“Excuse me.” Philip touched Brittany’s arm without looking at her and left her side. The person who called his name was Sara, his girlfriend.
Brittany watched him put his arm around her in the middle of a small crowd. She was showing her hand to someone, and she and Philip were smiling broadly and nodding. Brittany’s heart clenched when she realized everyone was looking at Sara’s ring, an engagement ring. Tears unexpectedly sprang to Brittany’s eyes. She couldn’t stand to watch any longer, so she turned and hurried out of the gym.
»»•««
This is better, Brittany decided, taking a deep breath. She’d joined a group of people outside in the schoolyard who were whitewashing the building’s brick facing and layering coats of primer over the graffiti. This wall would become a canvas for a mural that art students from Madison High, Tony’s alma mater, would be painting. She needed some fresh air and she needed to not be in the same room as Philip and his fiancée, so this little project fit the bill perfectly.
Her stomach growled and she wondered what time it was, but her phone was in the front pocket of her shorts under her coveralls, making it too hard to check the time display. It wasn’t long before a pizza delivery truck pulled into the parking lot. Yes! Lunch break was near. She decided she’d wait until the crowds died down before heading inside. Truth be told, for the first time ever she wasn’t eager to see Philip again. Hopefully those big hungry athletes would leave her something to eat.
As she drew the paintbrush back and forth over the wall, she felt a tap on the back of her shoulder. She did a double take when she turned around and saw Matthew holding a pizza box and a half-gallon plastic bottle of water under his arm. Looking from his face to the pizza box and back to his face, she knew she should be returning his smile, but all she could muster was a quizzical look. He cocked his head and motioned toward the yard. She set down her paintbrush and walked with him in silence, past the lineup of buses to the far corner of the schoolyard. He chose a spot that was partly shaded by a large oak tree that stood on the street outside the chain link fence. He sat down against the fence and patted the asphalt next to him. Brittany finally smiled and sat down beside him.
“Ouch. Pavement’s hot.” She wiped her hands together to dust the dirt off.
He opened the box and offered it to her. There were six slices inside. She gently picked up a piece, cupping it under her hand to keep the sauce and cheese from dripping on her, despite the fact she was wearing coveralls.
“You okay?” Matthew asked.
“Sure, why shouldn’t I be?”
He looked at her for a long moment and she couldn’t read the expression in his eyes. She didn’t know him well enough yet. “I saw what happened in there,” he finally said.
“What happened in where?”
“With Mason.”
“Oh.” Now she understood what his expression was all about. It was pity. Brittany looked away and put the pizza back in the box without taking a bite. She had no idea anyone was watching. Either she was losing her ability to appear as if nothing bothered her, or Matthew was better at reading her than most people.
“Water?” he offered. She nodded and he handed her the large bottle. She held it with both hands as she tilted her head back and took a sip. Some dripped down both sides of her mouth, and he pulled a napkin out of his jeans pocket and blotted her chin.
She smiled. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
“Why shouldn’t I be?” Before she had a chance to answer, he added, “Look, you told me how you felt about Mason and—”
“Oh that. Ancient history,” Brittany quickly covered. She was embarrassed and suddenly sorry she’d ever mentioned it.
“So, no residual feelings or anything?”
“Of course not! He’s with—” Her throat went dry and she took another swig of water. “He’s with someone else. I told you there was never anything between us.”
He paused before responding, as if he were choosing his words carefully so he wouldn’t offend her. “Look, I get it. You can’t help feeling the way you’re feeling and I can see that it bothered you.”
“What? Were you watching me?”
“Nooo.” He drew out the word for emphasis. “More like noticing. I want you to know that I’m here if you want to talk.”
Brittany was both touched and embarrassed at the same time. “That’s nice and all, but there’s nothing to talk about. Really.”
“Okay. Here.” He opened the pizza box on his lap. “Eat your pizza.”
Brittany pressed her lips together and took her slice out of the box again. While she took one bite, Matthew polished off a whole piece and picked up another.
“You know, it’s kind of ironic that we’re having lunch together like this,” she said, changing the subject. “I was hoping to sit with you on the ride here but you were on the wrong bus.”
Laughing, Matthew said, “No, I was on the right bus. You’re the one who was on the wrong bus.”
Brittany cocked her head to look at Matthew, not sure what to make of that statement, but she couldn’t help but smile. That was the closest he’d ever come to flirting with her. “Well then, I’ll be sure to be on the right bus on the way back.”
“There’s more pizza, if you ever finish your first slice.”
“I’m not really hungry.”
“I know how you feel, Brit. I’ve been there.”
She blinked a few times, surprised yet pleased at how personal this conversation was getting, especially now that he was about to open up about himself. “So you have been in love. You didn’t answer my question the other night. I assumed you were just avoiding.”
Matthew threw back a long gulp of water from the bottle. Screwing the cap back on, he said, “Time to get back to work.”
He made a move to get up but Brittany gripped his arm. “Don’t do that,” she said sharply.
“Do what?”
“Don’t expect me to open up to you and then clam up when I ask you a personal question.”
He sighed and leaned back against the fence. After a long pause, he said, “I just don’t feel like talking about it.”
