Bet in the Dark (16 page)

             
By the time we slowed our pace to a cool-down jog, the track was filling up with other students. It stayed busy during the days and evenings in the spring and summer months when the weather permitted the use of outdoors. I knew Beckett would be out here this morning, since he made running the track a regular morning routine.

             
Britte and I finally crossed our finish line at the exact same time and then immediately broke out into more stretching. We were both still panting, wiping sweat from our eyes and neck with the bottoms of our t-shirt. We brought water bottles, but they were sitting over with our things on the bleachers and neither one of us was ready to make that walk.

             
“Don’t look now,” Britte panted out. “But your fake boyfriend is here.”

             
“What?” I asked in a breathy puff of air. Not able to help myself I followed her chin nod and looked over my shoulder while strategically stretching my arm. “Oh no,” I sighed when I caught Fin’s gaze from twenty feet away. “Is it just me or is he everywhere now?”

             
“Maybe,” she said slowly. “But technically I think this time we are in his space.”

             
I grunted, hating that she was right. I took a few moments to admire Fin from this distance. His hair was tussled and a little wild from sleep, his eyes were still tired-looking, but heavy lidded and sexy as hell. He was wearing a long sleeved Under Armor shirt and running shorts. His well-muscled but slender legs were tanned and perfectly shaped from knee to ankle. Ugh, he was gorgeous. Fin’s lips slowly curved into a smile as if he was just realizing we were in his space too and that I was ogling him. I waved my outstretched hand at him in a goofy wave and then turned around so I could stretch my other arm. Also so I would stop staring at him before I started drooling.

             
“Well, let’s get out of here,” I whispered. “Beckett runs in the mornings too and I don’t want to run into him while Fin is just over there.”

             
“Not just over there anymore,” Britte grinned.

             
“Ellie,” Fin called out from behind me in greeting.

             
“Fin,” I mumbled into my stretch.

             
“Just finish a run?” Fin asked with a gruff morning voice.

             
“Yep,” I answered, sticking to the one syllable words.

             
“I thought you usually ran in the evenings?” Fin pressed, coming to a stop next to me. He was flanked by two of his friends, guys I recognized from the restaurant the other night.

             
“Oh my gosh,
stop
stalking me!” I cried with real exasperation.

             
Britte broke into laughter behind me.

             
“I don’t think we’ve had a chance to meet,” Fin addressed Britte with a charming smile. She stopped laughing and grinned back.
Traitor.

             
“Britte Nichols,” she reached out her hand and shook Fin’s with mock professionalism. “Ellie’s bff.”

             
“Nice to meet you, Britte Nichols. This is Jameson McKay and Charlie Ryan.”

             
“We are
Fin’s
bff’s,” Charlie, who was taller than even Fin and had even unrulier, wild light brown hair, smiled. He was extremely tanned, and well built. I knew he ran track with Fin, just from the t-shirt advertising the win at Regionals last year. If I had to guess, I thought maybe a jumper? His legs were insanely toned under his athletic shorts, and he was so freakishly tall. He wasn’t as hot as Fin, but he was still good looking. His best feature had to be his eyes, a light mossy color of green with a dark rim of black around the edges.

             
“Good for you,” Britte laughed lightly. She was flirting. And I didn’t really blame her.

             
“We’ve seen you a lot recently but we haven’t met you either, Ellie,” Jameson reached out his hand to me. He was about Fin’s height, lighter skinned with reddish brown hair. His eyes a startling blue, his physique just as toned as his friends. Even though his skin color was pale, it was clear and nice. His cheeks were reddened just a little bit from the wind and the look was overwhelmingly attractive on him.

             
I stuck out my hand, letting him shake it, but I didn’t really know what to say. It wasn’t exactly nice to meet them. They came prepackaged with Fin, and somehow acknowledging them as friends made me feel like I would never get rid of Fin.

             
Noticing my standoffish attitude, Charlie jumped in with, “We’re obviously the better half of Hunter though. We promise we don’t usually stalk females like criminals.”

             
“Usually?” I asked, reluctantly letting go of a small smile.

             
“Well, we did help him with you,” Charlie admitted and I lost my smile immediately.

             
“He’s lying!” Fin cut in, shooting Charlie a scathing glare. “Don’t be a prick.”

             
This got snickers out of Jameson, Charlie and for some reason Britte. But Charlie held his hands up in surrender.

             
“I’m just messing with you,” Charlie laughed. “And him.” he jerked his thumb at Fin.

             
“So what year are you?” Jameson asked Britte which launched them into the five-standard get to know you questions of college students across the world. There was a universal conversation that happened between all single college-aged students: What’s your name? What’s year are you? What’s your major? What do you want to do with that? How can I get you back to my place? How much alcohol will it take to get you naked? Or something along those lines… It might have different faces, but essentially every get to know you game was the same.

             
While Charlie, Britte and Jameson launched into a round of that, Fin tugged my arm so that we were back away from the group a little bit.

             
“You still haven’t texted me back,” he whispered in an unpleased voice. “Did you give me a fake number?”

             
A snort of laughter came forward before I could stop myself. I hadn’t guessed he would assume that. “No, I got your texts.”

