Hector (8 page)

Just a few feet away from them, Hector spoke through his smile,
“If you start doing that thing with your head and biting your lip, I’m out.”

“But—”

Hector turned to him incredulous. “Are you seriously gonna do
that again? I wasn’t kidding, dude. I thought we talked about this earlier.”
Hector lowered his voice. “Trust me. You look like an idiot.
Do not
do that again, okay?”
He
discreetly placed his hand on Walter’s arm then squeezed
hard
and whispered. “Okay?”

Walter flinched then rolled his eyes but finally agreed with a
nod. They walked over to the girls. Unlike when he and Walter had first
arrived, Charlee wasn’t acting as friendly anymore. She was probably tired of
being there. Hector could relate. He was like that too. During play, he’d get
so lost in the game hours could fly and he wouldn’t even know it. Watching a
tournament was different. While he enjoyed it, he could only watch for so long
before he was done.

Neither one of the girls said anything when they arrived. Charlee
even seemed preoccupied, glancing in another direction. Walter’s dumb ass, who
was supposed to be bringing him over to meet another member of the team, said
nothing either. Instead he stood there looking all nervous and fidgeting with
his hands. Finally, the other girl with Charlee spoke. “Congrats!” She smiled,
holding out her hand.

Hector shook her hand and smiled. “Thanks.”

“We know who
you
are,”
she said, prodding Charlee with her arm. “I’m Drew and this is Charlee.
Looks like you two are going to be on the team together now.”

Charlee nodded, her smile was forced, and she didn’t offer her
hand like Drew had. Those sparkling blues eyes of hers darted away in another
direction the moment they met his. “That’s an unusual name,” Hector said in an
attempt to get her to look at him again. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a girl
named Charlee before.”

She turned to him a bit wide-eyed but then smiled, making his own
smile go even bigger. “It’s Charlotte actually, but everyone calls me Charlee.”

Hector nodded, taking in her deep blue eyes. “Ah, I see.
Charlee.
I like that. It’s cute—suits you.”

Their eyes locked for the tiniest of moments before she glanced
away again, pulling a strand of that fiery red hair behind her ear.

Her friend cleared her throat, and Hector turned to see her
grinning. “So, is this the first chess team you’ve been on, Hector?”

It was only when he saw Drew grin even bigger that he realized he
wore the biggest goof-ass smile still. Had Charlee smiling at him actually done
that to him? He felt almost as stupid as Walter bobbing his head looked and immediately
toned the smile down to a smirk.

Walter nudged Hector before he could respond to Drew. “Since you
made this team, then most likely they’ll be inviting you to play on the school
team as well.” Walter’s head started the damn bobbing thing again. These girls
must think them the two biggest idiots. Hector slid his hand in his pocket,
making sure to elbow Walter in the process. Walter picked up on it right away
and stopped the head movement then continued. “You can’t start school mid
semester, but their inviting you to come and sit in with the chess team as soon
as you want is a sure sign they want you on it. You gonna be there on Monday?”

Trying to regain some of his cool back, Hector glanced around,
not showing much interest. “I’ll have to check my schedule, but I think I’ll be
able to swing it.”

Walter started to fill him in on the time and place they meet,
but Drew interrupted him. “So are you doing anything to celebrate this win,
Hector? This is a pretty big deal.” She turned to Charlee with a smile. “Isn’t
it, Charlee?”

Immediately his eyes were on Charlee again.
Yeah, real smooth
.
What the hell
was his problem? She nodded but glanced away again, not looking the least bit
impressed. Hector wondered if maybe she too was a chess snob. He stared at her
probably a little too long, because when he turned back to Drew, she was
looking at him a bit quizzically with that same grin she wore earlier.
Damn it.

“I hadn’t made any plans,” he said, overcompensating with a flirtatious
smile. “But I’m sure I’ll find one way or another to celebrate.”

