True Love and Magic Tricks (3 page)

He flips it between his fingers, holds
it up to my face, pinches it between his thumb and forefinger,
flips it again, and it drops into the grass.

I laugh and pick it up. “Was that
supposed to happen?”

“
Hmm…” he says, rubbing the
back of his neck. “Maybe I’m a little rusty.” He flicks one of my
braids from my shoulder, and I raise my eyebrows wondering how he
got the nerve to touch me like that. His hand moves to my other
braid, but he stops. “Huh, what happened here?”

He grins, and I take a look at my left
shoulder where my braid has come undone. My hair tie is nowhere to
be found.

“
What the…
what?”

Nate laughs and lifts his wrist, the
pink tie resting there. “Distraction.”

“
Oh my gosh… I didn’t even
feel that,” I say, running my hand through my long blond
strands.

He holds out his wrist and lets me
take the hair tie off. My skin tickles a bit when we make
contact.

“
It’s sort of a mind game,”
he says as I re-braid my hair. “That’s why magicians have
attractive assistants. To divert the attention.”

My fingers pause mid-braid. “Did you…
are you calling me attractive?” I blurt out.

His eyes go to the coin, he fumbles a
little bit, and then it’s gone. “You’ll… you’ll be an excellent
distraction.”

The butterflies swarming through my
body make me bounce on my butt. I seriously cannot contain
myself.

“
That’s like, the best
compliment ever.” Dang it, I think I’m beyond blushing.

His mouth pops open through a smile,
but before he can say anything to my lack of filter, Lexie screams,
“Nate! Get him!”

We both look up to Ryan bolting down
the track toward us. Lexie’s shirt is soaked, her empty water
bottle at her feet. Ryan’s is full, and he’s clutching it in his
hand, laughing his head off.

Nate sighs, but before he moves, my
legs take over. If there’s one thing I’ve been blessed with, it’s
long legs and speed. Once Ryan passes us, I’m only two steps behind
and I pounce on his back, snatch the bottle from his hand, and dump
it all over his head.

Not exactly the ice-breaker I was
hoping for when meeting Nate’s best friend, but effective
none-the-less.

I hop off and toss the empty bottle at
him, laughing at his stunned face. Nate catches up to us with an
adorable smile.

Ryan holds his hand out like “what
just happened?” and Nate says, “You deserved it, dude.”

Lexie jogs up and immediately bumps my
hip. Poor girl is wearing white and you can see her pink sports bra
through the wet shirt. She totally owns it in front of these two
guys, though.

“
Finally found someone who
can keep up with your monster legs, Ry.”

His mouth goes from stun to smile. I
catch his eyes on Lexie’s shirt before they rise to meet mine. “I
just gotta convince her to be on my side.”

“
Sistas before mistas,” I
sing, and Coach blows his whistle. I loop my arm through Lexie’s
and wiggle my butt at the two boys, laughing as I hear Nate choke
on what could only be air. Lexie tries to get out of my grip, but I
keep her locked in as we walk to the locker room. As soon as we’re
out of hearing distance from the guys, I bat my eyes and ask, “Do
me a solid?”

“
Uh, sure.” She somewhat
laughs. “Since you did one for me.”

“
Let me sit with you at
lunch?”

“
Don’t you have like, a
million other friends that want to sit with you?”

Sadly, no. I have no close
friends. I hop around from table to table. Good thing I’m awesome
at talking to people, but I want
close
friends. Like Lexie, Nate, and
Ryan when they’re together. My fingers twist around my pigtail,
heart beating in my stomach, hoping that I’m not coming off totally
pathetic asking for friends my junior year.

“
Okay,” I say, “so I’m
going to be spending time with Nate, and I really want to get to
know his friends. Like, I know you, but I don’t really know you,
know you, and you seem awesome, so can I sit with you? I promise
I’m fun.”

“
Kaylee, it’s fine with
me.” She takes a seat on one of the benches and wiggles out of her
shirt. Her dry pink camisole is on so fast you’d think she was
self-conscious about her body. Which she so shouldn’t be. “Just… I
have to ask… you’re not just going through Nate to get to Ryan,
right?”

Ryan? I have to force back my
laughter. Ryan is hot in the conventional way I guess, but does he
know how to make quarters disappear? I don’t think so.

“
Promise,” I say, stripping
out of my gym shirt. “I actually thought you and Ryan
were…”

She snorts. “Friends.”

I want to say, “Yeah right,” but she
looks dead serious. So I let it go and yank my shorts down and
stuff them in my laundry bag. Friday… so gotta wash all the sweat
out of these things.

“
Hey, you dropped
something,” Lexie says, nodding to the ground as she slides into
her jeans.

There’s a blue folded note near my
feet, and forget getting dressed on time. I lean against the cold
locker and rip it open, my smile ready to eat my whole
face.

Still no name on it, but it must’ve
been slipped somewhere on me while I was distracted.

Chapter 4

I sit at the lunch table with a deck
of cards—never leave home without them—and start practicing my
ambitious card routine. It’s better when you have someone to pick
the card and place it back in the deck, but it’s a classic trick
I’m trying to put my own spin on before presenting it to
anyone.

I’m totally in the zone when Kaylee
flops into the seat next to me. “Hey there,” she says, and places a
blue lunch bag decorated with pink, orange and white flowers on the
table.

