Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“I want to explain,” I told her.
She shook her head. “No need. I get it,” she said as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“You do? Please tell me what it is that you get?”
Because she did not get it at all. Her body language told me that much.
She rolled her eyes. Fucking rolled those silver eyes at me.
“Why you made plans with me, then changed them. You’re a guy. A better option presented itself. No need to explain. I’ve been Calvin’s backup plan since he hit puberty.”
I stared at her. What the hell was she talking about? Backup plan?
“I was following orders. Linc had me entertaining Lula Mae today. Locke is on his way to get her—at least, he’d better be.”
Her expression seemed to soften somewhat, but not enough. There was still something there that was bothering me.
“Okay,” she said with a slight shrug of her left shoulder.
I took a step toward her, and she tensed.
“Pickles”—I used my nickname for her, hoping it would stop this tense shit she was doing with me—“I’d rather have gone swimming with you today. Lula Mae is a damn chore. I enjoy being with you.”
“I saw her in her bikini. She’s not a chore. But thanks for saying it, I guess.”
Why was she being so difficult? I was being honest with her here. More so than I should be. But, damn, it bothered me that she thought so fucking little of herself. Was this Calvin’s fault?
“You’ve not spent enough time in her presence. Trust me, it was a chore,” I said with emphasis. “And we can still swim after tonight’s games.”
She shook her head. “No, that’s okay. I don’t have to be entertained. I—”
“It’s not about entertaining you. It’s because I enjoy your company.”
Her hands fell to her sides, and she sighed. “The games will be going until late and they’re exhausting. You’ll be too tired for that. I don’t need placating.”
I took another step toward her, and this time, she didn’t tense up. At least I was making some headway with her. She had fucking walls I hadn’t been aware of.
“Explain what you said about being Calvin’s backup plan.”
She glanced off to the side, not holding eye contact with me. “I was the friend who was always there.”
“Why is that?” I asked, wanting her to elaborate on this.
“Because for a very long time, I had deeper feelings than friendship for him, okay?” she said, snapping her eyes back to mine. “Thankfully, I moved on or grew out of it. Whatever.”
She’d had feelings for Calvin. I already knew that but I didn’t like it. Fuck if it was the past. It still bugged me.
“Did he know you had deeper feelings for him?” I needed to let this go, but I couldn’t.
“No. I mean, I don’t think so. A few times, I convinced myself that”—she paused and scrunched her nose, then dropped her gaze to the floor—“he might return those feelings … but that was never the case.”
“How do you know he didn’t?” Because if he had hidden his feelings for her then, then what the fuck did it matter?! I was acting psycho.
Her shoulders rose and fell with a heavy sigh before she lifted her eyes to mine again. “I know. To him, I was always the friend. The girl who he went to for help with all the things. Even asking out his prom dates.”
Okay, what the fuck?
“His prom dates?” I asked, making sure I’d just heard her correctly.
She nodded. “Yes.”
I needed more than a yes. “Why?” He was a fucking dude. Why would he have asked another girl, who he had to know had feelings for him, to help him ask out someone else? That was cruel.
She cocked an eyebrow. “Are you wanting the full story?”
“Yep, Pickles, I do.”
She tilted her head to the side, and a sad smile touched her lips that distracted me momentarily. I remembered how soft they felt and how damn sweet she tasted.
“I thought he was coming to the house to ask me to prom—you know, with one of those over-the-top prom proposal things. He’d told me to meet him on the front porch, which wasn’t normal for him.” She let out a small laugh. “And so I went out there. Thinking he might do …” She paused and winced.
“Continue,” I told her, not liking where this was going.
“Ugh, this is embarrassing. Even all these years later. I was so silly.”
No, she wasn’t. It still hurt her, and I didn’t like it.
“Fine. But you’d better not laugh.”
“Never,” I assured her.
She tucked some hair behind her ear, and that sad smile was back. “I thought he had set up a … a flash mob with the football team. I don’t know why I had worked this scenario up in my head, but I had. Something to do with another guy doing it at school and Calvin asking me what I thought about it. Anyway, he wasn’t there for that. Instead, he needed my help setting up a scavenger hunt to ask out another girl to prom.”