             
“Oh,” he sounded put out, almost like he hoped I had given him the wrong number. “So, you just weren’t going to get back to me?”

             
“I was,” I assured him and then with a teasing voice I said, “eventually.”

             
Fin’s head snapped toward me so that his gaze raked over me. So cocky, so self-assured, he had no idea what to do with a girl that was not interested in him.

             
“I don’t know what to do with you,” he finally admitted in a soft, bewildered voice.

             
Before I could think of anything snarky to say Beckett walked through the tall chain link gate on the far side of the track. He was a ways away and if I wasn’t his sister I probably wouldn’t have been able to recognize him from this distance. But because I could, and then see that he already spotted us and was walking our way I knew I had to extract myself from this company right away.

             
“Well, let me know when you figure that out,” I said quickly to Fin. He scowled at me, again not expecting me to dismiss him so easily. I ignored the small pang of disappointment I felt because we wouldn’t get to continue this banter. Grabbing Britte’s arm I yanked her toward where we stashed our stuff on the bleachers. “We’ve got to go!” I called back over my shoulder. “See and
talk
to you Monday Fin.”

             
That was my warning. He better heed.

             
“What is wrong with you?” Britte whispered harshly.

             
“Beckett,” I replied, that one word causing her to sober immediately. She tensed under my grip, and picked up her pace.

             
She didn’t even turn to wave to Fin and his friends behind us. She just dutifully picked up her things and marched along beside me as we went to face my brother. I could feel her body continuing to stiffen next to me and I had to wonder why she was as nervous as I was. She believed all of my brothers were hot, as did the majority of females that came into contact with them, but this was a little absurd for Britte. She was usually laid-back enough to not let her nerves get in the way.

             
“Are you Ok?” I asked in a whisper just before we reached Beckett.

             
“Probably not,” she admitted. “But you will be, you didn’t even look suspicious with Fin, so don’t let him guilt you into feeling bad.”

             
“Thanks.”

             
“Morning, E,” Beckett called out. “Changed your running schedule?”

             
Seriously? Was nothing I did private?

             
“Yep,” I answered easily.

             
“I caught you talking to Fin again,” he stated simply. His eyes were heating with some angry emotion and I was just waiting for the fall out.

             
“Yep,” I echoed. Short and sweet. It seemed to work with Fin.

             
“Does your project include working out together?” his expression was sharp and accusing. “And you,” he swung on Britte. “Were those guys bothering you?”

             
“B-bothering me?” she sputtered. Britte, one of the most poised and well-spoken people I had ever known sputtered!
What was happening?

             
“Yes,” Beckett snapped. His attention was completely off me now and centered wholly on my friend. “Were they bothering you?” Each of his words were precisely clipped as if he were barely restraining his temper.

             
“Becks, what is wrong with you?” It was one thing to overprotect me. It was another thing entirely to give Britte a hard time.

             
He ignored me, of course. “You’re my sister’s best friend.” He was stating obvious facts, but his tone and locked jaw made it seem more like an allegation.

             
“Yes, I am,” she found her nerve again, talking to Beckett like he was a small child.

             
Beckett narrowed his eyes further, seeming to catch on as well. “You should be a better influence. She shouldn’t be hanging around with Hunter, any more than you should be partying and-“

             
“Oh, lord,” I cut in, realizing this was all my fault. “We’re going now!” I spoke over Beckett and started dragging Britte along with me. “I’m so, so, so sorry B! I have no idea why he is acting so crazy!”

             
She allowed me to pull her along again, but cast a glaring look over her shoulder at Beckett, who at least hadn’t followed us.

             
“He thinks
I’m
a bad influence on you?” she asked with more outrage than I expected, which was a lot to begin with. “He doesn’t know the half of it!” She suddenly yelled in a very loud voice, with her head still turned back towards my brother, “Come on Ellie! Let’s go get sloshed! I need a drink
so
bad right now!”

             
“Oh my gosh,” I mumbled. “We are
never
running in the morning again. This was a nightmare.”

             
“Ha!” She turned back around so she could stop stumbling over her own feet. “This was a nightmare,” she agreed and then back to the yelling over her shoulder thing, “Your brother’s a nightmare!”

             
“So, you’re still bummed you missed family dinner on Wednesday?” I asked in a light tone.

             
“I finally get it, Els. I mean, all this time and I thought I got it. But now I really, really get it. You should never have come here. Next year, you and me, we will both transfer back to UW and we will never have to see these people again.” She was at least a little bit calm now, she sounded more bewildered than hurt or offended. Which was a good thing, I hoped….

             
“Sounds like a plan to me,” I agreed.

----

              The next day I walked into my Econ class feeling so off kilter. At the forefront of my mind was Beckett attacking Britte. Truthfully, I never really had a best friend before her. Growing up, I had my brothers to play with, and my parents’ house sat on an acreage far from any other houses where I might have found children my age. My mom homeschooled all of us through private tutors until we were middle school age. She sent each of us off to public school at that time, hoping we would gain the necessary social skills to cope in real life. My brothers were all good-looking, extremely athletic and unable to ever be embarrassed. They did fine.