The Boyfriend Bet (Boyfriend Chronicles #2) (17 page)

“Oh.” Twin number two said.

“We haven’t seen Grant since we summered in San Francisco with him last year.” Twin number one said.

“Do you have a condo in San Francisco?” Twin number two asked.

They knew the answer to the question before they asked it. I wasn’t playing their game. “No. I live here year-round.”

“That must be boring.” Twin number one wrinkled her nose.

Twin number two nodded in agreement.

And I was done. “It’s not. Now, unless you’d like me to sit on your lap, I suggest you remove yourself from my chair.”

The waitress arrived with our food. She set Grant’s plate in front of him, and then glanced at me. “Where are you sitting?”

“Good question. Grant, where am I sitting?”

He gave a tight smile. “Angeline, Georgette, it was nice seeing you. We’ll catch up some other time.”

The blondes made a show of acting offended. If they didn’t vacate the area immediately, I was going to give them a much better reason to be offended.

Once they were gone, I reclaimed my seat and dug into my food.

“What was that about?” Grant asked.

“You’ll have to be more specific.” I shoveled a forkful of rice and chicken into my mouth. With the way this was going, it might be a good idea to eat fast.

“Why were you rude to my friends?”

Seriously?
“They were rude to me first.”

“No they weren’t. Angeline asked you a question.”

Was he deaf and blind? “No. She asked a question she knew the answer to, like I was supposed to be ashamed of not having a condo somewhere, and she called my life boring.”

“Well, they travel year round. To them living in one place would be boring.”

A chopstick to the heart was happening in ten seconds if he didn’t take my side. “It’s rude to call someone’s life boring. And why do you care so much about their feelings and so little about mine?”

“Why are you overreacting? They were making small talk.”

I needed to make him understand. “If I said, oh, you only have one car? How boring. I have a different car for every day of the week. How would you take that?”

He poured soy sauce on his food and took a bite. After an agonizing amount of time, he said. “I guess I can see your point. But I don’t think they meant it that way.”

A swing and a miss. “You do realize they were being bitchy to me because one of them likes you.” God forbid it be both of them. Competing with one would be bad enough.

He seemed surprised by this fact. “Really?”

“You don’t have to sound so happy about it.”

“Sorry. It’s just that I had a crush on Angeline when I was a freshman and she was a junior. She was way out of my league.”

“And now she’s not.” I sat back and crossed my arms over my chest. “Would you like to run over to her table and get her number before we leave?” And that sounded much bitchier out loud than it had in my head.

Grant took a deep breath, like he was trying not to say something.

I knew what it was. He was going to tell me not to be jealous, because we weren’t dating exclusively. And I didn’t want to hear him say it.

“Zoe, we—”

“Please don’t finish that sentence. Not here. We can talk on the car ride back to my house.” Which now seemed like it would be fifty minutes of hell.

We finished our meal in silence, and walked to the car in silence, and drove for the first ten minutes in silence, and then I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Go ahead and finish what you started to say.” Heart in my throat, I held my breath and waited.

Chapter Twenty-One

Grant

“What do you want me to say?” I didn’t hide the irritation in my voice.

She sniffled. Oh hell. Was she crying? This is exactly what I didn’t want. “Zoe, talk to me.”

“Why didn’t you tell the twins we were dating?”

“We were sitting together eating dinner. I assumed they’d realize we were dating.”

“And that’s what we’re doing? Dating?”

What was she getting at? “What else would you call it?”

“I don’t know. You keep sending me mixed signals. One minute you tell me you like me and you’re keeping me. Then you’re smiling about some other girl liking you.”

“Angeline is a former crush. I’m flattered that she’d like me now, when she wouldn’t give me the time of day before. I don’t understand why you’re getting bent out of shape about this.”

“If we went to Betty’s for burgers, and a cute guy came over to our table and flirted with me, and you found out he’s a guy I used to like, and I didn’t tell him we were dating, would you be a happy camper?”

She had a point…then again, I could date who I wanted. I checked the next exit number. We had thirty more minutes together in the car. So this probably wasn’t the best time to bring up our non-exclusive dating status.

“I should have said we were dating. Next time, I’ll explain the situation if that will make you feel better.”

“I’d feel better if you hadn’t used the implied idiot tone when you said that.”

Well this was going to be a fun ride. I gripped the steering wheel tighter. “Zoe. We talked about this.”

“And here it comes.”

Why did all girls have to be like this? “It’s not like I’m springing something on you. We said we weren’t dating exclusively.”

“That was before you told me that you liked me and you were keeping me. When you said that, I thought you meant something that you obviously didn’t.”

Well, shit. “I meant what I said. I like you and I don’t care who doesn’t like you. That doesn’t mean I’m ready to date anyone exclusively.”

“Right. You’re a guy who likes to keep his options open. Understood.”

I checked the clock. Twenty more minutes until this was over. I didn’t want Zoe going nuclear in the car. With her temper, she was liable to grab the wheel and send us careening into oncoming traffic.

“I don’t want to feel trapped like I did with Lena. I’m happy with the way things are. I want to go to the dance with you tomorrow and have a good time. I want to curse the gear shift in my car when I drop you off at your house tonight. I want you. Isn’t that enough?”

