When I got home from the gym, I found Lucas exactly where I’d left him two and a half hours before: in front of his computer. I would have thought that he hadn’t moved a single muscle, except that the cereal bowls sitting next to him on the desk had multiplied. There had been only one before, and now there were three. Lucas shoveled the last bite of Lucky Charms into his mouth and waved his spoon at me in greeting. Couldn’t the man reuse a damn bowl? He was the reason we always had so much dishwashing to do.

“How’s the weather out there?” he asked, peering out the window and then wincing away like the pasty vampire he was. “It looks hot, and I need to go to the post office.”

I smirked. I’d been meaning to buy him a parasol and a fan like a proper Southern Belle. Lucas and Ward both burned like babies. Whatever my racial makeup was—and it was a true mystery, since I was adopted and just looked permanently tan—it was a lot slower to sunburn than those two. Ward was used to the long summers of Texas and learned to love sunscreen, but Lucas had grown up in California and hadn’t adjusted well. He turned lobster red almost every weekend.

“It’s really nice out there,” I lied. It was so hot that I was ‘sweating like a whore in church’ from just a five-minute walk. “Not too humid or anything.” I’d been in drier steam rooms. “There’s even a nice breeze.” There wasn’t.

“Why do you look so weird then?” Lucas asked. He looked suspicious.

Did I look weird? Well, I felt weird. The prettiest girl I’d ever met just asked me out. That didn’t exactly happen every day.

“Ward’s little sister just asked me out on a date.” I felt like I needed to tell someone immediately, since the idea was so unbelievable, and so wonderful, that I needed to prove it was true.

Lucas set his spoon down into his cereal bowl with a little clink. “Katie?”

“Kate,” I corrected, grinning like an idiot.

Lucas giggled. “What did you say?” Then he paused. “Oh no. You idiot. Did you say yes? Are you really that dumb? Ward’s gonna’ kill you and make it look like an accident.”

“Hey, I’m not a bad guy,” I argued, “and Kate is eighteen. She’s an adult.” I’d kept careful tabs on her age over the years. In fact, I’d had every intention of tracking her down on campus myself. She’d just beaten me to it.

“Both of those things are totally irrelevant.”

“Look, I know Ward is protective of his sister, but—”

Lucas made a dismissive noise. “But nothing. Let me walk you through this from Ward’s point of view. Pretend that Kate is your little sister. You two grew up in a trailer park, with an overworked single mom and an asshole absent father. Are you with me so far?”

“Yes, but—”

“Hush,” Lucas said, continuing, “now Kate is your only sister, and she’s a couple of years younger than you. She had a really tough time when you went to college because the only person who had the time and interest to look out for her disappeared. You were really worried she wouldn’t even get into college, but she managed to get a sports scholarship. You know that she needs to get an education, or she’ll end up just like your mom, pregnant at twenty with some asshole’s baby. Still with me?”

I’d fallen silent at this point, stunned by how well Lucas seemed to have Ward pegged. Did he have me this thoroughly psychoanalyzed, too? I nodded at him in astonishment.

“Now your sweet, virginal little sister has come to college and the first guy she’s gonna’ go out with is your friend Cole. Is that a problem?”

“No,” I argued, “because Cole is a decent human being and Kate is an adult.”

Lucas shook his head. “Cole is an extremely spoiled rich kid that might go on to play in the NFL next year but is definitely going to graduate and leave next year. He has a trust fund and a future that will lead him far away from Kate. Meanwhile, she will be left heartbroken, deflowered, and possibly with herpes.”

“I do not have herpes.” That was just plain old rude.

“Ward doesn’t know that.”

“Ward doesn’t know about my trust fund either.” I tried to keep my family money to myself. Apparently, Lucas had figured it out. He probably hacked into my email or something. Maybe while he was freaking profiling me and Ward like some kind of science project.

“Wrong. Ward does know about your trust fund. He told me about it.”

“What?” I was learning so many new, disturbing things today.

“Your mom told him when the toilet overflowed that one time you were home for the weekend and we weren’t sure how we’d pay for the plumber.” Thanks mom. Now my friends think I’m a spoiled brat.

I rolled my eyes at him and received a grimace in return. “You’re getting me distracted. Who cares about my trust fund?! Why would I break her heart?” I countered. “Why can’t we just go out on a date and see what happens?”

“Remember, in this scenario, Kate is your virginal little angel of a sister. Stop seeing it from your perspective.” His hazel eyes were bright. He was actually enjoying this conversation.

Virginal little angel of a kid sister? That was pretty much the last way I wanted to think of Kate. Based on some unkind things the girls at her school had posted to her Facebook page (I checked her Facebook on the walk home), I was also fairly certain the ship had sailed on her virginity sometime back in high school. Nevertheless, Lucas was still wrong.

“If Kate were my sister, I feel like I’d want her to do what made her happy.”

“But what if what made her happy temporarily was falling for some dumb, rich jock who was just bound to abandon her? What if you knew from personal experience how much it sucked to see a single mom struggling to put food on the table because a guy split on her? What if you knew that your sister only pretended to be tough as nails? What if you were the one person that looked out for your sister when you were kids, and feel guilty that you haven’t been around as much? Wouldn’t you want to spare her from that pain even more? And wouldn’t you be extremely angry at your friend—whom you’ve known to sleep around more than once before—for even going near her?”

