First and Goal (Moving the Chains #1) (30 page)

“You know how he runs his mouth though. Why would you tell him I’m your girl?”

I can’t stand it anymore. A feral need to protect her even if she doesn’t trust me with the truth tears through me. I wrap her up in my arms, not caring who sees, or what she might think. I’ve been reduced to a caveman.

“Rob? Why’d you tell him I’m your girl?” Her voice is muffled against my chest.

Because you are.

“‘Cause it’ll keep him away from you.”

She pushes out of my arms. “But this could blow your chances with the girl you actually want to be with!”

I might not take advantage of people who aren’t as strong as I am, but I’m still just a boy too. There’s no way I can end this little game I’m playing with her. Not now. “Come on, ride over with me to the diner.”

She pleads with me with those big, blue eyes. “I can’t. I can’t go with you.”

I raise my eyebrow at her. “Afraid I’ll ruin your band queen image, Evie?”

“No, it’s not that.” She shakes her head frantically. “I can’t be the one to ruin this for you, Rob. You’ve wanted her for so long. This will only add fuel to Eddie’s fire. People will believe him if I’m in your car with you.
She’ll
believe him. You already have to work against The Bio Effect. I can’t do that to you. You’ve been such a good friend to me. I can’t do that to you.”

Her words are rushed, and she grows increasingly agitated.

I have a choice to make here.

After everything that’s happened today, I need her to trust me more. There’s clearly a lot of ground to gain before the next big play. I take a step towards her and put my hands on her arms, rubbing them slowly up and down. She doesn’t back away. I place my lips against her forehead. She flinches.

“Now you listen to me, Evie,” I whisper against her warm skin. “You’re not going to ruin anything for me, you understand? Not a thing. I’m gonna try again, I promise. Right now, I need a little more time, and I think she does too. So no harm, no foul.”

I kiss her forehead. Her entire body stiffens. Just another clue that she hasn’t told me the whole truth about Eddie.

“Not everyone who touches you is going to hurt you, all right? I will never hurt you, Evie. Just like I told YiaYia, my promise to God. Are we friends or not?”

Her sigh is heavy and full of pain. “Yes.”

Her body relaxes into mine, so I wrap my arms around her and rest my face on the top of her head. “I’ll never hurt you, my girl. Ever. Now will you please get in my car? I’m starving.”

I pull back and look into her face, keeping my arms around her.

She shoots me a completely unconvincing glare then steps out of my embrace. “You really need to stop calling me your girl. People are gonna get the wrong idea, your dream woman included.”

I roll my eyes as she closes her car door. “Well, if it makes you feel better, you can give me your twelve-step plan to landing the woman of my dreams…on our way to the diner.”

Actually, that’s…perfect. I hadn’t really thought about the words as they left my mouth, but yeah. That’s exactly what I need. A playbook for winning her heart. And she’s gonna give it to me. I’ll only call audibles when necessary. Hell, this might be the best draw play I’ve ever run.

Step one: start addressing her as my girl until it sinks in that
she
is actually the woman of my dreams.

“O
kay, so step one: stop calling me your girl, so she isn’t confused and thinks you’re into someone else,” I say as he climbs into the driver side and starts the engine. Maybe if I focus on helping him, I can forget about my own problems and calm the fuck down.

He laughs and shakes his head as he props his hand behind my seat, checking behind the car as he backs out in an effort to avoid all our classmates that are still loitering in the parking lot.

My God. They must have seen everything. My breath comes out in small pants, and I wonder if I won’t have a heart attack in the passenger seat of Rob Falls’ ‘67 Mustang. I never imagined in a million years that I’d be in this car, let alone die in it.

He shifts gears, and we pull onto the main road before he notices that I’m losing it.

“Evie, it’s all right. I promise you I’ll never hurt you. You’re safe. You’re safe in here,” he murmurs to me, his voice soft and low.

I feel like such an ass. Everyone in that parking lot is going to think that there’s more between Rob and I than there really is. As if the rumors going around about us already aren’t enough. That’ll dash his chances with Dream Girl for sure. I owe it to him to not let that happen.

“Okay, step two: we can’t be seen together anymore. There are already rumors that we’re dating, thanks to The Bio Effect. Maybe that’s why she isn’t responding to your advances. That scene in the parking lot just now is only going to make it worse. If we’re not in the study room together, then we’re not together at all.”

“No way, Evie. Off the table.” His voice carries a hard edge, and he averts his eyes from the road to cast me a quick glance. “You’re my friend, and I’m not gonna just throw you to the wolves. Not gonna happen. I really don’t give a damn what everyone thinks or says.”

I sigh, pushing myself further into the comfortable black leather bucket seat. My body relaxes now that adrenaline isn’t coursing through my veins. “You can’t possibly expect to make a girl fall for you if she believes you’re with someone else, Superjock. You really aren’t very good at this, are you?”

I should fucking know. What a painful lesson that was.