She uncrossed her arms and laid her left hand on top of mine, which was resting on the gear shift. “You’re right. I shouldn’t care about labels.”

“So we’re good?”

…

Zoe

Hell no, we weren’t good.
Not like I’d tell him that. I wanted him to want to be my boyfriend. Did I want a promise of forever? No. But I wanted to know that he wasn’t scanning the horizon for the next girl he would date.

I took a deep breath and lied. “Sure. We’re good.” Time to lighten the mood. “Did you see there’s a Zombie Marathon on TV this weekend?”

“I think it’s one of the laws of the universe that there’s a Zombie marathon on some cable channel every weekend.”

Not on the channels I had. “I guess, but it’s still fun.”

It was dark by the time we turned down the gravel road to my house. Grant turned his lights off and pulled into the deep shadows on the side of the driveway.

“Are you pretending you’re in stealth mode? Because I guarantee everyone heard your car engine when we took the turn off for my house.”

“Damn. I was being so sneaky.”

“Who are you hiding from?” I asked.

“No one.” He unbuckled his seatbelt, and I did the same. “Just hoping to hate the gearshift a little more.”

My hormones went “Yippee” while my common sense frowned. Grant’s lips pressed against mine, and I decided for now, common sense was overrated. The perverse part of my brain suggested I make him regret his non-boyfriend status a bit. Or maybe that was my hormones running the show. Either way, I threw myself into the moment.

When the kiss ended, I wasn’t ready for him to leave. “If you’re not ready to face your mom, you can hide out here for a while.”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“Cool.” We climbed out of the car and headed into the house. My grandmother looked up from the living room where she sat crocheting.

“Hello, Grant. Avoiding your mother?”

I laughed. “What can I say, we think alike.” I tugged Grant toward the kitchen. “Let’s grab a soda and walk to the pond.”

“You have a pond?”

“Stocked with fish and skipping stones.”

“Skipping stones. Are those like Mexican jumping beans?”

“Not at all.” I grabbed two cans from the refrigerator. “There are picnic table cloths on top of the fridge if you want to grab one so we have something to sit on.”

Grant reached up to grab a red and white checkered tablecloth.

Crash
!

The distinct sound of metal crunching against metal came from the side of the house.

“What was that?” Grant jerked around and bam, his elbow smacked into my nose. I dropped the sodas and stumbled back a step. I saw stars. My eyes filled with tears, and I couldn’t breathe.

“Shit, Zoe. Are you all right?”

I gasped out a no.

…

Grant

“I’m so sorry.”

“Mrs. Cain,” I called out for Zoe’s grandmother.

The front door flew open and Jack stormed in. “How could you be so stupid? Why would you park—”

“Shut up. Your sister is bleeding.”

Her grandmother came rushing in. “What happened?”

“The sound of Jack hitting my car startled me and I accidentally elbowed Zoe in the face.” I squatted down by her. “I am so sorry. Let me see.” Zoe dropped her hands and what I saw punched me in the gut. Blood streamed from her nose down her chin. It looked like she was having trouble breathing.

“Breathe through your mouth,” her brother said. “Here’s a towel.”

Her grandmother took the towel and held it under Zoe’s nose. “I need to see if it’s broken.” She touched the bridge of Zoe’s nose, making her wince. “I don’t think it’s broken. Grant, get a cold pack from the freezer.”

I opened the freezer and grabbed one of those blue gel packs, which I handed to Zoe. “I am so sorry.”

“It was an accident,” Zoe mumbled through the towel.

“Yeah, well I still feel like a jerk.”

“Take some Tylenol.” Zoe’s grandmother handed her the pills plus a glass of water. “At least it’s the weekend. Most of the swelling should go down by Monday.”

Zoe dropped the towel. “But the dance is tomorrow.”

She looked like she was in a lot of pain and now she was upset about the stupid dance. How could I make this right? “There’s another dance at Christmas. We can go to that one.”

“Okay.” She held the ice to the bridge of her nose.

“Now that this situation is under control, let’s go look at the cars,” her grandmother said.

It didn’t seem right to leave Zoe sitting here by herself. “Be right back.”

On the way out the door, Jack started in again, “Zoe should have known better than to let you park in my spot.”

“How could you not see my car?” I headed down the porch steps and rounded the corner of the house.

“Why would I look for a black sports car in the dark?”

“Boys, what’s done is done. Let’s assess the damage and contact your insurance companies.”

Jack groaned. He was probably thinking about how much his insurance would go up. Then again, mine would probably go up, too.

The damage had sounded worse than it was. I’d need a new back bumper and tail lights. Jack would need new headlights and maybe a front bumper. The car was drivable so I wouldn’t need a tow. After taking pictures of the damage, I used the insurance app on my phone and went back inside to check on Zoe.

She still looked like hell.

…

Zoe

It felt like someone had whacked me in the face with a frying pan, and I had to breathe through my mouth, but at least my nose had stopped bleeding. There was only one bright spot to this situation. Grant was more concerned about me than his car, which he loved. If I came before the car, that must mean he cared about me.

