Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(56)

Okay. Even I knew there was no reforming a person like that. “Well why didn’t you say any of this when I set her up with him?”

“Because! She was supposed to be using the *. I didn’t expect her to like him! She’s usually too smart to fall for a guy like that.”

We both turned and looked at Claudia. She scanned the far sideline, as if she was waiting with bated breath for Keegan to appear once more. She looked so hopeful and guarded at the same time. So open and so timid. And just like that, I realized what was happening. I’d been too intent on helping her to see it before, but now it was crystal clear.

Claudia was rebounding. Maybe on a normal day she’d be able to see through a too-perfect boy like Keegan Traylor, but Wednesday hadn’t been a normal day. It had been the day after the love of her life had dumped her. Clearly she would have fallen for the first non-troll who happened to look her way.

And I’d set her up with a troll in prince’s clothing.





CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN


Claudia


Standing outside the visiting team’s locker room after the game, I checked my reflection with my phone. Ugh. So pale. Too many freckles. And what was I thinking with the braid? Was I trying to look like I’d stepped out of the pages of Little House on the Prairie? I quickly reached back and untied it, fluffing my hair over my shoulders. It fanned out in silky auburn waves.

Huh. Pretty. But there was so much of it. Now I looked like I was trying to be sexy at five o’clock on a Saturday afternoon. Too much. I shoved my phone into my bag and shakily pulled my hair back into a ponytail. The band was just snapping into place when Keegan emerged from the back door and I smiled, trying not to appear as self-conscious as I felt.

But how could I not? Because look at him, and then look at me. I could already sense people watching us curiously. Skeptically. But I’d been Peter Marrott’s girlfriend for over a year. Was it that much of a stretch that Keegan Traylor could be interested in me?

“Hey,” Keegan said with that ridiculous knee-melting smile. I looked at his lips, and suddenly it was last night and I was experiencing his kiss again. His lips, his hands, his tongue . . .

“Claudia?” he said.

“Oh, sorry. Hi!” I replied brightly. “How’s it going?” Then I remembered his team had lost, and my smile faltered.

He stopped a couple of feet in front of me. “You came.”

Wait. Didn’t he remember we’d made a plan? Or maybe he’d only made a plan to be polite. Crap. Did he even want me here?

“Um, yeah. Of course I came,” I said, trying to think of a way to cover. “I go to school here, remember?”

I made a lame gesture at my booster ribbon and glanced around for Peter, wondering briefly what he’d think if he saw Keegan and me together right now. Whether he’d care.

“I know. But you came to see me,” Keegan said, his smile widening. “I wasn’t sure if you would. You know, fraternizing with the enemy and stuff.”

I smirked and tried to relax. Tried to focus. “I don’t take football that seriously. No offense.”

“None taken.” He shrugged.

“Sorry about the loss.”

A couple of his teammates came out behind him, and he lifted a hand as they shouted their “See ya laters!”

“Their defense was on fire today and my offensive line basically crumbled,” he said casually, holding the strap on his duffel bag with both hands. “What’re you gonna do? You win some, you lose some. It’s a cliché for a reason.”

And he laughed.

Really? That was it? Whenever Peter had lost a game last year, he’d walked out of the locker room angry, stormed to my car, and brooded the entire way home. Then he’d spent the rest of the day in stony silence, occasionally blurting out something else he should have done differently or some bonehead move he’d made that could have changed the whole game. This was a whole new world. And maybe, just possibly, a better one.

Or was it bad that Keegan wasn’t taking any responsibility for the loss? Somehow I had a feeling that was what a quarterback and captain was supposed to do.

Then Keegan took a step closer to me, so close our toes were almost touching. My pulse went low and quick, making it hard to breathe.

“Besides, how can I be depressed about some game when I have you here to cheer me up?” he said.

He was going to kiss me. It was blatant to the entire world. And I had a million thoughts at once. Where was Peter? Would he see? What had I eaten for lunch? How gross was my breath? Did everyone think he was too hot for me? Oh God, he really was so insanely hot.

And then he did kiss me, and I no longer cared. About any of it. Because when he kissed me the only thing that mattered was the kissing.





CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT


Peter


Everyone was still whooping and shouting and laughing when I got out of the shower. I felt like some kind of actual hero as my teammates clapped me on the back and tossed their towels at me. I slapped hands and did everything I was supposed to, but what I really wanted to do was get out of there and find Claudia. She was going to take me back. She had to. It wasn’t like she actually liked Keegan Traylor. They’d only gone out once. And besides, he’d just had his ass handed to him. Publicly. That couldn’t have been attractive.