He had plenty of open invitations he could head to straight from
here. Weekend or not, his evenings were never dull. “Well, I think you should
do
something
.” Drew smirked, giving Hector
the tiniest bit of hope. Maybe he’d confused her grinning earlier for having
caught him gaping at Charlee with his goofy smile, and she’d actually been
flirting with him. He really hoped so, because he felt pretty stupid now.

He sized Drew up very obviously to test his theory. She was a
little on the skinny side, and he’d never been into blondes, but then he’d
never been into redheads either, and here one smile from Charlee had turned him
into a bumbling idiot. Blond or not, Drew was
doable
. Typically, he’d be all over what was beginning to sound
like an invitation, but for some reason, he wasn’t feeling it. Still, he
decided to play along just to make up for having been so transparent about
getting caught up with Charlee—the girl Walter was pining after. “You have any
suggestions?”

Bingo! Her face lit up as he expected it would, and he felt the
relief seep in. His theory was right. This was exactly what the sheepish grins
had been about. She was flirting with him—not on to him. Just as she began to
speak, two girls he’d never seen before walked up to them.
“Hector
Ayala?”
The taller of the two turned to Drew and Charlee. “I’m sorry to
interrupt, but I just
had
to ask.”
She turned back to Hector without giving Drew or Charlee a moment to respond.
“Are you really the same Hector from 5
^th
Street?”

Hector smiled, nodding but didn’t get a chance to answer before
Walter answered for him, “The one and only!”

Hector turned to Walter, who was starting the stupid head thing
again, and shot him a look. Walter stopped immediately and to Hector’s relief
lost the unconvincing smug expression as well.

“I told you.” The shorter girl said with a big smile then reached
her hand out to Hector. “I’m Miriam and this is Leticia.” Hector shook Miriam’s
hand then Leticia’s as well.

“Finally, a Latino on the team,” Leticia said. “I was cheering
you on for that reason alone, but then Miriam said you were from 5
^th
Street in East L.A., and I couldn’t believe it. I used to live right by there.”

“Really?”
He smiled.

Out of habit because it’s what he usually did when girls came up
to him like this and because Leticia’s body language was giving him the go-ahead
to do so, Hector checked her out.
Very nice
.
Miriam wasn’t half bad either but nothing real
eye catching—your typical Hispanic girl—long dark straight hair, big dark eyes
and a little too much makeup. But Leticia had it going on and she knew it too.
She was tall and slender but not too thin. The curves were in all the right
places, just like he liked them, and she was showing just enough cleavage to
tease at how nicely stacked she was.

“Yes, I did,” Leticia smiled a little more seductively now that
she saw she had his full attention. “Not for very long, but even after we moved,
we used to go back a lot because my mom liked the grocery stores in that area.”

Hector nodded as Leticia continued to talk. He glanced at Drew,
who did nothing to hide the annoyance she was obviously feeling over this
little interruption. Charlee didn’t look too happy either, but she wasn’t as
blatant as Drew. He had a feeling what they were thinking, because he was sort
of wondering himself. These two didn’t look the chess tournament type at all. And
they were dressed more like two girls out on the prowl for the night than they
were for a chess tournament. “We play chess too,” Miriam said as if he’d read
his mind.

“Not good enough to enter a competition like this,” Leticia added
with another flirtatious smile.

For the first time since they’d arrived, Charlee suddenly spoke.
“It’s by invitation only.”

“Yeah, you don’t just
enter
to try out for the U.S. team,” Drew explained.

The sarcasm didn’t go unnoticed by Leticia because her eyebrow
lifted. “I know that.”

“Have you ever played in a speed tournament?” Walter asked.

Apparently he was the only one of them that failed to catch the
snarky tone in Charlee and Drew’s remarks, because he seemed genuinely curious.

Leticia must’ve mistaken Walter’s question to be another jab at
her level of chess skill, because her response was just as snappy. “No, but I
have
been in tournaments.”

“Ever won any?” Charlee asked, those deep blue eyes of hers
finally staying in one place long enough for Hector to
really
get a good look. He’d never seen lashes the color of hers. From
this distance, he could see they were as bright red as her hair. From further
away, they’d looked almost dark brown, but he saw now that was only because
they were so thick. It made the blue in her eyes stand out even more. They were
something else: way different than any eyes he’d ever admired up close. And he
could easily get lost trying to count all of the delicate freckles sprinkled
over her cute little nose and around her eyes.