“Anything I can do?” Grant asked.

“What’s going on here?” my mom called out, as she came through the front door.

“Everyone is okay,” my grandmother said.

My mom stepped through the kitchen doorway. “Zoe? What happened?”

Grandma explained the situation.

“Come on, Zoe, I’ll help you clean up and put on new clothes,” my mom said. She pointed at Grant. “There’s a bathroom down the hall you can use.”

We went to the upstairs bathroom. My mom’s hands shook as she helped me clean the blood off my face. “When I saw the cars out front—”

She must be thinking about when she’d seen the mass of tangled metal that had once been my dad’s car. I grabbed her hand. “This hurts, but I’m okay.”

“I know.” She rinsed the bloody washcloth in warm water and went back to wiping off my face. “There. I think you’re presentable for your boyfriend.” She said the last part in a teasing tone.

I played along. “
Shhhh
, don’t use that term. You might scare him away.”

She leaned in and kissed me on the forehead. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

This was the most invested my mom had seemed in my life in a long time. While I wasn’t happy to have an almost-broken nose, having her pay attention to me again was nice.

Once I had on clean clothes, I brushed my teeth twice, which wasn’t easy when I couldn’t breathe through my nose. Part of me wanted to just lie down and go to bed, but another part of me wanted to go see Grant. When I made it back downstairs, he was sitting on the couch with his eyes closed.

When he heard me coming, he sat up and opened his eyes, and then he cringed. “I’m so sorry.”

“I know. It was an accident. The Tylenol is kicking in, so it doesn’t hurt as much.”

“Good.” He looked sort of lost. “Do you need anything?”

“Couch time with mindless television sounds good. You can stay if you want.” I crossed the room and sat on the couch. He put his arm around my shoulders, and picked up the remote. “Mind if I drive?”

“No.” I leaned into his warmth. My face had stopped throbbing, but I still had one hellacious headache.

He flipped through channels. “I always thought maybe I missed something by not having a brother or a sister, now I’m realizing that I’m better off as an only child.”

“Jack can be a jerk, but he’s basically a good guy.”

Grant snorted like he didn’t agree.

“What’s the story behind your hate/hate relationship with my brother?”

“We competed against each other a lot. And then there was this girl, Katy, that I liked. Lena and I were on and off again, which should have been a clue. I met Katy when we were off, but she ended up dating your brother. We hung out, but then Lena and I got back together so nothing really happened.”

“So, you never dated Katy?” That was different from the story my brother told me.

“Not really. The timing was off. And then she was with your brother and I was with Lena.” Grant flipped through more channels, pausing on one of those shows where people hunt through old barns and find buried treasure. “These things have to be staged.”

“Yeah, I know. If anyone went in the attic of our barn, all they’d find was dust and spiders.”

“Maybe they’re rare spiders worth a lot of money.”

“If you want to climb up there and see, be my guest.”

“Maybe once you’re better, we’ll check it out together.” His voice came right next to my ear. “You know, I’ve heard stories about barns with haylofts and adventurous farm girls.”

Despite my injuries, his hot breath on my ear had my nerve endings in an uproar. “Do any of those stories mention that hay itches and it makes you sneeze?”

“And a perfectly good fantasy shot to hell.”

I glanced sideways at him, his eyes were shining and he was grinning at me like there was no place else he’d rather be. My heart skipped a beat. “Thanks for staying here with me like this tonight.”

Moving very slowly, he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine in a soft, sweet kiss. “It’s the least I can do since my elbow tried to break your nose.”

…

Grant

Zoe pressed her lips against mine one more time. Then she shifted around so she was facing the television and leaned back against me. We watched two guys dig through piles of junk stacked to the rafters of a barn.

When I’d seen blood running down her face earlier I’d felt like the biggest asshole on the planet. She’d been so brave about the whole thing. Lena would’ve demanded a plastic surgeon on the spot. Part of me still thought we should’ve gone to the hospital. After the ice and the Tylenol, Zoe hadn’t complained. I’d taken a punch to the nose before, and I knew it hurt. But she wasn’t making a fuss. The thing she’d been the most upset about was the dance. So I’d jumped in and promised to take her to the next dance. Stupid maneuver.

Every time we established that we weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend, something like this happened and screwed up the whole thing. I liked her, but I wasn’t interested in any sort of commitment. And I knew that was what she was angling for. What I couldn’t figure out was how I kept backing myself into this same corner.

“Why would anyone pay money for that?” Zoe asked.

On the television, a guy offered two hundred dollars for a pockmarked oil can sign. “You’d think the farmer would have to pay someone to take it. Not the other way around.”

My cell rang, I checked caller ID.
Great
. “It’s my father. I bet the insurance company called him.” No putting this off. “Hello, father.”

“Where are you? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Some idiot hit my car when it was parked.” He didn’t need to know the whole truth. Bringing Zoe into the situation would complicate the issue.

“Is this idiot related to the girl who keeps landing you in detention? Cain is a common last name, but I doubt it’s a coincidence.”

And my plan went out the window. “It’s her brother. He has insurance. The car is drivable. It’s not a big deal.”