watch him moon over his new girl or to put up with his teasing.
Why people thought it was cool to have siblings, I would never understand.
I might have been able to brush off the now-familiar bickering if he hadn’t gone and done it. He brought up Tristan and that stupid bet.
With a smirk Conner said, “Technically I won the challenge since Rosalie is technically going to homecoming with me. As my date.”
“He’s right,” Rosalie said, hopping off the counter and slipping an arm around Conner’s waist.
My eyes widened with horror. Betrayal shot through me. It wasn’t like Rosalie and I were close or anything, but she was always nice to me, and I’d sort of thought we had that whole sister solidarity thing going on. “You’re taking his side?”
She lifted a shoulder with a little wince. “A bet is a bet.”
“But…but…” My eyes darted between them as panic swept through me. My reaction was visceral and idiotic. I mean, it wasn’t like they could make me go to homecoming with him.
More than that, they couldn’t make him go with me.
But having to explain to them—to anyone—that I’d had the interest of the sexiest, hottest, kindest, most original guy I’d ever met and lost it because I was such a fool...
That was a whole new level of torture.
“That’s…” I swallowed down the inexplicable fear that choked and faced Rosalie, hoping to appeal to her sense of logic and empathy. “That’s basically asking me to do to him what Conner did to you.”
Rosalie shrugged. “No one said you had to lie to him. You can tell him whatever you want, but…” She winced again as if it really pained her to say it. “Pretty sure the rules state that you need to uphold your end of this bargain.”
“Rules?” I repeated stupidly. “What rules?”
They shared an annoying little smirk that made me want to scream. I stalked out of the kitchen, determined to forget their teasing.
They didn’t know what they were talking about. They couldn’t know that I’d had a chance with Tristan and lost it.
I returned to the den to find the twins unharmed—at least, there were no visible injuries as far as I could tell—and happily playing another game together.
Siblings. Seriously, such a weird dynamic, and one I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to. Maybe most people were just so young when they found themselves trapped together in a family that they were used to it, but for me it was all so bizarre.
Going from a life that was just me and Frank, to one that now included Conner and his mom. It was weird.
It was slowly but surely getting less weird…but still weird, overall.
I was sitting there wondering if it would ever not be weird when Rosalie came into the den and sat down next to me on the couch. She ignored her brothers and they ignored her.
See? Weird, I tell you. How did they do that? Conner and I couldn’t be in the same room together without pushing each other’s buttons to the point where we morphed into five-year-olds.
“You know,” Rosalie said slowly, staring at the videogame going on in front of us like it was actually entertaining. “I’m kind of a good listener.”
I stared at her picture-perfect profile, waiting for her to start laughing, or the ceiling to burst into flames, or her brothers to turn into monkeys. I didn’t know what I expected, but surely this had to be a dream, right?
Rosalie The-Ice-Queen Farlow did not just sit here and ask to be my sounding board.
When a long moment passed and I hadn’t replied, she turned to face me with a sad little smile. “I know what everyone says about me, but it isn’t true.”
I nodded. “I know.”
Sure, I’d heard all the rumors about her, and I’d witnessed her cold wrath firsthand at last week’s party when Conner had royally pissed her off. But I’d also seen her with him when they thought no one was watching. I’d seen her smile—her real smile—and I’d seen her make Conner laugh. I’d seen her with her little brothers when they’d first arrived at our house and she’d been surprisingly normal…goofy even, until she was sure they were comfortable enough to be left on their own.
So no, I didn’t think she was some cold, unfeeling witch.
But I didn’t think of her as a friend, either.
She eyed me warily and I had a feeling this whole befriending thing was just as hard for her as it was for me. “Tristan’s a good guy, you know.”
I nodded. “I know.”
Her eyes flared slightly with surprise. “But you still don’t want to go to homecoming with him?”
I cleared my throat. “It’s complicated.”
Her lips twitched with barely concealed amusement. “It’s homecoming.”
I drew in a deep breath and looked down at my hands. “He…doesn’t want to go with me.”
She laughed softly. “Oh please. Everybody knows that he asked you to go with him. All anyone is talking about is how crazy it is that the great Tristan O’Hare is losing his cool over the new girl.”
I winced but tried to hide the slash of pain her words inflicted. She wasn’t being mean, she was just stating the obvious. “I know, right? I had a hard time believing he liked someone like me, too.”
“Harley…no,” Rosa
lie said, her voice rising with anxiety. “That’s not what I meant.”
