Operation Prom Date (Tactics in Flirting, #1)
Cindi Madsen
To Kylie, my favorite person for discussions about shipping couples, canons, OTPs, & every other term that completely baffles your dad because he has absolutely no clue what we’re talking about. I’m so lucky that I get to be your mom.
Chapter One
Kate
Sometimes in life you had to make the best of a crappy situation. Like how instead of sulking over my lack of vehicular transport and the fact that my mom was running late—again—I used it as an excuse to sit in the parking lot near the football field, drinking a soda, working on my tan, and watching the boys scrimmage (i.e., watching the way their muscles flexed as they threw, ran, caught, and tackled one another).
Which was especially intriguing, since one set of muscles belonged to Mick, the guy I’d had a crush on for the past year. Okay, maybe more like the last two years if I were being totally honest, but there were periods in there when I’d tried to abandon it for guys who were more in my league.
Unfortunately, it never worked. For one, I was flirtationally challenged, but two, I still compared them all to the guy with the dark messy hair, soulful blue eyes, and did I mention the muscles? He was the quarterback of our team, and he liked to keep in shape between seasons—he had offers from several different universities to play next year, from our local New Hampshire University to one down in Florida and all the way to one on the west coast. Lucky university, whichever one snagged him.
To say I had it bad for him…? Well, that was a huge freaking understatement. The middle of sophomore year, when everyone else tromped over my dropped notebook as I struggled to balance my armload of textbooks, he’d stopped. After shaking his head at the rude passersby—he even muttered a “really, dudes?”—he picked up my slightly beat-up notebook, wiped off the dirt, and handed it over with a grin.
A zing of electricity traveled up my arm, cartoon birds chirped overhead, and in that moment, I saw the sweet guy under the cool jock exterior.
My crush only grew the day he came into the ice cream shop after school with his little brother. I was there doing my homework, waiting for Mom as usual. He nodded at me, one corner of his lips kicking up, and more than my ice cream melted.
Since then I’d thought up a dozen scenarios where we exchanged more than pleasantries, he realized I was awesome, and we held hands and kissed and basically made everyone jealous of how cute we were.
Now that we were well into our last semester of senior year, with college on the horizon, I’d decided this was the semester I was going to make him mine. Whatever it took.
A tall shadow cut off my sunshine, which made my legs look tanner but would prevent them from actually tanning if whoever it was didn’t move. I glanced up. And up, and up. Cooper Callihan grew taller every year, and he had to be past six feet now. He’d also filled out this year, which looked good on him, but meant he blocked more of my sun.
A crooked grin curved his mouth. “Still interested in Pecker, I see.”
“Shhh!” I glared at him, trying to convey that I’d ruin his life if anyone overheard. He didn’t seem scared. I also hated that he called Mick by his surname. Yes, it was a rather unfortunate last name, and from what I could tell, Mick’s only flaw. Of course when you looked like he did, you made it work for you anyway.
I glanced at Mick—still a good twenty or so yards away, thank goodness—then back at Cooper. We were sort of friends, as in we shared a history class where we’d been partnered together for a project and had hung out during one summer at the lake a few years ago, when he was just a scrawny guy who spouted a lot of facts about the stars. I’d once been his rowing partner during a trip across the lake, but that was mostly by default, since my former BF not F convinced me to go with him so she could be alone with Donovan Lawson.
I twirled the end of my ponytail around my finger, noticing the tips of my brown hair were lightening thanks to the past few weeks of sunshine. “So you…you can tell? That I…?” I couldn’t say it aloud for fear someone else would hear, even as I looked around to confirm we were alone. I lowered my voice to a whisper. “Do you think he’s noticed?”
Cooper moved to sit on the parking curb next to me, bumping his hip into mine when there wasn’t enough room—the guy had boundary issues, obviously. I scooted over, though, anxious to hear his answer.
“He’s probably noticed,” he said, leaning back on his palms and tipping his face to the sun. Of course he was still blocking half my access.
My cheeks heated and I groaned, fighting the urge to look over at Mick again. Then I sighed, my entire body deflating. “That means he would’ve done something about it if he were actually interested.”
“Not necessarily.”
I waited for more, but Cooper just sat there, the sun lighting up his mop of dirty blond, slightly out-of-control wavy hair. “Explain.”
“I…” He shot me a sidelong glance and shook his head. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” The urge to storm away was strong, but that wouldn’t help with my goal to win over Mick this semester. If I worked fast enough, maybe we could even go to prom together—after all, I’d been talked into being on the decorating committee, and it’d be so sad to decorate but not attend. The image of the two of us entering a decorated gym, me in a sparkly dress and Mick sporting a dapper tux and his trademark sexy smirk hit me, and longing rose up.