Best Dating Rules: A Romantic Comedy (The Best Girls Book 2) (29 page)

“Hold on, I’m teasing you. Don’t get upset!” His smile disappeared. “A guy can go a lot longer than that. We just usually don’t want to, but we won’t die from going without. I’m prepared to go without for a long time to prove myself to Charlie.”

But exactly how long was a long time?

Josh interrupted her thoughts. “You’re not very experienced are you?”

“Not very.”

“And Charlie? Is she like you? Innocent, I mean?”

“Josh I don’t think I should talk to you about Charlie.”

He groaned, “She is, isn’t she? No wonder she doesn’t want to have anything to do with a guy like me.” He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “I’d go back and change my past if I could. Do you think it’s a lost cause? Will I ever be good enough for her?”

“What would you do if I told you no? If I told you tonight there was absolutely zero chance she’d ever come around and be able to trust you, what would you do?”

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead. He sat forward and caught her gaze, all the humor gone from his face. “I’d do exactly what I’m doing now. That man is gone, the one who slept around, going out with women only for sex. I won’t be able to sleep with a girl I’m not in love with—one I’m not willing to commit to. Not now. I know Charlie doesn’t believe it and you probably don’t either, but I love her. I decided I love her and once I make a decision I stick with it.”

“But, Josh. She might never even give you a chance. I’m sorry. I’d love to tell you she’ll finally listen to you some day, if you wait long enough. But she might not.”

“Then some day, I may really be able to answer your question about how long a guy can go without sex,” he said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Josh felt his heart die a little. Charlie was innocent and he didn’t deserve her. How could he even ask her to be with him?

“Josh... Do you think a player really can change? Can he really stick with one girl? Or will he eventually revert to his old ways?”

Emily was watching him intently, chewing on her lip. “You’re not asking about me and Charlie, are you? You’re asking about Spencer. Right?”

She looked down. “Yes,” she whispered.

“He’d be stupid to want to be with anyone besides you, and I don’t think he’s that stupid. And he can wait a lot longer than four weeks. He’ll wait as long as he needs to. Okay? Feel better?”

“Okay,” she agreed. But he could tell she wasn’t really convinced. If Emily wouldn’t trust Spencer, what chance did he have of ever getting Charlie to trust him? Did it matter? Could he ever actually be good enough for Charlie Best?

“By the way, Emily? Does Spencer know I’m here tonight? I’m a little surprised he was okay with it.”

Her eyes widened. “I... I didn’t think. Do you think he’ll mind? Surely he won’t care.”

“Of course not. But, I don’t want him to beat me up because he thinks I’m chasing you again.”

“Ohmygosh! You’re right. I should call him now. I don’t want him to think I’m hiding something.”

He nodded and watched her pull out her phone to call Spencer. She waited and then her face fell when it went to voice mail. “Uhmm. Hi, Spencer. It’s Friday night, and I know you’re helping your dad with some project, but call me if you get a chance. Josh came over to keep me company.” After a pause, she added, “And so he could moan about Charlie, of course. Anyway, call if you get a chance. Bye.”

“How was that?” she asked, screwing her face to one side.

“I guess we’ll find out. If he comes over with a gun, I think I might be grateful. He could just put me out of my misery.”

Spencer cursed under his breath. He’d missed a call from Emily at eight o’clock. It was already after midnight, way too late to call her back. He listened to her message, and cursed a little louder. He didn’t want her hanging out with Josh when he wasn’t around. But how could he insist she sit around alone when he was secretly working? And now, she was going to wonder why he didn’t call her back.

Rather than risk waking her, he sent a text. “Sorry I missed you. Accidentally turned ringer off. Project went long. Call you in the morning.”

He’d had a great night in tips so far. One Friday or Saturday night was probably worth two weeknights. But he couldn’t give up many weekend nights with Emily, or she’d get suspicious.

“Hey, Spencer! Can you get this one?”