“
Uh…h…hi,” I mumble,
staying focused on my cards. She’s wearing a shirt that cuts
dangerously low, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to control my
eyes if I look her way.

“
Whatcha doing?” she asks,
pulling out a pb&j from her bag.

“
Card trick.”

She bounces in her seat. “Oh! Show me.
Please?”

I move my chair closer to her, getting
wrapped in her intoxicating scent—a dangerous combination of
cucumber and melon.

“
What’s this trick called?”
she asks, her full attention zeroed in on the deck. Most people
humor me and let me teach them a few things. But with Kaylee it’s
different. It’s as if she genuinely wants to learn. And
maybe…possibly…she is interested in more than the card
trick.

Doubtful. A girl like Kaylee would
never go for a guy like me.

“
Earth to Nate.” She taps
lightly on my head, and I snap my attention to her, fumbling my
cards and dropping the entire deck on the table.

She brushes a braid over her shoulder.
“I’m not falling for fifty-two card pick up.”

“
I…I didn’t mean to do
that.”

The soft skin of her hand brushes mine
as we both reach for the cards. An electric current, or something
darn close to it, zaps up my arm. Her big green eyes stare at me
through thick lashes, and I’m momentarily paralyzed. I swear she
has true magic powers. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a big K
sewn on her undershirt.

Her adorable lips curl up in the
corners, and she gathers the rest of the cards, placing them in my
hand.

“
So what’s the name of the
trick?” she asks.

I get my bearings and take a deep
breath. I can do this. I can talk magic. “It’s called the ambitious
card trick.”

“
Oooh. Sounds awesome.” She
shimmies her butt in her chair.

“
This is one of the most
popular effects in card magic. It’s usually the first thing a
magician learns. You can put your own spin on it to make the trick
yours, and that’s what I’m working on now.”

“
Show me what you got, Mr.
Magician.”

I smile up at her and hold out the
deck. “Take a card.”

She takes one from the middle, running
her tongue over her top lip. I clear my throat, hoping I’m capable
of using my voice.

“
Put it back anywhere you
want.”

She places it in the center, and I
flick the deck. I slide the top card from the pile and hold it up.
“Is this your card?”

Her mouth drops open, her big green
eyes growing bigger by the second. She grabs the ace of hearts out
of my hand and examines it. “How’d you do that?”

“
Magic,” I say all
serious.

“
That’s amazing.” Her wide
eyes widen even more.

“
That’s just the start.” I
grin. “With the ambitious card trick you want it to progress in
difficulty. To keep the viewer interested so you’re not doing the
same thing over and over again.”

“
So what’s
next?”

I straighten in my chair and hand her
the deck. “Shuffle.”

She takes the cards, and my eyes
nearly bug out when she does bridge after bridge with such
precision like some sort of casino dealer.

“
Now what?” she
asks.

“
Turn the deck over and
pick any card that catches your attention.”

She fans the cards out and swishes her
lips back and forth before plucking out the two of hearts. “Now
what?”

I hand her my pen. “Write your name on
the card.”

“
You want me to write on
your card? Won’t it ruin it?”

“
I have more. Besides, you
could become famous one day and this two of hearts will be worth a
fortune.”

“
And what do I get out of
the deal?”

“
You’ll be famous. What
more would you want?”

Her teeth slide over the plumpness of
her bottom lip, her big green eyes lock with mine, and she tucks a
strand of hair that fell loose from her braid behind her ear. She’s
closer to me. Or am I closer to her? I smell the cucumber melon and
feel the heat between our hands and our mouths.

“
I have a full tray of
fries here. Don’t mess with me,” Lexie threatens Ryan. Kaylee and I
jump away from each other.

“
You don’t scare me,” Ryan
says to Lexie and snatches a fry off her tray, tossing it between
his teeth.

Lexie puts her tray down next to
Kaylee and wails a fry at Ryan’s head. It smacks in between his
eyebrows. He catches it before it falls to the floor and plops it
in his mouth. Lexie gives him a dirty look, and he gives her a Mr.
Charming smile.

Ryan sits next to me and nods to the
deck. “Is he wowing you with his skills?” he says to
Kaylee.

Heat shoots through my cheeks, and I
use my shoulder to rub at it, pretending I have an itch.

Kaylee picks up the pen and smiles at
Ryan. “He has and supposedly he’s just begun.”

She writes her name in the middle of
the card in perfect bubbly cursive. “What next?” she
asks.

I hold the deck out. “Slide the card
back in.” I use the standard Hindu shuffle, controlling the card so
I can bring it back to the top without her noticing. “Now if you
really have a connection to this card, you should be able to call
to it. Think of the card and snap your fingers.”

Her long lashes flutter as she closes
her eyes then snaps. Her lids pop open, and I pull the top card
from the deck. I hand it to her without even looking because I
never doubt my skills.

“
Holy guacamole! That’s my
card. Did you guys see that?” Kaylee turns to Lexie and Ryan,
holding up the two of hearts.

“
Yup, and if you think
that’s impressive you should see him do the paintbrush color
change,” Ryan says, and snatches more of Lexie’s fries.

“
Hey!” Lexie screams and
throws another fry at Ryan’s head, but he catches it with his
mouth.

“
You, my friend, are
smart,” Kaylee says to Ryan, and everyone at the table looks at
her. “See he knows what he’s doing. He knows if he steals one of
your fries, you’re going to throw another one at him. Two fries for
the price of one.”