Chapter Thirteen
Cooper
When I approached Kate on Monday morning, she had a bigger crowd than usual around her. Well, usually she was alone, so that wasn’t very hard. But Jaden, Dexter, and the stoner dude whose name I couldn’t recall stood next to her.
She flashed me a big smile and lifted her hand in a wave. “Morning, Cooper.”
“Hey, Coop,” Jaden said, pushing himself off the locker he was lounging against. “We were just talking about the party. Did you hear the cops broke it up around eleven? Noise complaint, apparently.”
“Glad we took off before then.” Kate winked at me. I wished I could enjoy it more, but I couldn’t help noticing the way the guys in the near vicinity—including my closest friend and usual rowing partner—were looking at her. She had on a black scoop neck top, these tight, bright blue pants, and the silver ribbon she’d tied around her dark hair to form a headband somehow made the look more sexy than innocent. Like she was a good girl just waiting to go bad.
Damn vultures. They saw a sweet girl with a nice body, and now that they thought she might be open to a little fun, they swooped in to take advantage of that sweetness.
I moved over to her, stepping slightly in front of her. “Yeah. Guess it’s good that we took off early.”
Kate’s hand curled around my arm, and I glanced down, my icy mood thawing a bit.
But she wasn’t looking at me. Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip as she grinned at none other than Mick Pecker, that lucky bastard.
“Hey, Kate,” he said, a cocky smile on his stupid face. “We still need to have that conversation about colleges.”
“Totally.” Her voice came out breathless, yet loud enough to make my pulse kick up a notch, and from the goofy look on Pecker’s face, he felt the impact, too. She ran her finger across her silver necklace, causing the fat charm there to swing back and forth in a hypnotizing fashion. “Find me later?”
He nodded and moved on, but he cast another glance over his shoulder before he turned the corner.
Great. Suddenly she was all smooth and flirty? What had I done? I was starting to hate myself for thinking this would work—I mean, it had worked. So I guess I mostly hated myself for being successful.
“Who knew that one party was all it’d take for my classmates to see me instead of see through me,” Kate said, her voice low so that only I’d hear. “Monte’s locker is right next to mine, and the only thing he’s ever said to me before is ‘Please move.’”
Jaden patted the books under his arm. “I better get to class. One more tardy and I have to serve in detention.” He looked at me. “You coming, Callihan?”
“One sec.” I turned to Kate. “Meet me at my truck after school?”
“That’s the plan.”
“I just wanted to make sure you weren’t going to claim to be too sore so you could try to wiggle out of it.”
Her mouth dropped, her expression mock shock. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Especially after you delivered so impressively this weekend.” She said the last part loud enough it gained the attention of not just the guys who’d already been swarming, but several more people. She probably didn’t realize how it sounded, either.
My gaze traveled over her in an attempt to land on somewhere that didn’t give me inappropriate thoughts, but every place it landed only made me think about her hips, her butt, her curves, her lips, and that eye-grabbing silver ribbon.
That bow under her ear is just begging for one good yank. I wanted to be the one to do it, too. And that’s definitely my cue to go.
“I’ll catch you later, then.” As I started away, I heard someone else call her name.
At least I’d secured every afternoon for the next few weeks before she turned into the most popular girl in school.
I quickened my pace and caught up to Jaden, but I couldn’t help casting one more glance Kate’s way.
“She’s cute,” Jaden said.
“I know.” In fact, more and more, it’s all I can think about.
“So you and her are…?”
“Friends.”
“Good to know.” The smug smile that spread across his face made me want to punch it off him, something I never felt toward Jaden, even when we argued about training and times.
“Don’t bother. She’s interested in Pecker.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized I shouldn’t have said them. She got weird about people knowing, and there were too many ears around. I’d reacted more out of wanting to keep the competition down, even though there was no competition.
She wanted Mick. She had an operation named for landing him and everything. And apparently I needed to be reminded of that fact over and over.
…
I thought I looked forward to the end of the school day and getting out on the lake before, but adding Kate to the mix took my anticipation to the next level. At least at the lake, it was just me and her, none of her ever-growing fan club.
Instead of making me maneuver the boat into the water myself on Wednesday afternoon, she took the initiative. But she definitely paused to scan the water, and I immediately knew why.