Every car was one step closer to getting a ring for Emily. “I’m coming!”

Becca scanned the hiking group, searching for Spencer. She was totally frustrated. He hadn’t come on a single hike in a month, not since the day he’d come on the hike looking for Emily. What did he see in her? She was so flat-chested she barely even looked like a girl. All the guys appreciated Becca’s assets and let her know about it. She was very popular, except with Spencer. She hadn’t been able to get his attention, and it really bothered her. Now her phone calls went straight to voicemail, and he never called her back. He seemed to be really angry with her, and it wasn’t even her fault.

It was all Emily’s fault. All she’d done was let him know Emily was going out with another guy. She’d never cheat on Spencer like Emily had. Emily claimed they were only friends, so she was obviously leading him on. She didn’t deserve Spencer. And then Mr. Gherring filed charges against her for slipping a ruffie in Emily’s wine. It was a good thing she’d gone home and flushed the extras down the toilet after he made some remark about her attempting murder. She wasn’t trying to kill Emily. Granted, she put three in the wine glass instead of one, but Emily wouldn’t drink the whole glass of wine. It took her over an hour to drink the first glass. And it wasn’t that dangerous, either—she’d used them herself and always had fun. Emily had probably faked being sick to get attention from Spencer.

Becca knew she could have any other guy in the hiking club, but now she was determined to have Spencer. Maybe after they’d been together a few times, she’d drop him, just to let him know what rejection felt like. It was almost time for the hike to start, and he still hadn’t shown up. Then she heard Landon mention his name to a group of girls.

“Yeah, Spencer needs a dance teacher so he can dance at some wedding in a few weeks.”

“What kind of dancing?” asked Marsha.

“He said everything, even ballroom dancing.”

“Oh,” she replied, “I don’t know of a teacher for that. Our place has like a hip hop class.”

“Me, neither,” said Leah. “But I could ask around.”

Spencer wanted to take dance lessons? Becca felt like she’d been given a gift—a second chance. “I know a place,” said Becca. “The studio where I take jazzercise has ballroom dance classes on Mondays and Wednesdays.”

Landon scrunched up his nose. “I thought you and Spencer weren’t speaking to each other.”

Becca adopted her most unfairly injured look; “He accused me of something I didn’t even do, but I don’t hold it against him. Some day I hope he’ll find out he was wrong about me, but I’ll just give you the information. He doesn’t have to talk to me or even know it was me that helped him out.”

“Okay, sure. What’s it called?”

“Brooklyn Ballroom Dance and Zumba,” she said. This was a perfect opportunity. Now to make the most of it...

Spencer and Emily were already walking on the Highline Park when Landon called with the information about the dance class. “Okay, thanks for the info, Landon. I appreciate it. Yeah, maybe next week.” Everything was falling together nicely. He was quickly saving up a nice nest egg for the ring. Charlie said she could help him pick out a design Emily would like. Now he had a place to take dance lessons, so he could surprise her at Sam and Tanner’s wedding. There was still one tiny little problem. He needed to be sure she would say yes when he asked her.

“What did Landon call about?” asked Emily. “Were you supposed to go on a hike today? You don’t need to miss just because of me.”

“I’m not anxious to go on another hike when Becca might be there. Your dad said we should watch out for her.”

“I don’t know. I still think he’s over-reacting.”

“Don’t be naïve, Emily.”

“Don’t lecture me—I’m not naïve.”

Of course she was naïve. She’d trusted Becca enough to call her for information about that hike, and couldn’t believe Becca had drugged her wine. But he wisely clamped his mouth shut, and searched for a way to change the subject.

“So how was your date with Josh last night?” He couldn’t help the jealousy that crept into his voice. He didn’t trust Josh alone with Emily, no matter how much he swore he liked Charlie instead.

“It wasn’t a date. We split the cost of a pizza, and he certainly didn’t kiss me.”