“Okay, that’s fair. For now.” She looked in the direction of the wall she’d been painting. “So thanks.”
“For what?”
“For noticing,” she said with a smile. “For checking on me. And for caring.”
He nodded and set the food down while he got up off the ground. He held his hands out to help her up. Brittany slipped her hands inside his strong grip and let him pull her to her feet. She looked into his face as she held on to him, making no move to step away. He took a deep breath before releasing her hands to pick up the food from the floor. He gave her the water bottle and tossed the pizza box in a nearby waste can. Then he stunned Brittany by taking her hand as they walked back toward the school building. She bit her lip and smiled. This day was turning out not to be so bad after all.
»»•««
It was nearly six o’clock when the motors started up. The smell of diesel fuel filled the schoolyard while the tired students wearily approached the chartered buses for the trek back to Orlando. Sofia linked arms with Brittany and pointed toward one of the vehicles. Brittany looked around, remembering Matthew saying she’d been on the wrong bus on the way to Bradenton. “Um. Aren’t you going to sit with Derek?”
“Probably,” Sofia said. “Not sure which bus he’s on though. Why?”
“No reason.” She’d been pushy enough with Matthew and had been rejected by him plenty of times. After seeing Philip and his girlfriend today, she couldn’t handle another rejection, so she let Sofia lead the way.
“Hey Brit.” A male voice called her name. She turned around and saw Matthew hanging out the window of the bus next to the one she was about to board. “You’re getting on the wrong bus again,” he said with a laugh.
His genuine smile warmed her heart and she smiled back. “Save me a seat,” she called out. She squeezed Sofia’s elbow and slip
ped her arm away. “See you back at campus, girlfriend.” She hurried around the front of the bus toward the door and climbed aboard. Other students who boarded before her were busy finding their seats and clogging the aisle. She leaned her head to the right and spotted Matthew. He was in the aisle seat in the middle of the bus and there was an empty seat next to him. As she made her way up the aisle, she saw him shake his head from side to side and tell a couple of teammates he was saving a seat. She smiled and bit her lip as she drew closer. “Excuse me,” she teased when she got close enough. “Is that seat taken?”
“As a matter of fact, it is.” He stood up.
“Watch your head,” she said quickly.
He bent forward to avoid hitting the bulkhead and stepped into the aisle. Her rear brushed his jeans when she slid by him to get to the window seat.
As soon as he sat down next to her, she linked her arm with his and clasped his hand in hers. “I have to be honest. I’m surprised you wanted to sit with me for a two-hour drive. I didn’t think you even liked me.”
He looked down at their intertwined fingers. Patting her hand, he smiled. “Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he said with a wink. “Check back with me in two hours.”
“God you have a gorgeous smile,” she blurted out.
“Do you always say everything that’s on your mind?”
“Pretty much. It’s part of my charm.” Flirting with Matthew just got a lot more comfortable, now that he’d given her an inch. “You should try it sometime.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you don’t talk much, not about yourself anyway.” She placed her palm over his polo shirt where his heart was and looked deeply into his blue eyes. “I have a feeling this still water runs deep.”
∙•∙
He was surprised how fast his heart began to beat when she touched his chest. He wondered if she could feel it. He had avoided getting close to girls for a long while now, and being near Brittany was having an effect. Taking a deep breath, he looked away, not sure what to say. So often, her frankness left him speechless. She was right when she said it was part of her charm, and since the night in the motel room he was finding himself drawn to that quality, drawn to her. Her honesty was refreshing in a world where so many people were disingenuous. At the same time, it caught him off guard. He wasn’t ready to share himself. Brittany removed her hand and faced forward. He could feel her tense up, thanks to his silence.
When the bus started moving, Tony stood up near the driver and faced the riders. He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled to get everyone’s attention. “Hey guys, I want to thank you all for everything you did today. The Youth Sports Project is gonna be amazing. I’m hoping you’ll all consider donating your time again, and especially once we open. We have so much we can teach these kids. I can’t wait! So, did you all have fun?”
The bus erupted with shouts and whistles and applause. Brittany raised up her free arm and gave a shout, but Matthew didn’t join in the chanting. When the noise died down, Brittany started chattering about what a great cause it was going to be. She told Matthew she helped encourage Tony’s relationship with his girlfriend and how much in love the couple was and how they were all great friends now. Matthew politely nodded his head here and there and asked some conversation-furthering questions, but other than that, he was fairly quiet.
It wasn’t long before the whole bus grew quiet as most riders fell asleep, including Matthew and Brittany. His eyes blinked open when he felt something moving on his head. It took a minute to realize that Brittany was running her fingers through his hair while his head was resting on her shoulder. He lifted his head. “Sorry,” she told him. “I wasn’t thinking.”
He wasn’t sure if she was just being coy. “I have never met anyone as—”
She cut him off. “Fascinating? Brilliant? Funny?”
He chuckled and said, “Well, all that’s true. But I was going to say outspoken. Outspoken. Honest. Tough.”
She shrugged. “With me, what you see is what you get—except the tough part. I’m not as tough as people think. It’s all an act.” She paused for a minute. “I wonder if the same is true of you.”
