Operation Prom Date (Tactics in Flirting, #1)(39)

I raked my fingers through my hair, trying to decide whether to let it go or engage. After all, I’d kept my part of the bargain the other day and told Mick what he wanted to hear. Despite how hard I’d tried to stay out of the drama, I’d ended up in the thick of it, because of this girl. In some ways, cutting my losses and focusing on my original goal of more time on the lake and not let anything else get in the way would be the smart play.

But leaving things strained between Kate and me? It’d eat away at me, and trying to ignore her had already left me feeling raw for days. Surrendering to the crazy magnetic pull she had on me, I stepped over the curb and moved to sit, but I had to bump her with my hip to clear enough room. “I’m not breaking up with you. I just needed space.”

“Well, remember how I told you that you’re my only friend? No pressure, but I need my friend.” A contemplative crinkle creased her forehead. “Okay, I guess that’s pressure, but you know what, I don’t care. You don’t get to just blow me off with a lame claim of needing space. Friends talk to each other.” She crossed her arms, her expression all business. “So talk.”

I wanted to tell her that her logic was flawed, but I couldn’t exactly explain why I needed space without confessing a whole lot more. Like how I couldn’t stop thinking about her, everything from her laugh to her smile to her fandom talk. How I didn’t want her to hang around with Pecker anymore, because I wanted her to pick me instead.

Talk about a good way to end a friendship. Since she’d pointed out I was all she had in that area, it’d make me a huge jerk to let my selfish wants eclipse what she wanted. Especially since she’d been clear about hers from the very beginning.

I rubbed the back of my neck and glanced around—evidently the paranoid tables had turned. She was talking freely, and I worried about eavesdroppers. “How about we head to the lake, but not for rowing. Just to be there and have fun and forget everything else for a while?”

She blinked at me.

“Unless you’re waiting for Mick?”

“Yes. I mean no. I mean, no I’m not waiting for Mick, and yes to heading to the lake. Let me just text my mom and tell her I’ve got a ride home. Assuming you’ll take me home after?”

I almost slipped and made it crystal clear as to how I felt about her by telling her I’d take her anywhere she wanted me to.





Chapter Twenty-Three


Kate


I told myself to just be happy that Cooper and I were finally talking again, but there was some invisible presence in the cab of the truck with us. Not like an actual ghost or paranormal being. More like everything left unsaid crowded the space and made it hard to know what to actually say.

The past few days completely freaked me out, and I’d been sure Cooper was about to pull an Amber on me and just phase me out of his life like it wasn’t a big deal. The same eclipsing sense of loneliness hit me full force, and I’d had trouble sleeping. I worried I’d come on too strong or done something wrong, and I didn’t want to do anything that would mess up our friendship. I wasn’t sure how I became so attached after only a little over two weeks of consistently hanging out, but I had, and I needed us to be okay with a desperation I hadn’t felt since losing my dad.

I tapped my fingers on my leg, trying to come up with something to fill the quickly-turning-awkward silence. When I thought I recognized the song on the radio, I reached over and turned it up. “Hmm.”

“What?” Cooper asked.

“At first I thought this was the song they played during one of the Haylijah scenes on The Originals, but it’s not.”

“This is the same show you named your pet dragon after?”

Warmth tingled through me. He remembered. “Yeah. Even Klaus—the vampire version—ships them, which is complicated since she had his baby. I was hoping after Elijah and Hayley hooked up, which I waited for-seriously-ever for, we could get to the canon stage, but of course it’s not that easy.”

“To shoot a cannon?” His expression read as serious, but the teasing tone made it clear he knew that wasn’t what I meant.

“A canon’s a ship that’s been confirmed by the series.”

“Okay.”

“You’re fighting the urge to call me crazy now, aren’t you? I can see it in the little twitch in your cheek.” I wanted to poke one of his dimples, like I’d done before, but with our friendship in barely-getting-back-to-normal territory, I didn’t know if it’d cross a line. “Don’t try to deny it, because last weekend I found out I’m really good at poker. I made a couple hundred dollars off Mick and his friends—enough for a prom dress, I hope.”

The twitch I’d pointed out took hold and a smile curved his lips. “You hustled those guys out of their money? Let me guess, you used mathematical deviousness?”

“Hey, I didn’t choose the math thug life, it chose me.”

Cooper’s laugh bounced across the cab and the happy sound echoed through my chest. “I’m so proud. And for the first time, I’m actually regretting not crashing that night.”

All that suffocating unsaid stuff lifted, and then we were back to Kate and Cooper, friends who understood each other, even when we didn’t.

Naturally I questioned that theory when Cooper pulled two fishing poles out from behind the seat of his truck.