I shrugged. “It’s cool. I get it.” I did. I thought the same exact thing, hadn’t I? I’d even accused him of only asking me out as some sort of prank. He was a freakin’ action figure come to life and I was…me. A loner, at best, and that was putting it nicely. I didn’t fit in with the majority, and likely never would. Meanwhile, Tristan was revered by them. No, as far as anyone else could tell, I was definitely not the obvious choice. If it hadn’t been clear to him from the beginning, I’d spelled it out loud and clear.
I winced again, but this time in regret and disbelief over my past actions.
Rosalie’s hand on my arm was a shock. She wasn’t exactly the touchy-feely type and neither was I. “I didn’t mean it like that at all,” she said, her eyes so wide and earnest I couldn’t not believe her. “I only meant that people are shocked because the way he’s been acting these past few weeks was so very out of character for him. It wasn’t a reflection on you.”
I didn’t say anything, mainly because I didn’t believe her.
She shifted so she was facing me. “Honestly, Harley, no one has ever seen him like this. He’s normally really…” She shrugged as if at a loss for words. “Standoffish, I guess.” Her lips curved up in a rueful smile. “I might be the school’s ice queen, but Tristan’s always been untouchable in his own way.”
I stared at her for a second because my brain was too busy churning away to think of a response. I must have been frowning at her or something because Conner interrupted the moment with a laugh. “Uh, ladies? What exactly did I miss here?”
I whipped my head around to look at him and he arched his brows.
“What’s with the death glare, Harley? Did Rosalie just inform you that the goth look is out of season?”
“Sorry,” I said to Rosalie, my tone stiff as I realized I had been glaring at her. “I was just…thinking.”
“Ignore him.” She rolled her eyes. “Conner’s just worried about you and doesn’t know how to show it.”
“Hey—” he started.
She cut him off with a look that I wished I could mimic, mainly because it silenced him instantly. “Can you teach me how to do that?” I asked. “I’d sell my soul to be able to shut him up.”
She grinned and the smile softened her so much it was almost startling. The girl was intimidatingly pretty and her hard expressions made her that much more intimidating. But smiling, she was almost human.
No, she was human. Just like Tristan was a mere mortal, despite the amazing body and the chiseled jaw.
Conner sat on the other side of me, making the couch sink slightly and I found myself pressed against his side as he wrapped an arm around me. Between the two of them like this, they’d formed a Harley sandwich. There was no escape from their concern…or their meddling.
“Tell your big bro what the problem is, Harley,” Conner said in his most annoying condescending tone. “I’m older and wiser. I can help.”
“You’re not older,” I reminded him for the millionth time. We were in the same grade, sure, but I was two months older—a fact he loved to forget.
“Maybe not, but who amongst us has been successful in love, hmmm?”
I loved Rosalie for the fact that she reached over me to smack him upside the head, sparing me the effort.
Conner dropped the obnoxious tone. “Seriously, Harley, what’s up with you and the quarterback?”
I actually kind of wanted to tell him—to tell both of them—because after weeks of holding it all inside, there was a distinctive urge to purge going on. But that urge was tampered with humiliation.
“Oh, come on,” Conner said with a groan. “If you can’t tell your brother, who can you tell?” I shot him a sidelong look that made him grin. “All kidding aside, Harley. You were there for me when I was losing my mind over the Rosalie situation. Now it’s my turn.”
I turned to face him because…whoa. I’d never heard Conner sound so earnest before—definitely not with me. Apparently it was a rarity for Rosalie, too, because I heard her make a little “aww” sound on my other side, like she was watching a sappy Hallmark commercial.
The sound of the twins bickering and the annoying beeps and looped music of their video game filled the air as I stared down at my lap and struggled with the fear of being mocked. But nothing Conner said would be worse than what I was already feeling, and besides, the need to purge was too strong to resist.
So, I basically vomited up the words in a massive spew of self-recrimination and horror.
Afterward, Conner and Rosalie stared at me with wide, unblinking eyes.
“So…” Rosalie cleared her throat. “To recap…”
“You basically accused the guy of being a bully and a jerk, and then you ended up being the jerk.” Conner’s tone lacked judgement but still…
“Nice, Conner,” Rosalie said. “Very tactful.”
“Hey, I’m just stating the obvious.” His eyes and his tone were alarmingly gentle when he squeezed my shoulder. “Besides, being idiots in love apparently runs in the family.”
