Romance: Young Adult Romance: The Perfect Game (A Highschool Football Romance) (Bad Boy Nerd New Adult Romance) (81 page)

Chapter Four

Faith stayed busy for the next two days, hanging out with Stacy and Darryl and some of the other kids from their group. She didn’t want to watch Ethan getting drunk and acting like an idiot. She had a hard time believing he was really like that.

Darryl seemed to enjoy spending his time with two of them instead of Ethan and he introduced Stacy to another player on the team, Andrew, who took an immediate shine to Stacy. Both were very outgoing in the same way and discussed where they had been hiking and camping more than anyone Faith had ever heard before. How many times could you discuss the same trail and what the best equipment was for each occasion?

Darryl proved to be the opposite of what Ethan seemed to
be,
and she wondered how they could be such good friends. She found herself drawn to Darryl. He was outspoken in a way that
she
hadn’t noticed before. In fact, she didn’t know anyone like him. He was unafraid to speak his feelings, never bowed to what someone else’s opinion might be and always seemed to have reasons for everything he believed. He could back up his thoughts with at least three or four other
thoughts
and back them up, too. He also sang great karaoke and would sometimes clap loudly for no reason, which turned out to be a lot less annoying to Faith than it was the first time he’d done it. He followed it up with a “yeehaw!”

It broke any tension there might have been in the room without a doubt. She loved his sense of humor and the fact that he could make her laugh with only a look.

Saturday night was the last night they would be at the beach. Stacy and Andrew decided they wanted to try the best chicken wings place on the coast, Foster’s Grill.

“You really can’t beat wings and a large
Coke,
” Stacy said, sipping from her straw with a big grin on her face.

“These wings are incredibly hot.” Faith said,
foregoing
her straw and drinking from the cup itself, filling her mouth up to cool it down.

“You got the wrong ones
then,
” Darryl said. He scooted his plate toward her. “I got mild. You wanna try one?”

She looked at him. “You’re a
man,
and
you
’re eating mild wings?”

He lifted his eyebrows. “Well,
excuse
me. I guess I’ll take the offer back then.” He hooked his finger on the plate and attempted to pull it back toward
himself,
but she slapped his fingers lightly.

“No, no, I was only teasing. Yeah, I wanna try your wings.”

He laughed, shaking his head. “I got a sensitive stomach when it comes to hot stuff.” He admitted. “You won’t see me eating any curry or getting into one of those ‘see if you can eat the hottest wings on the planet’ contests. No thanks.” He folded his arms in front of him on the table and leaned forward with a smile.

“Me neither.” Faith shook her head. “And yeah, I guess I got the wrong wings.”

“It’s all you can eat
night,
” Stacy said. “You can get a different kind for the next round.”

“How many are you going to eat?” Faith asked incredulously. “You’ve already had, like, twenty of them.”

Stacy shrugged. “
Oh,
I don’t know. Maybe a dozen more?”

“You can have these. I can’t eat them.” Faith pushed her plate toward Stacy, who opened her eyes wide and stared at the plate as though she hadn’t already had almost two dozen of them.

“Oh yum! Thank you, girlfriend.”

Faith laughed and nodded. She looked over at Darryl, who was staring across the room, a watchful look on his face. She turned so she could see what he was
looking at
. Ethan was across the
room
with two girls, one arm around each of their shoulders. He was talking
loudly,
but they couldn’t hear what he was saying.

“What do you think he’s doing over there?” Faith asked, looking back to Darryl. He ran his tongue over his lips and shook his head, drawing in a deep breath.

“No idea. Why? You want me to
go fetch
him for you?”

She was surprised and looked at him, tilting her head. “No.” She laughed. “Why would you even ask that?”

He shrugged. “I thought you liked him.”

She was surprised again and looked closely at him. It looked as though something was bothering him. “Are you all right?”

“Sure.”

“I’m gonna go over there for a minute.” Stacy grabbed a chicken wing off Faith’s plate and scooted out of the booth, not indicating where she meant by “there
.”
She looked at Andrew. “Come with me, Andrew.”

“But I’m ea…”

“Grab a wing and
come
with me, Andrew!” Stacy demanded, lightheartedly, moving her eyes in Faith and Darryl’s direction for a moment. Andrew looked at the two and then back at Stacy.

“Oh! Oh, all right, yeah, let’s go over there.” He scooted over the bench toward Stacy, who had stood up.

Stacy grinned at Faith. “Clueless!” She
said softly
before grabbing Andrew’s hand and tugging on him, moving through the crowd.

Faith watched them leave. “What was that all about?” She turned back to Darryl. He still looked somewhat
sullen,
and she didn’t understand why. “What is going on with you, Darryl? What are you thinking about?”

“Well, I was just
wondering,
” Darryl said. “Do you still want to tutor me in English? I mean, I think it’s pretty obvious that Ethan doesn’t want to go out with you.”

Faith lifted her eyebrows in surprise. “Well! Where did that come from?”

“I think it’s the truth. Don’t you?”