“I don’t trust him,” he pouted.

“It sounds like you don’t trust me.”

“That’s not it. I don’t... I don’t like to think of you alone with him—with any other guy. Wouldn’t you feel the same way? I mean, what if I spent an evening alone with Candace or Becca or Leah?”

“Who’s Leah?”

“She’s just a girl in the hiking... That’s not the point. The point is, wouldn’t it bother you if I spent an evening alone with another girl?”

“No,” she said stubbornly. Then she grinned, “You could spend an evening alone with Grace or Olivia or Hannah or Claire, and it wouldn’t bother me at all.”

“Then I won’t be bothered when you spend an evening with any of your brothers, either.” He grinned until she laughed.

“Fine, I won’t be alone with Josh again, but it really was completely innocent. And he really is miserable. He told me he’s in love with Charlie.”

“Has he told her that?”

“I hope not. She’s definitely not ready to hear that from Josh.”

Spencer swallowed hard. “Why wouldn’t she want to hear it? You’d think she’d like knowing Josh loved her.”

“She won’t believe it because they haven’t known each other very long. She’ll think it’s a line.” So much for his plan to declare his love to Emily today. She might not be ready for it. How long had they been together? It had only been a couple of months since Emily arrived in New York. But if he counted the time since they first met, it could total eight months. On the other hand, they’d only been officially dating for about four weeks.

“I don’t think there’s a set length of time you have to know someone before you can love them,” he argued. “If it’s the right person, it doesn’t take long before you know.”

“Maybe. But she might think he was saying those words to get her to... to behave in a certain way.”

“Behave in what certain way?”

Emily’s face turned beet red. “You know. Guys who are experienced, like you and Josh, might say they love a girl just to get her to sleep with them.”

So now she was putting him and Josh in the same category. “That’s not true... Well, it’s not true for me. I’d never do something like that. A guy who did that would be a real slime-ball.”

“But how could she know for sure one way or the other?”

“Maybe she doesn’t know Josh well enough to know. But you know I’m not like that. Right?”

Spencer held his breath as Emily hesitated. “Even if a guy wasn’t purposely trying to manipulate a girl, he might do it subconsciously. Especially, a guy like... like Josh, who’s been with so many girls. He’s kissed Charlie now, and maybe he thinks he’s in love, but it’s really only a physical attraction.”

Spencer frowned. She hadn’t actually answered his question. And now... Was she really talking about Josh, or was she talking about him? “Well, I don’t know about Josh, but I’ve found when you’re really attracted to a girl on the inside, you’re really attracted to her physically as well. At least, that’s how I am with you.”

He waited an eternity for her response. “But Josh has been with so many girls. Why would Charlie think she was any different from the others? Even if he thinks so right now, he could change his mind. How would she know if she could trust him?”

“Maybe Josh hasn’t been with as many girls as you think.”

“Oh, he has. He admits it. But he says he’s changed.”

“Well, I can’t speak for Josh. But as for me, I’m only interested in you. I don’t even look at other girls any more.”

“Yeah… That sounds exactly like what Josh said about Charlie.”

“I think I really hate that guy,” he muttered.

“Well, he did try to defend you, if that makes you feel any better. He said you’d be stupid to want to be with anyone else.”

“You talked to him about me?” he asked, a little louder than he intended.

Emily’s guilty face spoke volumes. “I... I didn’t mean to. I was asking general questions about things like how long a guy could go without sex—”

“You talked to him about sex?” This time his voice was loud enough the couple walking in front of them turned to gawk.

Why hadn’t he killed Josh that first Sunday morning when he was so tempted?

Emily turned her face to the side to hide her blush. Somehow, her evening with Josh sounded much worse in the retelling. She didn’t want him to be on the defensive today. It would make it that much harder to talk to him—to find out the truth. Had he really been helping his dad last night? Why would he lie to her? She could really only think of one reason—he was getting bored and frustrated with her.