Play With Me (13 page)

That grabbed my
attention. I opened my mouth to say something, but I just didn’t know what. So
I closed it and gaped at her with quirked brows.

“Everyone knows
you quit playing because Hunter put the moves on you, and you didn’t like it.”

I took a few
moments to think this over. “Is that so?” Who would tell this bullshit?

“Yeah. Well…it’s
the truth, isn’t it?”

If I kept taking
pauses between answering like I did, people might start to consider me a little
retarded. “Not exactly.”

Her eyes
narrowed. Little Susie seemed slightly confused. “What do you mean,
not
exactly?
He didn’t hit on you?”

“He did. I just
meant the
‘I didn’t like it’
part.”

“Wow, so you
did?”

Like it? “Yeah,
I think so.”

Susan laughed as
if this was the most pleasing news she’d heard in weeks. She grabbed a few booklets
and dropped them into her shopping basket. Then she stopped dead and turned to
me, looking like she was about to explode. “Then why for Pete’s sake did you
leave the team?”

I played with
the books and shrugged. “It’s a little complicated.” And not something I wanted
to talk about. I could feel her eyes boring into my head, so I spun around with
a sigh and spilled. “He kissed me, and I liked it, okay? Only, he didn’t do it
for the right reason. Not because he
really
liked me. More as a favor to
a friend.”

“Are you
bananas, babe? Ryan Hunter is completely under your spell.”

As she stressed
every syllable, my chin dropped to my chest. “What?”

“Do you have any
idea how long it took him to convince Tony to bring you to one of his parties?”

“You serious?”

She nodded
vigorously. “And you were the only one who came onto the team without scoring a
goal at the tryouts. I would know, I had to score two to really prove myself.”

“Wait, that’s
not true. I hit Frederickson straight in the chest.”

Susan’s grin
irritated me. “Do I need to lay the rules of soccer out to you? A goal is
not
where you hit the goalie.”

Damn, she was
right. “But Tony and Ryan told me to shoot at him.”

“Because it was
the easiest way for you to succeed.”

I slapped my
brow and ground my teeth. Ryan really did treat me in a favored way. But why
would he?

As if to answer
my silent questions, Susan tilted her head, pursed her lips, and sang in an
annoying
I-told-you-so
tone, “He likes you.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I
agreed in a low voice.

“So what will
you do? Come back to play soccer?”

“No.”

She made a pouty
face. “Why not?”

“I told you it’s
complicated.”

“You’re still in
love with Tony. That’s it, right? M&M will never really break up.”

At this point I
regretted coming to town with Susan Miller, nag-queen of Grover Beach High. If
she wasn’t so sweet in her own nosy way, I’d have turned and walk out of the
shop already.

“I think it’s
cool that you forgave him. Cloesetta Summers was just a stupid mistake after
all.”

“Cloesetta?” I
snorted with laughter at that name.

“The girls on
the team call her that because she has the irritating ability to drag every boy
into her closet and make out with them. I think the name fits.”

Me too. However,
I couldn’t believe how much this girl knew about my private life. And with her,
the entire soccer team as it seemed. Maybe it was time to set a few facts
straight. “I don’t think Tony and I will ever be what we were before
Cloesetta
got hold of him.”

Her nose
wrinkled as she shifted her mouth funnily to one side. “Shame. You were like
the only absolute term in a changing world as we grew up.”

It
was
a
shame. But I didn’t want our chat to go down this road. So I shrugged it off
and dragged her to the cash register, where we waited in line to pay for our
items. However, it didn’t take long until curiosity got the best of me. “How
are Tony and Hunter getting along during training, anyway? Last time I saw
them, one had a bleeding nose.”

“It’s spooky.
They either shout at each other, or they don’t speak at all. No one who sees
them now would believe they were
this close
—” she crossed her fingers
for emphasis “—only a few weeks ago.”

It hurt me in a
strange way to hear that. I knew how much Tony idolized Ryan. Their friendship
went way back. The thought that I had driven a wedge between them upset me no
end. And as this realization sank in, I knew I had forgiven him. He’d been a
complete ass a few weeks ago, but he’d been my best friend for a lifetime.
Maybe it was time to see him. Set things straight between us and repair our
friendship if I could.

For all the
nagging Susan did this afternoon, I was still glad I’d gone out with her. We
said goodbye at my front door, but instead of getting to my room, I tossed the
bag with the books and pens on the shelf in the hallway and headed out again.

Wearing my spaghetti
strapped top, a humid evening breeze settled around my naked arms and shoulders
as I walked up the few meters between my house and Tony’s. After not seeing him
for so long, my heart thudded violently as I rang the doorbell.

CHAPTER

14

EILEEN MITCHELL
ANSWERED the door.

“Hi, Miss
Mitchell. Is Tony in?”

Her face, which
had lit up when she saw me, now turned into an apologetic moue. “Sorry, dear.
You missed him about ten minutes.”

Perfect. Just my
luck. “You wouldn’t know where he went?”

Eileen shook her
head. “Shall I send him over when he comes back?”

Should she? I
grimaced. “No. I think I’ll just call him.”

She smiled and
nodded, then closed the door as I dragged my feet from their front yard. I
pulled out my phone, but somehow I didn’t want to talk to him this way. So I
punched in a message instead. WHERE ARE YOU?

GROUND ZERO were
the two words he sent back. And I hadn’t even reached my front door yet.

My spirit
lifted. I wheeled my bike out of the shed and pedaled it to the small lake
where Tony and I had spent some very nice afternoons together. It wasn’t really
a lake, but more a pond in the middle of the woods. We used to call this place
Ground Zero, because some ten years ago, Tony had found a strange box there,
filled with six metal balls. He’d assured me they were made of Trilithium, the
only known power source for starships. We had been waiting for the aliens’
return all week. Little did we know of Boccia, the Italian style of bowling,
back then.