Yesterday we’d seen Pecker from afar—he was in a kayak and far enough away the only thing Kate could do was wave and yell hello—but it probably gave them something to talk about today, and stupid me, I’d given her that tip. I figured it was the lesser of the evils between rowing over to him and watching them flirt as I sat in the boat like a chump.
Thanks to overhearing a conversation between him and one of his cohorts last period, at least I knew today they were planning on playing football at the school field.
She’s all mine today. I shook my head at myself, because that sounded a little too creepy villain for my tastes. What I meant was we wouldn’t have any distractions of the jock kind. Not to mention the sun was shining, birds were happily chirping—something Kate had pointed out she loved—and all that glistening water was just begging to be glided across.
Kate gave up her search and focused on the boat. “You want to jump in first?”
“Go ahead. I’ll hold it for you.”
She shrugged and climbed in. I stepped inside, balancing my weight to keep the boat from wobbling too much. I sat down and grabbed the oars, ready to get out there, but then I decided we could take a few minutes to catch up—she’d been texting about some group assignment the entire drive over.
“How was your day?” I asked.
She smiled, and that strange sensation I forgot existed until she fully crashed into my life twisted my gut. “Amazing, actually. I talked to Mick before school. We had a whole conversation and everything, about how I saw him on the lake yesterday, and he seemed to be super impressed I came out here all the time. We both talked about how it was one of our favorite places. There might’ve been an awkward pause or two, but I recovered quickly enough I don’t think it was a big deal. Chatting with you all the time has helped me not be so rusty.”
The twisty sensation stopped dead in its tracks and tumbled down to my feet. Go me.
“He asked for my number, too. Now I just have to hope he uses it, while not staring at my phone, begging for it to ring. I guess that’s one point for leaving it in your truck, even if that’s mostly so I don’t drop it in the water, because that’s so something I’d do.” She reached down and messed with the strap of her sandal, and I noticed her hot pink toenails matched the neon fingernails I’d focused on entirely too much as she’d texted away in my truck. “But don’t worry, I’m not going to sit around and wait, either. By the end of this week, I’m going to deploy some new strategies. I don’t have time to go slow. It ups the stakes, but today’s the first time I didn’t feel completely over my head.”
I cleared my throat, but my voice still came out like I’d swallowed sandpaper. “That’s great. Pretty soon you won’t need me at all.”
She lunged across the boat, making it rock, and grabbed my hand. “No way. I’m not ready to go out there without a safety net yet. We still have at least a couple weeks on our deal, right?”
As usual, I couldn’t let the girl down, even if this mission was starting to make me less and less happy. The buzz of a challenge wasn’t there anymore. In fact, it was the opposite of how challenges tended to go for me, like the more I succeeded, the less the urge to fist pump. But I worked to cover my true feelings, because she’d done her part, and this wasn’t about me. “Right. I’m here for you, as long as you need me.”
The tension leaked out of her posture. “Good. I’d be totally lost on this stuff without you.”
I pulled my hand out of hers before I could think about how good it felt in mine—okay, so maybe I was too late, but at least I tried. “We better get training. Are you still sore?”
“Nope. I’m always exhausted by the end, but the soreness is finally gone. Plus, I’ve got all these happy vibes traveling through me from today’s success, so I feel like I could go forever.”
I gripped the edge of my seat, the sensation in my gut going from beat-up attraction to biting jealousy. This is why I wasn’t supposed to get so involved. I don’t have much free time left, and we’ll all just be going to college in a few months anyway, and none of this stuff will matter.
Kate took hold of her oars. “What’s your fastest time with Jaden? Because I’m ready to take it down.”
“It’s going to take a lot more than not being sore.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, regret rushed up. Her crestfallen expression gave it sharp claws that made the regret dig deeper and make a home in my chest.
Since I didn’t know what to say—and it’s not like I could explain I was only frustrated my help with landing her dream date was being so effective—I spun around in my seat and took hold of my oars. I twisted my wrist so I could see my watch. “Ready?”
“Ready,” she said, much less enthusiastic than she’d been moments ago.
Then we were off, oars gliding through the water, sights set on the other side.