“Well…” she turned her eyes and looked at Ethan again. He wasn’t paying her any attention. He hadn’t for most of the weekend. She’d enjoyed spending her time with Stacy and Darryl. She hadn’t
really
thought that much about Ethan or the “deal” she’d made
with Darryl
to tutor him in exchange for his help in getting a chance to date Ethan. “I kind of thought that since you were friends with him, you could help me out with that, bring me to his attention.”

Darryl huffed and shook his head, his face turning a bit dark.

She put one hand on his folded arm.

“But, Darryl, I see now that he…well, he isn’t
really
my type.”

He looked at
her,
and she felt her heart jump. His eyes were very revealing. He was a blunt kind of guy
anyway
. But even if he hadn’t been, she would have been able to see what he was thinking in his eyes.

“I
can see
that he isn’t interested.” She conceded.

“So where does that leave me? I have to worry about my future, you know. I have to think about my classes and football and all that. I don’t have time to be messing around. He can spend his time getting drunk and doing stupid things.”

“Or girls.”

Darryl couldn’t resist smiling. “Yeah. That, too. I have my future to think about.”

“I know. I do, too.”

“You know what you’re going to do in your future. You don’t have to worry about it.”

She sighed. “Well, I wouldn’t say that. I mean, anything can happen, you know? I know being an elementary school teacher doesn’t sound like much, but it’s important to
me,
and I don’t want to mess it up either, any more than you want to mess up the career you have in mind.”

“Are you still thinking about dating Ethan? You still want me to talk to him for you?
I talked to
him that one time but…well, I haven’t said anything to him since then.”

“I don’t see
as
how you’ve had much of a chance considering you’ve been hanging around with
Stacy and me
and Andrew all weekend.”

“Yeah,
true
. But do you still want me too?”

Her original thoughts had been to tutor Darryl and
try
to make Ethan jealous. But it seemed now that the opposite had happened. Darryl was jealous that she wanted to date Ethan and wanted him to talk to the boy for her. She felt an overwhelming sense of affection for Darryl and gave his arm a squeeze where she was still holding it.

“You don’t have to talk to Ethan for me, Darryl.”

She
was amused
by the look of relief that swept over his face.

He
was
glad she didn’t want him to talk to Ethan. Over the weekend, his belief that she deserved better than his friend had only gotten stronger. He’d discovered that she was not just smart and not just
pretty
. She had a good soul and a kind heart. She had a great sense of humor. She had everything he wanted in a girl and he didn’t want to see her with some scoundrel who was only going to take advantage of every good thing about her.

“You shouldn’t be with someone you can’t trust, Faith.” He
said quietly
.

She nodded. “I know.”

“You deserve better than what he dishes out.”

When she replied, her voice was as soft as his. “I know.”

She realized she desperately wanted him to say that he was the one she deserved. She wanted him to ask her out. She wanted him to kiss her and never stop.

She wondered if he could see that when he looked at her.

They stared at each other for a few minutes. “Darryl.” She said his name and bit her lower lip when he flushed a little bit. All she’d done was say his name. She gave him a soft
smile,
and he returned it.

“Who do you think I should go out with?” She asked. Why didn’t he say it? Why didn’t he just ask her out?

He didn’t respond for a moment.

“Come
on; you
’re always open and up front with me.
You’re so blunt.
Surely you know who I should be with.” She turned and looked
through
the room. “How about Dwayne? Over there.” She pointed at one of the other players. “I could date him. Or how about Johnny? He’s
pretty cute
. Or I could take Andrew from Stacy, ooh, that would be fun, wouldn’t it? Our
own
little soap opera? Or…”

“No, Faith.” He stopped her, reaching up to gently turn her face back toward him. “I don’t think so.”

His touch sent a jolt of electricity through her. His eyes told her the whole
story,
but she wanted to hear him say it.

“I’m the one you should be with.”

Finally, she heard the words she wanted to hear. She pulled in her breath and held it for a second. When she responded, her voice shook a little bit. “You?”

She found her breath coming and going quickly.

“Yes.” He breathed. “Me. I want you to be with me.”

He leaned forward and touched her lips with his, sending a warm flood of emotion through Faith’s body. Her legs went numb for a moment. She kissed him back more forcefully, thinking how incredibly soft his lips were.

They kissed a few more times before pulling away from each other. She looked
in
his eyes and felt her heart melting.

“Oh Darryl, I’m so glad you finally said something.”

“You are?” He grinned. “I thought you wanted to be with Ethan.”

She giggled. “I did. But that’s all changed. I…we would be a great couple.”

He leaned forward so that he was within kissing distance again but he didn’t kiss her. “I think so, too.” He said before touching her lips with his once more. He pulled back slightly and whispered, “Does this mean I have to pay for my English tutoring now?”

She threw back her head and laughed before throwing her arms around his neck and squeezing him tight. She put her lips
against
his ear and said, “Oh, you’ll be paying for them all right.”

He laughed
with
her and shook his head. “Oh Lord, what
have
I gotten myself into?”

*****

THE END

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