He glanced back at Leticia now. She’d gone from looking pissed to
smiling playfully again as she whipped her long hair back. “I’ve won a few
actually. But I’m not here to talk about me. I just wanted to congratulate the
newest member of the U.S. team.” She actually let out a loud hoot and did a
fist pump. “You make me so proud, Hector.” She moved in closer, handing her
phone to Miriam. “Will you take a picture with me?” Without giving him a chance
to respond, she wrapped her arms around his torso and adjusted them both so
they now stood directly in front of Drew and Charlee but with their backs to them.

Never one to miss an opportunity like this but more than anything
feeling the need to make up for having come across like such a sap earlier, Hector
pulled her close. He felt her ample cleavage press up against his chest, and he
moved his hand up and down her back as they posed for the photos. Miriam then
asked Walter if he could take one of the three of them together and he did. The
girls got a little silly and loud, asking Walter to take more photos: one
pose
here, a different pose there, one after another. Leticia,
who’d been touchy-feely from the very first photo, eventually slipped her hand
into Hector’s.

By the time the impromptu photo session was done and the playful
but mostly flirtatious banter was over, both girls were making it all too clear
that if he were up for hanging out with one or both of them tonight, so were
they. This was more than enough distraction. He’d just about forgotten about
Charlee and Drew until he saw Walter searching the room, looking a bit disconcerted.
There weren’t anywhere to be seen.

Hector pulled away from Leticia’s hold for a moment and leaned closer
to Walter. “What happened? Did they leave?”

“I don’t see them.” Walter shrugged with a frown. “I didn’t even
notice when they left.”

“They left as soon as I took the first photo,” Miriam informed
them.

“Are they good friends of yours?” Leticia asked. “Because I’m
sorry, but they were a little bitchy.”

Hector smirked, feeling even more relieved now. He couldn’t argue
there. They had been on the bitchy side, especially Drew—further confirmation
that she’d been flirting with him. Walter, on the other hand, seemed completely
at a loss.

He looked at the girls blankly. “They hardly said anything.”

Of course, Walter hadn’t seen it. He was so into little Ms. Blue
Eyes she could do no wrong. Hector knew from the moment Walter had informed him
that she was also on the U.S. team she had to be good, but he was even more curious
now. “On a scale from one to ten, how good would you say
Charlee’s
game is?”

A big smile spread across Walter’s face. “Oh, she’s good. She’s
our resident tactician. I’d say at least a nine maybe even ten.”

Maybe
even ten?
And a tactician?
Of course, if
long, thought-out play was her specialty, she was no doubt a chess snob
herself. No wonder she hadn’t seemed even remotely impressed by his win like
everyone else. And here Hector had actually considered for a moment that maybe
she too was being a bit catty with Leticia for the same reason as Drew. It was
just the chess snob in her.

Leticia squeezed Hector’s hand, and he squeezed back then patted
Walter on the shoulder. “See you Monday, big guy. Thanks for walking me through
this today. I owe you one.”

Hector and both girls made their way through the crowd, being
stopped several times by people wanting to congratulate him. As smug as he felt
and as great as this had worked out, one thought still came to mind. Would
everyone else on the team be thinking the same thing—that a knockout speed
tournament was not the greatest way to go about acquiring the best player for
the team?

As if tonight’s win hadn’t been enough, he’d still have to prove
himself? The good thing about knowing Charlee was not impressed by him was he
wouldn’t have to worry about the thought that crossed his mind more than once tonight
when he got such a close look at those blue eyes—that maybe
just maybe
he
could
be attracted to a cute little redhead with the most amazing
blue eyes he’d ever seen.

She was Walter’s to pine over—not his—not that he thought Walter
stood a chance with Charlee. Still, he’d done enough to bring Walter down over
the years. He wasn’t about to add more to his already insufferable, guilty
conscience.