Playing the Player(31)

“No, I’m over that,” she said. “But…. you’ve never really been nice to me. You’ve just kind of ignored me.”

She looked embarrassed, like maybe she hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

“Whatever,” she continued, her words coming out in a rush. “You can’t be friendly to everyone. Who has time? But…” Her voice trailed away.

“But what?”

“The few times you did acknowledge me, you made fun of me.”

I didn’t make fun of people. It was against my code. I teased people, yeah, but never in a mean way. Most people liked being on the other side of the Slade mock. I racked my brain. I couldn’t think of anything other than the Bird Brain nickname.

“Name one time,” I said, feeling defensive and guilty.

“Last year in bio. You totally made fun of my binder.”

If I’d known how much havoc that binder would eventually wreak in my life, I’d probably have teased her even more.

“Huh,” I said. “Must’ve been a slow day for me to make fun of something so innocuous.”

I met her eyes, grinning, and she raised her eyebrows.

“Another SAT word.” She watched me closely. “Impressive.”

I focused back on the road, shifting gears sooner than I needed to. Did she think I was dumb? That shouldn’t surprise me; a lot of people did. I thought of Dad, and snarky comments he’d made about someday letting people know how smart I was.

He didn’t get why I didn’t follow the brainiac track. Mom got it, but I sensed even she was losing patience with me, now that college was looming. She’d pushed me hard to take the nanny gig, and she bugged me about it constantly, asking how it was going, pumping me for details.

“Anyway,” I said, taking the exit toward Funland, “sorry if I hurt your feelings. I didn’t mean to.”

“There was also the time you made fun of me for handing out flyers for boycotting Burger Bandit.”

We pulled into the parking lot and the kids unbuckled themselves faster than Trina and I did. I sort of remembered Trina’s boycott. Something about workers not being paid overtime? I focused on wrangling the kids while Trina opened the trunk.

“I don’t think we need their stuff. We’re just playing mini-golf.”

“You never know.” She retrieved the kids’ backpacks.

She’d be a great Eagle Scout.

The kids jumped up and down, totally spazzing out. I glared at them. “Max. Gilly. Freeze.”

“Geez, relax dude,” Trina said, smirking.

I stared at her. “You’re telling me to relax?”

A tiny smile played at her lips. “Yep. You should try it sometime. There’s this guy I know who’s always chilling. He thinks everything’s a joke. You could learn a thing or two from him.” Her smile deepened, then she grabbed Gilly’s hand and took off for the ticket window.

I stared after her until Max tugged at my hand. “Come on, Slade. They’re getting ahead of us.”

I blinked like someone slapped me. “You’re right, buddy. Let’s show them who’s the real boss.” I grabbed his hand and we took off running, cutting in front of Trina and Gilly at the ticket window.

“Hey!” Gilly yelled. “No fair. No cuts allowed.” She stomped her foot.

Trina cocked an eyebrow. “It’s okay, Gillian,” she said. “We’re going to play girls against boys today. And we’re going to win.”

I took two putters from the ticket guy and turned back to Trina. “In your dreams, BB.”

“Yeah,” Max echoed. “In your dreams, BB.”

Trina’s eyes widened, then she laughed, reaching out to tousle Max’s hair. Damn her for smiling and laughing like that. The thought of kissing those cherry lips popped back into my mind. I turned away, grabbing golf balls for Max and me.

This was going to be a long day if my stupid imagination kept spewing out images I didn’t want to consider—would not, could not consider.

Gilly tried to climb everything in sight, including the small tower with the windmill spinning on its turret. Max decided it was easier to roll his ball like he was bowling, rather than hit it with the club. Trina and I kept score for ourselves. She was surprisingly competitive, which, unfortunately, made her even more attractive to me.

“I play to win, Edmunds,” she told me on the first hole.

We were tied as we reached the last hole. I convinced Max and Gilly to have a silent contest. Kids yelling didn’t usually faze me, but I wanted to win. I sank my shot in two.

Trina crouched at the tee box, pointing her club like she was lining up for the tournament-winning shot at Augusta. She wore a red tank top, shorts, and flip-flops. When she stood up to make her shot, I noticed the awesome legs again.

Damn it. I was going to kill Alex. It was his fault that Trina was pinging my hookup radar. If he hadn’t suggested she was “visually interesting,” and made that stupid party girl bet with me, I never would’ve noticed.

Trina’s golf club thwacked her red ball, which shot straight under the bridge, rolled off the ledge, then headed right for the hole. The ball wobbled on the lip of the cup, then dropped in.

“Hole in one!” Trina yelled, jumping up and down. When she turned around, it was like she’d transformed into a totally new person, beaming and laughing. I stood frozen as she ran over to high five Gilly and Max, who’d broken their vows of silence to cheer her.