He grimaces, but doesn’t take his eyes off the road. “No, I’m really not. I already told you, we just need more time to figure things out. I’m not giving you up for anything though, so rewrite number two.”

It’s about a twenty-minute drive to the diner. My brain is fried, so I shift our previous conversation to the back burner in favor of the much less taxing visual sweep of the Mustang. The vintage car is in mint condition. Everything inside looks as new as the day it came off the factory line except the sound system that must have been custom installed when he and his grandfather rebuilt it. It’s surprisingly clean for a seventeen-year-old guy’s vehicle. No garbage anywhere. Not a speck of dirt on the floor mats, no smudges on the windows.

Mental images flash through my mind of delicate handprints marring the pristine glass, the windows fogged up from all the heat generated in the back seat. A quick glance over my shoulder leaves me wondering how there’s enough room back there for anything to really happen. Rob’s large form already looks cramped in the driver’s seat as it is. Though I’m beginning to believe that all the rumors about his sexual escapades are just that, I can’t stop myself from scanning the cabin for a lost pair of lacy panties or any other clues that would prove my original instincts about him correct.

“You’re not going to find anything, you know.”

His voice startles me, and I face forward once more. “I’m sorry. What?”

“I know how your mind works,” he chuckles. “You’re looking for evidence, aren’t you?”

“N-no.” Shit.
Way to sound convincing, Papageorgiou.

He sighs and throws me a quick glance, his brow furrowed. “There have been exactly two girls in this car before you. Rachel, because sometimes I give her a ride to school, and…” He heaves a deep breath. “Sabrina Knolls.”

Aha. I
knew
it. With that many rumors, at least one of them was bound to be true.

“It’s not what you’re thinking, Evie. I swear it.” His cheeks flush a bright shade of red, but he keeps his gaze firmly on the road ahead of us. “We went on one date. Last winter. It’s kind of similar to your story.” He swallows thickly, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the effort. “Just like I told you before. I tried to forget too. I didn’t really like her, but I figured it was worth a shot. Anyway, she begged me to take her on a drive and like you, I was inexperienced and curious. I was so fucking tired of all the guys riding my ass about being a virgin, and I was so angry all the time last winter. I just wanted the torture to end.”

I snap my eyes to him, both sad for his suffering and nauseated at what he might tell me.

“Long story short, I…I told her no.” His voice is so low, so soft that I barely hear him. “She begged me. Begged me to
fuck
her. Can you believe it? I sure as hell couldn’t. It was so fucked up. We barely knew each other. Yeah, I made out with her because hell, I’d never even kissed a girl before and figured I had a lot of catching up to do. But, I swear to God, when she put her hand down my pants, I froze.”

His laughter sounds a touch maniacal. “I’m the fucking captain of the football team, but I turned down easy sex. Laugh if you want; don’t believe me, but it’s the truth.”

You could hear a pin drop in the silence of this car. I have no clue what to say. It’s not that I think he’s lying; why would he bother to lie to me about this? I just have no idea why he’s telling me any of it. Does he want to even the score? He feels the need to share with me because I told him what happened with Eddie?

“You don’t believe me, do you?” His tone is so heart-broken, so dejected.

I place a hand on his well-muscled arm, and he jumps at the contact. “I believe you, Rob. I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” He shoots me a confused glare.

“I guess…I’m sorry your first make out session isn’t a good memory for you? I don’t know. We’re a couple of sad, backwards teenagers, aren’t we?” My gaze travels forlornly around the car, imagining the scenario he just described. “Um, if you don’t mind my asking…why did you tell her no?”

I still can’t believe any guy wouldn’t want as much sex as they can get. Aren’t they biologically programmed to screw and jerk-off all the time?

“I couldn’t stop thinking about the girl I really want. I wanted that first to be with her,” he whispers.

And my walls crumble a little more.

“I think Sabrina started all those rumors about me for the same reason Eddie started them about you,” he states firmly. “No one likes being denied, being told no. So they make up their own reality for the public to believe. It’s just sad that no one questions what they’re told.”

That would be me. I never questioned what I was told, what I heard. “I’m so sorry.”

“Why do you keep saying that?” The irritation in his voice is barely controlled.

“I’m sorry I believed the rumors. I know now that’s not really who you are.”

His shoulders seem to deflate with my honest admission. “Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me.”

Again, I have no response. How sad that Rob is so desperate for someone to see him for who he truly is. We’re really not so different. My eyes take in the interior of his car with a new purpose. He has a cross hanging from his rearview mirror. He also keeps a box of tissues handy. If he turned on the radio, would the presets be similar with the exception of a country station or two?

The leather feels soft and supple beneath my hands as I run them along the sides of my seat. The car smells unmistakably like Rob. A scent I’m beginning to associate with comfort.

I can’t let myself go down that path, so I gaze out the window at the passing scenery.

“Did you think of another step two yet?”