Page 80 of The Good Girl's Guide to Being Bad

“Colton?” I asked. “What do you think?”

“I think you should do it,” he said, his ocean blue eyes going from me to his brother and back again. “You should. It’ll be one more thing we can check off the list.”

I blinked, trying to figure out why his words made my chest tighten.

“Okay,” I said quietly.

“Okay,” Kyle said and took a step closer, placing his hands on my waist. “Ready?”

I nodded, closing my eyes as Kyle leaned down, trying to ignore how wrong it all felt. But why did it feel so wrong? I thought. Hadn’t I been in love with Kyle forever? Wasn’t this what I’d always dreamed about, wanted, hoped for? As my best friend’s lips pressed sweetly against my own, moved gently with mine, it was warm and nice and…not at all what I’d come to expect from a kiss. Why wasn’t my heart exploding? Why weren’t my lips begging his for more? Why wasn’t I going off like a shooting star like I did with…?

The next thing I knew it was over. Kyle was standing back up, smiling down at me while I was completely discombobulated.

“Wow,” Kyle said, “Sadie, you look completely out of it. I should’ve warned you ahead of time. I’ve been told I’m a great kisser.”

I couldn’t respond. He was right. I was out of it, but it definitely wasn’t because Kyle was a great kisser. I mean, he could’ve been; maybe he was, but I wouldn’t know because the entire time I’d been kissing him, I’d been comparing it to the one kiss I actually wanted.

And surprisingly, it wasn’t from the boy I’d thought I was in love with since grade school.

When I snuck a glance, Colton was staring at me.

Not in a smug way, not even like he wanted to say, “I told you so”—which at this moment, he totally could. Colton had been right. I wasn’t in love with Kyle. My heart was pointing me in a completely different direction, making Colton’s quiet stare so much more unnerving.

But he was just staring at me, studying me, probably seeing much more than I wanted him to. Before I could get lost in those ocean blue eyes, before I had to face my true feelings that were becoming increasingly/embarrassingly obvious, I blurted out a request that I knew would shift everyone’s focus.

“I need you both to be in a dance I’m choreographing, and I won’t take no for an answer.”

Getting Kyle to say “yes” had been a piece of cake.

Colton? Not so much.

“But you’re my coach,” I said, walking beside him—chasing him really—as we moved through the halls between classes. “I need you. Don’t you want to win the bet?”

“Yes, I want to win,” Colton said, trudging along like I wasn’t struggling to keep up. At six-foot-two, his legs were so much longer than my own. “No, I won’t dance with you.”

“Well, why not?” I asked.

“Because I won’t.”

Nice. The typical douchebag non-answer.

“But—”

Lorra Shoemaker, one of Colton’s cooler exes, stepped in front of us then and halted our progress. Thank goodness. Chances were good that my legs would’ve given out if we’d kept up the pace much longer.

“Hey Sadie,” she said, her bright brown eyes shining almost as much as her smooth black hair. “How’s it going?”

“Hey, fine,” I said back. “Oh, and congrats on that softball win last week. You girls were killing it out there.”

“Thanks, we try,” Lorra shrugged, which was something I loved about her. She was always so humble even though her pitching was what lead our team to most of their wins. “Hey Colton,” she said, shifting her gaze to him. “So, you and Sadie are hanging out now? That’s cool.”

“Define ‘hanging out,’” he said. “And also, Sadie, you’re welcome. I’m guessing that’s the first time anyone’s mentioned your name and ‘cool’ in the same sentence.”

I scowled. Oh, so he had jokes now did he? Awesome, fantastic. But I had to hold my temper in check because I wanted something from him. Namely for him to be one part of the devastatingly fabulous tango trio I’d concocted in my head, so I tried to be nice.

“Ah thanks, Colton.” I smiled. “Your jokes are almost as hilarious as your face.”

Colton did something really interesting then. His entire face morphed into something between a grimace and a smirk. He girked…smimaced? Anyway, it was an odd expression, and I found myself biting my lip not to laugh.

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