A Good Boy Is Hard to Find (The Naughty List #3)(2)

“I know. But at least we got out of there undetected. I’ll tell you, Iz. Getting back into spying is a lot harder than I remember.” And it was true. I could have sworn we were much smoother about this! “Check the feed,” I said, and straightened.

Izzie took her cell from her fanny pack and dialed up the line that the device fed into. She waited a beat and then smiled. “Total score.”

“Strawberry smoothie.”

She giggled. “Rex Hartguard just said he wants to bone you.”

I shook my head. “Romantic.” Clicking open the locks, I got into the car. When Izzie sat down, she shut off her phone. We’d listen to the recordings before practice tomorrow.

I smiled a little. Hard work or not, it was still sort of nice to be back in the spying game.

I dropped Izzie off at her parent’s small cottage on Ashland Ave and started toward home. My shoulder was sore from cheering (getting back into the spirituous swing of things was more exhausting than I’d anticipated); my arm had gotten scraped when I was sliding out of the bathroom window; and more annoying than that, my body had picked a horribly inconvenient day to menstruate. I just wanted some ice cream and my pillow.

Wait. Who was that? There was a car in my driveway, but it wasn’t until I pulled in that I recognized it as Joel’s. A smile tugged at my lips as I parked next to him.

“Hope you don’t mind,” he said as I climbed out. “I stopped by the Redmond bakery and picked you up a cream puff. Thought you’d be tired after practice.”

“Practice?” It took a second before I remembered that that was where I told him I’d be tonight. “Right,” I said quickly, closing my car door. “Yes. Practice was brutal.”

He nodded and held out a white paper bag. He looked handsome as usual. His brown hair was expertly tousled. His Pearl Jam T-shirt was fitted, one side of it tucked into his dark jeans.

“Thank you,” I said softly as I took the bag from him. Tired or not, I was happy to see him. He was like a breath of fresh non-cheating air. “Would you like to come inside?”

“Am I allowed?”

My father had been a little chilly toward Joel the other night at dinner. Not that my daddy was rude—he’d never dream of it. But he was just cautious about my new potential boyfriend. I probably shouldn’t have let him in on the fact that Joel was just recently (as in a few weeks ago) in love with Kira. It didn’t lend credibility to our situation.

“Parents are in Portland for a few days,” I said. “You can … watch a movie with me, maybe?”

Nervous prickles of heat rose on my cheeks. Fact was Joel and I still hadn’t kissed. The closest we’d gotten was in the bleachers when he pecked my cheek after homecoming, and that had been awkward. So now every day drew the moment out more, and the tension was becoming unbearable. We should just do it. If he were Aiden, I would just grab him and kiss—I stopped. He wasn’t Aiden. I needed not to think about him.

“Why, Tiny Crimson, are you trying to seduce me?” His mouth twitched with a smile.

I laughed and shook my head, embarrassed at his joke. “No. I just figured a movie with some popcorn would be a nice thank-you for the cream puff.”

“Sure,” he teased. “I know I’m hard to resist. But unfortunately I’ll need to take a rain check. My dad wants to go over my college apps tonight. Fun stuff, you know.”

“I understand.” I moved my foot, crunching some leaves under my sneaker. Joel cleared his throat, and I looked up to meet his eyes.

His smirk straightened just enough for me to take him seriously. Heat rushed over me as he wet his lips. I recognized that sign. Heavens to Betsy! Was he going to kiss me? I was so unprepared!

Joel leaned in, but as he got mere centimeters to my lips, I turned my head so that his mouth pressed against my cheek. He paused there, obviously surprised not to feel the cushion of my lips. I closed my eyes, disappointed that I just totally wussed out, but relieved that I didn’t have to commit to something I wasn’t ready for. Joel was still against my face when I pulled back and tried to smile encouragingly.

“I’ll see you at school tomorrow?” I asked, as if I hadn’t ruined our would-be first kiss.

“Okaaaay …” He looked perplexed. I felt confused. Why didn’t I just kiss him?

“I’m sorry,” I said, dropping my head. “I didn’t mean to—”

Joel reached up to put his hand over my mouth, stopping me from talking. “Don’t explain. I’m pretty sure it’ll only make it worse.” He smiled at me, his slightly crooked tooth poking out and reminding me how much I liked him. “This week I’m taking you out,” he said, still blocking my speech. “So get some rest.” He leaned over to kiss the top of my head and then paused to look at me again. “You know,” he began, “this is nice. We should conduct more conversations this way.”

I laughed and swatted his hand away from my mouth. “Good night, Joel.” He grinned and then got into his car and backed out of my driveway. I waved as he drove down the darkened street and considered my evening.

I’d just spent the last few hours spying on a cheating boyfriend. Then I got home to discover an amazing guy waiting for me. And yet, I had backed away at the last second! It was beyond bizarre. I might have to consult Leona on the matter. Although I could practically hear her answer in my head. It started with a capital A and ended with an n, and went something like, “If you don’t deal with your Aiden drama, you’ll never be happy.”