I spotted Tony
sitting on the aging log that was about as long as a park bench. Leaning my
mountain bike against the closest tree, I climbed over the fallen trunk and
settled down next to him. Neither of us said a word.

Gazing at the
small pond for quite some time gave us the chance to silently make up. When the
concert of frogs turned the evening into a romantic night, I rested my head on
Tony’s shoulder and let out a sigh that seemed to have stuck in my chest since
the last time he’d climbed out of my window.

His arm wrapped
around my shoulders, his cheek pressed against my brow. It was like all those
many times when I was in his arms before, utterly content, completely safe. Just
this time I felt no tingle in my gut. No butterflies. No joyful heart-pounding.
Like all the excitement had faded out of me.

In a way I
missed it. In another…not. I knew why the feeling was lacking now. He’d hurt me
on a level that was beyond repair. But somehow even that was okay. Things
changed. We were growing up. And I couldn’t hold it against him.

“Sorry. I didn’t
intend to ruin your summer with being the master of ass-land,” he said in a
very calm voice.

I let that
apology hang in the air for a few minutes.

Finally, I
scooted out of his embrace, lifted my legs to the trunk and hugged my knees to
my chest, facing him. “Why did it never happen with us? The couple thing I
mean. I’ve spent more time in my life with you than with anyone else. We cuddled,
we played, we talked. We did everything together. Why did we never kiss?” Amazing.
One might think I’d knocked back half a bowl of wine cooler to babble so free
from the heart and not blush one bit.

Tony rubbed the
back of his neck, giving me a tight smile. “I don’t know. Maybe hanging out was
too normal for us.” He licked his bottom lip. Swinging one leg over the log, he
sat astride and grabbed both my ankles in front of him. “At least it was for
me. I kind of took you for granted. Your love for me was permanent. Why should
I have worried about losing you?”

Because Ryan
Hunter came along while you were busy with someone else.
“Yeah, why should you?”

“The thing is I
never knew how much it would hurt to see you kissing another guy. You made me learn
that lesson the hard way.”

“You know I
always wanted you to be my first.” And the last for that matter. The fact I
could tell him this now had me wondering how far I really had distanced myself from
him, emotionally.

“That ship has
sailed away, I suppose.” He angled his head with that typical sheepish smile. I
still loved him for that, if nothing else. Suddenly he held my ankles tighter,
moved my legs apart and scooted forward. When he let go, my thighs rested on
top of his. We were sitting in a very new, very
intimate
position. His
face was so close I could count the lashes on his lids.

I realized he
was a breath away from kissing me. And suddenly I was smiling. “You aren’t
really going to do this, are you?”

“Why not?” The
smirk didn’t totally vanishing from his lips. “I think for the sake of all
those years I granted you the larger part of my comforter when you fell asleep
in my bed, we should at least give it a shot.”

I didn’t know
what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything at all. And then Tony broke into
the last inch of my personal space and kissed me. Slowly. Sensually. Like I’d
always wanted him to do. He tasted perfect. Warm, sweet, natural…everything I
expected it to be. His hands covering mine were a gentle caress.

When I drew
back, his warm blue eyes searched my face. Sweet dimples appeared on his
cheeks. “This is not going to happen again, right?”

A sigh escaped
me on a soft laugh. “Why do you think so?”

He brushed his
knuckle along my jaw. “Because a kiss from me obviously fails to make you
shiver like one look of Ryan Hunter does.”

I laughed again.
And this time I felt my cheeks warming slightly. Yeah, just thinking of Ryan
did that to me.

Tony shifted
back on the log, and I resumed my curled up position. With my cheek resting on
my knees, I watched the vanilla moon creep up above the lush crowns of the
trees. Next to me, Tony fished out his phone and his fingers flew over the
keypad.

“What are you
doing?”

“Texting a
friend.” When he was done, he tucked it back into his pocket.

Minutes ticked
by as we gazed at the sky together. Although peaceful and relaxed, the
situation felt awkward. For both of us. Like no one knew what to say right now.
Not something that happened very often between us. Relief swamped me when he dropped
his gaze from the sky and said, “Some of the guys are going to watch
The
Avengers
this weekend. Wanna come?”

I wondered who
some
of the guys
was. I knew from Susan that Tony wasn’t talking to Cloey
anymore. But if she was with the group, I sure wouldn’t go. “Maybe. Who’s
coming?”

“Andy, Sasha,
Alex. He’s with Simone now, by the way. Frederickson will come if he doesn’t
have to sit his baby brother. And then of course…him.” He nodded his chin in
the direction behind me.

That definitely gave
me an electric bolt. I jerked my head around, spine straightening.

Ryan Hunter
strolled toward us, hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans, the sleeves of
a black shirt rolled up to the elbows. My mouth hung open at the unexpected
sight of him. The pounding of my heart was so loud I was sure he could hear it.
He greeted me with the tiniest tilt of his head and a slight half-smile.

“Am I disrupting
something?” he asked, his eyes set on me.

“Nope. I was
just about to leave.”

Huh, what?
My gaze snapped to Tony who’d risen from the trunk and stood next
to me.

“What have you
done?” I whispered, horrified, only now realizing who he’d sent the text to.

He leaned down
to speak into my ear. “Correcting a shitload of mistakes.” As he drew back, he
winked. “See you later.”

Oh, I should
have strangled him with my bare hands. Only, I was in shock and couldn’t move.
Not even when Tony was gone and Ryan Hunter settled down behind me, straddling
the trunk and looping his arms around my middle from behind.