“You do know we don’t share DNA, right?” I muttered, but more out of habit than anything. And maybe to cover up the fact that my eyes were getting embarrassingly wet with unshed tears at the nice sentiment. I mean, sure, this whole ‘having a new family’ thing was weird, but sometimes—rarely, occasionally—it had its moments.
“So?” I said, turning to face him and then Rosalie. “What do I do? How do I make this right?”
“Grand gesture, baby,” Conner drawled, throwing his arms out wide. “It worked for me.”
Rosalie pointedly ignored him as she focused on me. “Try apologizing.”
I nodded. “Apologizing, right…I can do that.” I had a flash of the expression he’d worn when I’d approached him outside the party. Even before I’d started talking, he’d seemed closed off. More distant than I’d ever seen him before. “I think…” I started and the swallowed as I gathered my thoughts. “I feel like maybe it’s not just about the bet. I mean, I need to apologize. I get that, but…” I shook my head, hating the pain that was making my chest feel like it was being crushed. “I feel like maybe I missed my chance.”
“Look, Harley,” Conner said. “If this guy liked you enough to come off of his white horse and walk among the little people, then clearly he has some legit feelings for you.”
“He’s right,” Rosalie said. “I’ve known Tristan for years now—I’ve hung out with the same crowd and gone to the same parties. But I’ve never seen him act like he has since you came to Talmore.”
A wave of giddy excitement was shot down quickly by the fear that I was too late. “I still don’t get why he even noticed me in the first place.”
“Because you’re unique,” Conner said, so quickly my heart squeezed painfully all over again for an entirely different reason. “As your brother, I refuse to say you’re physically attractive—”
“Ooh, I’ll say it,” Rosalie said quickly. “You’re adorable.” She reached out and tweaked one of my braids. “You’ve got a distinct look, for sure, and I could totally see how it would appeal to the guys.”
I frowned at her. “Are you being serious right now?”
“She’s totally serious,” Conner said. “You try your best to hide it, but you’re…ugh, fine, you’re probably considered cute by guys who are not related to you. Happy now?”
I fought a grin because I was, actually. I mean, I knew that life didn’t come down to being hot or not, but it was still nice to hear. It also gave me hope that maybe Tristan thought so too. I pressed my lips together and sucked in air as I thought about our one and only kiss.
Yeah, okay, I guess I should have been convinced by now that he found me attractive, but a lifetime of feeling unwanted didn’t just go away overnight. And years of being on the outside looking in didn’t either.
I found myself thinking about the mural. Some of the key players I’d struggled with—but n
ot Tristan. From the beginning, I’d known where to place him, how to draw him.
On the outside.
“What are you thinking right now?” Conner said. “You look like you’ve had a revelation.”
I shook my head. “Not a revelation, just an insight. I think…I think maybe we’re not such a crazy match after all.”
“Hallelujah,” Rosalie said.
“About time you realized it,” Conner said.
I eyed him with annoyance. “Oh please, like you thought it was so obvious that the quarterback would be into me.”
He arched his brow in a frustratingly superior manner. “I never had any doubt.”
Rosalie gave a snort of amusement as I rolled my eyes. My stepbrother was insufferable, but he was also right. So was Rosalie. I owed Tristan an apology and maybe…maybe even a grand gesture.
I shot up off the couch before I could wuss out on what I knew I had to do.
“Where are you going?” Conner asked.
“Tristan’s house,” I said, whipping out my phone because I had a sneaking suspicion that Janice knew where he lived. “I’m going to apologize.”
“What about the grand gesture?” Conner shouted after me. “Do you need to me to give you some ideas? I’m kind of an expert, you know.”
Rosalie smacked him on my behalf.
13
Tristan
“Yeah, but…what do you mean, she’s here?” I asked for the third time.
My mom arched her brows, a signal that said she feared for my sanity.
Honestly, I was a little worried about that myself. My heart was racing even though football practice had ended an hour ago and I’d had plenty of time to cool down in the locker room.
Who was I kidding? I knew very well that this panic had nothing to do with football practice or the big homecoming game next week.
It had everything to do with the girl who was here. In my house.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Girls never made me panic. But the in my house part?
Yeah, that was key to this new sensation.
My mother gave me a little shove that set me in motion toward the kitchen. Sure enough, a pair of big brown eyes stared back at me from behind those geeky glasses. Her hair was in braids and not for the first time I found myself wondering what her hair looked like unbound.
Dating the Quarterback (The Bet Duet Book 2) Page 11
