Stacking the Deck (A Betting on Romance Novel Book 2)(85)

Beth coughed and fluttered to pull out a notebook for working out problems, her face growing warm. “Yes. Of course,” she said, thankful she knew the drill by now. She glanced at the page he’d opened to. “Ah, yes. Oblique triangles and law of sines. Okay. Basically all this is doing is allowing you to find…”

Thirty minutes later Carter was jiggling his knee, frowning at the notebook and glancing at the clock on the wall as Beth’s face flamed in embarrassment.

She bit her lip, frustrated with herself. No wonder Carter was confused! She’d started to describe the law of sines, gotten it mixed up with the law of cosines for a few minutes, caught herself, backtracked to the law of sines and thoroughly lost him along the way.

He ran a hand through his hair and looked at her. “Maybe we should try again next time.”

“No! I mean, of course we can, but I know you’ll get it. It’s my fault for not explaining it right to begin with.” Crap! Now look what she’d done! Why couldn’t she have just paid attention and not let her mind wander off to places it had no business wandering? And here it was nearly time to go!

“It’s okay, Beth.”

But, it’s not okay!

She felt her pulse racing as he started to shove his text into his backpack.

Ask him! Ask him now! The prom is in less than two weeks! If you don’t ask now, it’ll be too late!

Just suck it up and DO IT!

“So,” she said, her hands visibly shaking as she closed her notebook. She tucked them in her lap under the table and swallowed, sure that Carter must be able to hear the pounding of her heart in her chest. “I hear a lot of people are getting excited about the prom.”

Carter tugged at the zipper of his backpack. It caught a little and he had to lean in and yank it. “The food should be good,” he said.

Beth nodded. Jenny’s parents owned The Old Mill Bar & Grill in town and were catering for the prom. “The Whitmeyers sure threw a great party the other night, didn’t they?”

Carter glanced at her, a funny twist to his mouth. “It had its moments.”

She sucked in a deep breath as he stood to leave and stood, too. “So, Carter… I, um, was wondering… if … like, as just friends… if you thought it might be fun to go, I mean, together. To the prom, I mean.”

She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even feel her heart any more, as she stood completely paralyzed, waiting for his reply. She felt as fragile as a piece of glass, wondering if those moments in Jenny Whitmeyer’s pantry had meant as much to him as they had to her. His answer would surely tell her.

His lips tilted, in that wry, winsome way he had and he turned to grab his jacket. “I can’t. Missy Green already asked. That’s why I was late.” He smiled wider and shrugged into his jacket. “But you don’t have to have a date to go. There are plenty of guys going stag. Maybe I’ll see you there?”

“Right,” she said, straining to hold it together, straining to appear indifferent even though she felt completely and utterly shattered. “I’ll think about it.”

“Okay,” he said. “See you next time.”

“See ya.”

And, then he left, and she broke into a thousand brittle pieces, vowing then and there that if she ever pulled together the shards of her broken heart, she would never, ever let it be in charge again.

Because, it was too easily led astray by charming rebels—and stolen kisses in the dark.





CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

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LIZ SPRITZED THE HALLWAY mirror with window cleaner and began to wipe it with a paper towel. The potential buyers Valerie had brought through the prior afternoon had certainly seemed interested. And why shouldn’t they be? Liz had done a huge amount of work since coming home, and despite the fact that her personal life was quickly going down the crapper, she was stunned at how good the house looked.

She spritzed again.

She shouldn’t think of it that way.

Getting dumped by Grant was a good thing. Okay, so he hadn’t dumped her, just admitted he’d only wanted to get in her panties. But, the end result was the same: she now knew their relationship wasn’t what she thought it was and, more importantly, wasn’t what she wanted.

It all boiled down to the fact that she had a pattern of horribly misjudging men.

She’d spent more than a decade fantasizing about the kiss of the wrong man. And while Dan was a surprisingly good kisser for being such a schmuck, he wasn’t The One. Grant, not as big a schmuck as Dan, clearly wasn’t The One either. And Carter? She’d built him up to be something he never was, judged him on something he might not have done and pushed him away at the very moment he’d started to open up to her.

Pandora’s Universe: 3

Liz Beacon: 0

Maybe Carter was the one for her and maybe he wasn’t, but she’d promised him six weeks to figure it out.

Liz wiped the last streak from the mirror thoughtfully. Carter was taking her out for dinner later. Maybe she’d gain some personal insight then.

She jumped in surprise when the doorbell rang. Good grief. She’d have to buy that man a watch. He was nearly two hours early! Still, her heart was beating in happy anticipation as she opened the door.

“Hi, gorgeous!” she said.