Operation Prom Date (Tactics in Flirting #1)(37)
His face scrunched up like I’d suggested a lemon-sucking contest, but then his features smoothed. “Of course. You want to go somewhere more private?”
Yes. But wait. Isn’t that hookup code? While I wanted privacy, I didn’t want to get into a situation I wasn’t ready for. Anxiety rose, priming me to say or do something stupid and undo everything.
“Maybe we could just sit over there?” I gestured to the loveseat not quite in the center of the action, but not out of it, either. And it was a loveseat, which meant sitting close, and I hoped he’d be okay with that being all we did tonight.
“Oh-kay.” The hesitation clear on his face came through in his voice.
Obviously I was already undoing everything, crashing into shore before I even got our ship fully launched. But there was harmless pretending and doing something I couldn’t take back, and while my lines might’ve been shaky recently, there were ones I wouldn’t cross just to get a guy.
Even if the guy was Mick Pecker, all-star quarterback and object of my obsession and covert operation.
Once we sat down, he folded my hand in his, helping my shaky confidence regain its legs. “It was pretty funny how you beat Jared. He almost always wins the games.”
“Who? Oh, Pissy Poker Player.” Mick laughed, and I threw my free hand over my mouth. “Sorry, that’s so rude of me to call him that.” In the name of goodwill or whatever—if that was what Amber and my earlier conversation was about—I should especially stop if she and he were a thing. From what I’d seen at my post at the window, it looked more friendly than relationshipy.
“I like it. I always thought you were a more serious girl, or I would’ve talked to you a lot earlier.”
“Me? Serious?” I shrugged, and apparently I didn’t do that much, because it felt like a foreign movement my body didn’t know how to naturally do. Or maybe Mick’s full attention just psyched me out too much.
How often do I shrug? Cooper does it all the time.
Gah, focus, Kate! Focus!
“Honestly, it’s more that I’m kind of shy.” I looked up, and my heart skipped a beat when I peered into his blue, blue eyes. “It takes me a little while to warm up and be myself around people.”
Mick slipped his fingers between mine. “Well, I think that’s cute.”
“More like inconvenient and awkward, but I like cute better.”
“You’re funny, too,” Mick said with a smile, and a swirl of excitement went through my gut. “So, I haven’t told anyone besides my family yet, but I thought about what you said about colleges—and airplanes”—he squeezed my hand—“and I’m going to go to Penn State. I turned in my letter of intent to the coach today.”
“Really? That’s so cool. And you don’t need to worry about the competition. You’ll take them out—in a nice way, of course—no problem.”
“Of course,” he said, amusement flickering through his eyes. And even though it was silly, I couldn’t help thinking that seven hours wasn’t such a long drive if things progressed over summer—I was too poor for airplanes.
He told me his little brother understood and said he’d be cheering for him, and then we moved on to discussing summer plans. Mick was planning on training and doing a lot of swimming and kayaking, and I replied that I’d like to do some kayaking, too, since it was something I’d never done before. He generously offered to help me with that.
Everything progressed nicely from there, all those get-to-know-you blanks I felt like we skipped slowly getting filled in. It wasn’t quite as smooth or entertaining as the conversations Cooper and I had, but because of our history and becoming even closer friends the past few weeks, naturally that would happen, so I wasn’t sure why my brain even decided to bring it up.
Especially since I already knew we had a good time together, just like I knew Cooper and I didn’t feel the same about a lot of things. Like how there were fun activities not involving rowing or the lake, and how necessary it was to train “all out, 100 percent of the time.” We definitely had a different outlook on grades and school in general…oh, and prom—that was a big one. He thought it was just some silly dance that required too much time and effort, and I still couldn’t believe he didn’t even want to go.
His loss, because it’s going to be amazing.
If I stop getting distracted by random thoughts and focus on whatever Mick’s saying now so I can ensure I have the perfect date, that is.
By the time the party started winding down, Mick and I were clicking rather well, enough so that I almost brought up prom. Just straight-up asked if he had a date already, and if not, would he go with me.
But then the raven-haired beauty came to say good-bye, her body language speaking of either a past she and Mick had or a future she hoped they’d have, and I felt like I needed a little more time to show him how awesome I was before I asked him to spend one of the most important, memorable nights of high school as my date.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Cooper
The last person I wanted to see first thing Monday morning was Pecker, but as my shitty luck would have it, there he stood.
Clearly he wanted to talk to me, which made me want to slow my pace even more. “Hey, Callihan,” he said.