Reality came crashing into me when I saw his frown. Lucas was right. All roads led to Ward ending me. I might be bigger by a little bit, but he was faster and more motivated. It was well known that Ward adored his little sister, despite the fact that she irritated him in a typical little sister way.

I was an idiot. A doomed idiot.

“I’m picking her up at eight on Friday. You have to help me. I have to, I guess, fake my own death or something.” My voice was desperate, and conflicted. It didn’t look like Lucas picked up on the conflict. He seemed too amused by the desperation.

“I have to do what?” Lucas’ giggle turned into a full-blown laugh. “No way. I want no part of this.” He shook his head emphatically. “I remember the whole glitter thing.”

Ward had threatened me with an actual tire iron for ruining his sister’s dress (after Ward, Lucas and I finally figured out what had happened, that is). I’d never driven down I-35 faster than when I went to Plano to apologize to Kate. Ward, when angry, was absolutely terrifying and twice as cunning. Underneath his dumb tough guy act was an even tougher, not-as-dumb reality.

“Come on. You have to help me figure this out,” I pleaded. “I have to figure out some sort of a plan.”

“Nope. I’m too smart to get involved with this. Ward is going to fucking murder you.” Lucas looked like he was already picking out the flowers that he would lay on my grave. Maybe some nice daisies like the ones I gave to Kate would look nice. I swallowed hard.

“Why exactly am I going to murder Cole?” The voice in the hallway was light and pleasant, but it made my blood run cold. Ward was home? I wasn’t remotely ready to talk to him. Had he been listening from the other room?

Lucas returned to laughing, and I huffed at him in frustration. Lucas could have warned me that Ward had come home. But no. It was much funnier for him this way. Lucas was having a literal laughter fit in his desk chair. I kicked the back of his chair repeatedly until he shut up and glared at me.

There was no lying to Ward now that he was staring at me from two feet away. Just like before the start of a game, adrenaline spiked in my bloodstream and time seemed to slow down. I took a deep breath and turned to face him. Ward looked vaguely amused.

“Oh, um, it’s about your sister,” I ventured carefully.

The smile disappeared. “Come again?” he asked.

“Your sister.” I repeated. My voice had no inflection. I kept my face as neutral as possible.

Ward frowned deeply. “Kate?”

“What? Do you have another one lurking around?” Lucas asked, peering around himself like a second Williams sister might appear and threaten his wellbeing with her sexiness. I nodded in answer, and Ward ignored Lucas’ question. Ward’s attention was entirely on me. It felt like a physical weight on my chest.

“What about Kate?” Ward asked cautiously. “Have you seen her? Is she ok?”

In the next two seconds, my life flashed before my eyes. I’d never been so sure that I was about to be beaten up in that moment, including the time I backed up over my Uncle Jimmy’s favorite dog’s tail (after an amputation, Rattail the coonhound was rechristened Stumpy and recovered just fine). Lucas was silent, and his gaze shot between us, back and forth, like he was watching a particularly riveting table tennis match.

“Yeah. She’s fine. Uh, I saw her today on campus,” I stuttered. Did I dare to tell him the truth? Maybe it would be better? Maybe he would be understanding? That could happen, right?

“Why would that make me want to kill you?” Ward seemed genuinely, and rightfully, confused by our conversation. My words flowed out of me in an unthinking rush, spurred on by horniness and stupidity.

“Well anyway I saw her today. She was wearing this super tight, strapless pink dress and it was really…” I trailed off when his eyes narrowed, and his shoulders tensed. His hands balled into fists, and my hands, which were tracing the outline of an hourglass, dropped to my sides like they’d been turned into lead. Bad move, dumbass. I shrugged and tried to look casual, although I was suddenly afraid he might charge me. He wasn’t a linebacker, but I could bet it would still hurt. “It’s not my fault!” I protested when he continued to glare.

The tense seconds dragged by as Ward stared at me. His left eye twitched in a way that would have looked somewhat comical if it didn’t also look vaguely psychotic. “Let’s just pretend this conversation never happened,” he finally grumbled, looking at me with could only be conveyed as a clear and unambiguous warning. He picked up his water bottle and left, sending a final, parting glare at me. “I don’t want to hear you talking like that about Kate ever again.” Then he glared at Lucas. “You either.”

Lucas spread his hands in innocence and his eyes went wide. “What? Me? I didn’t even do anything. I was just sitting here minding my own business!”

Ward slammed the door to his room in answer. Once he was gone, I looked at Lucas in a panic.

“You’re screwed,” Lucas pronounced. He picked up his cereal bowl to drink the milk, seemingly unconcerned about my fate.

“I have to figure out a way to get out of this date,” I told Lucas, scared shitless. “I think she has a serious crush on me, man.” I said nothing of my feelings for her. My need for self-preservation was too strong in that moment.

Lucas drank his cereal milk—a revolting habit if there ever was one—and then put down the bowl to stroke his nonexistent beard thoughtfully. “Shit,” Lucas eventually said, shaking his head. “This is going to be complicated.” Which meant he was going to help. He liked complicated. Lucas rose from his desk chair and slumped down onto our tired, second-hand couch. It groaned under his weight. I knew how the old couch felt. “We need a plan.”

Even though I hated what I was about to do, I couldn’t figure out another way to deal with my current predicament. It was this, or murder. In the second I had to decide, I made the only choice I had available to me. And I truly didn’t want to be murdered by my best friend. So, Lucas and I sat down around a pizza and six pack and we came up with a plan. Project Kate Date was born.