He sat up straighter and knit his brow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean I don’t think you’re a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of guy. I think there’s a lot more to you than anyone knows. I mean all I really know about you is that you don’t have sex.”
Maybe one day he’d get used to her bluntness, but she’d caught him off-guard once again. Leaning away a little, he responded by saying, “And all I really know about you is that you have sex a lot.”
Brittany flinched. She pointed a finger at him as if she was mad, but her tone remained light. “Don’t try to out-Brittany Brittany. And don’t believe everything you hear.”
“I apologize,” he said quietly as he looked around to see if anyone was listening. Even though most everyone was asleep, the hum of the motor acted like white noise and you couldn’t hear anything more than a row or two away. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“It’s okay,” Brittany said, patting Matthew’s leg. “I know that’s what people think. Just because they think it, does that make it true?” Matthew was surprised by her philosophic question. “I mean, is it really true that I have sex all the time? And is it true you never do? I mean promiscuity isn’t something you necessarily advertise. Neither is celibacy.”
“I don’t advertise it,” he said softly but felt slightly defensive about it.
Pursing her lips, she said, “Then how does everybody know about it?”
Matthew smiled a little. “You’re really going to force me to talk about myself, aren’t you?” Brittany arched her brows and gave Matthew a wide-eyed stare, but she didn’t say anything. He figured he could get through this with the abridged version. “Okay. So here’s the story. People know about my celibacy vow because I took it in high school, the vow, I mean. Me and like ten other guys. We all had different reasons.”
“What was yours?”
He was going to have to learn not to drop teasers into the conversation if he didn’t want her to probe. He didn’t know Brittany nearly well enough to answer that question. Instead, he said, “If it was up to me, I’d have kept the whole pact thing to myself. But a couple of the other guys were more open about it. So, some online magazine reporter hears about it and wants to do a feature story on us. She came and interviewed us as a group, along with our school’s sports chaplain.”
“Really? You gave an interview about it?”
Matthew shrugged. “I guess we became the object of curiosity after that. I mean why do red-blooded, able-bodied men actively choose not to have sex?”
“Why indeed.” Brittany gazed at him, all moony-eyed.
“Like I said, lots of different reasons. The unfortunate thing is, when people know personal stuff about you, you get made fun of. You get labeled.”
“I know about labels. You may have earned yours, but—”
“But what?”
“I didn’t exactly earn mine.” She sounded sad as she turned and looked out the window into the darkening sky. Her statement left Matthew a little perplexed. Her tone was so mournful. This was one of those rare moments when Brittany showed her vulnerable side. Matthew felt like he wanted to know this Brittany better, because he felt like he was seeing the real Brittany, a girl he could care about, a girl he found himself wanting to comfort and protect. He instinctively covered her right hand with his right hand and threaded their fingers together. She turned and looked at their hands. Then she smiled and looked at his face for a moment before resting her head on his shoulder. “Is it time for our two-hour check-in yet?”
Matthew laughed a silent laugh. “Almost.” He put his other arm around her and squeezed her shoulder.
Chapter Six
The Bradenton trip gave Brittany hope. Until then, Matthew Warner had been standoffish and cool toward her. More than once, he told her she wasn�
��t his type. But after spending that night in his room in Miami, he seemed to soften toward her. And in Bradenton he was downright sweet. And attentive. And even affectionate. Could she dare hope a thaw was under way? She needed to capitalize on it. With her losing record in this arena, she had no clue how to go about it.
She thought about his vow of celibacy. He mentioned an interview he gave to an online magazine in high school. Well, that should be pretty easy to find. She opened the laptop she used for her schoolwork and searched Matthew’s named plus vow of celibacy.
She pouted when she got more hits than she expected. Almost every article that ever included Matthew Warner’s name also mentioned the vow, as if it was part of his name. No wonder he was a little touchy about the subject. She refined the search by adding Illinois high school plus pact. Yes! The article came up. It was from about three years ago, which would have been Matthew’s senior year in high school. She scanned the article quickly, looking for Matthew’s name. It appeared just once at the beginning when all the boys’ names were listed. But there were no quotes from Matthew. He was merely called a member of the group of young men who had taken a vow of purity. They all made a commitment not to have sex until marriage. The guys who were quoted felt strongly that a marriage was more likely to succeed if you refrained from sex beforehand and didn’t treat intimacy as something frivolous that didn’t matter. Hmmm. Interesting.
On the same web page were links to related articles. One caught her attention. The headline read Purity Before Marriage is No Guarantee of a Happy Future. She clicked on it and rested her chin on her fist as she perused it. The piece focused on a dozen men who took a vow of chastity in their teens. The study followed them for ten years and determined that the divorce rate was just as high as it was among the general population. It said celibacy wasn’t a guarantee of future happiness. “Matthew needs to see this!” She bookmarked the article and then checked her contacts list so she could send it to him. The sports program had a closed network where all the players, cheerleaders, and coaches shared their email addresses. She skimmed down the list. Then she skimmed it again. And again. Matthew wasn’t on it. This is ridiculous! Why is he hiding?
Pass Protection (Quarterback Sneak Book 3) Page 4
