Page 26 of The Perfect Steal

I hissed, placing my pointer finger against my lips. My cheeks were on fire, and I just hoped that no one had heard any part of our conversation. Being awkward around the guy I had to work on an assignment with would be unbearable.And a sliver of hope ran through me that he might like me too. But I wasn’t going to discuss it within earshot of him. Time to change the discussion.

“What about your dating life? You hang out an awful lot with Colt,” I said, motioning in his direction with a tilt of my head. I wasn’t opposed to deflecting the attention. Hazel turned and waved at Colt, who looked like a lovestruck puppy as he stared at her.

“We’re just friends. He’s fun to be around, but I’ve got too much going on for a relationship.”

I choked and pointed to myself. “Hello? Have you seen my planner? It could be black with all the things I’ve got going on every day. Basketball, work, homework.” Avoiding my parents’ fighting. “Why do I need a boyfriend and you don’t?”

Hazel flicked back a section of her hair and stared at me with her bright green eyes. “Because you’ve got a lot going on in your life, and I think hanging out with a guy might help with how full your schedule is.” She gave me a mischievous smile and turned to the court where one player from each team stood in the center, ready for the tip-off.

Nate won it against a guy who had at least fifty pounds on him, and I was surprised by how decent he was at basketball. He even knew how to dribble the ball with skill, keeping it under control and even going between his legs a time or two.

Dax had obviously been chosen to be the muscle down under the basket, as his dribbling and long-distance shooting skills weren’t very good. Ben wasn’t bad, boxing out the other team to get the rebounds and passing them off to the other men who’d shown up at the last minute for the game.

They moved down the court to play defense, Nate using his long legs to sprint in front and stand still, waiting for the opponent to charge into him.And with a precision Coach Adams would have loved, the hit sent Nate sliding underneath the basket, drawing the whistle of a foul.

He took out the ball, passing it to one of the teammates. The guy dribbled down the court, shot, and missed, causing them all to run to the other basket again.

Nate squatted down, his hands out to the sides as he defended the guy with the ball.I watched his eyes, seeing that he was about to go for the ball, and he stole it clean from the player and dribbled down to make an easy layup.

Okay, I might have had a spike of attraction to him at that moment, but that didn’t mean anything. I’d spent the last two years of my life thinking I’d have a better chance for taller guys and ones who would have basketball skills once I got to college. But there was something about seeing Nate, the typical loudmouth baseball player, making layups like it was just another day in the gym.

And when he turned around, he flashed me a smile, making every bit of me tingle with excitement.

“Whatever happened to Garrett Park?” Hazel asked.

And then there was that question. I’d give my friends and my cousin some credit. Usually, the way to get information out of me was to ask direct questions. But I was getting sick of that one. I had to clamp my mouth shut, hoping she hadn’t seen it drop open in surprise.

I turned to her, frowning. “What do you mean, ‘What happened to him’? We went on one date. It was to a dance, and not one of the formal ones, I might add.” I’d always been under the impression that if someone had a crush on another person, they would wait for the formals to ask. This one had been a costume-type dance, meaning no real feelings there.

Hazel shook her head. “Really, Brynn. I meant between the two of you. You seemed like you were having fun at the Harvest Dance. What happened after?”

Maybe I needed to record myself talking about the football player for all the times people had asked me about him recently. I shrugged. “He was nice and all, but then I got the vibe that he wasn’t interested.”

It hadn’t hurt my feelings, as I had just asked him so I could go with the girls, but maybe I should have asked Nate, just for fun of course.

“Well, my money goes toward that guy as being worth a shot.” Hazel giggled as she pointed to Nate, and I already knew where she was going with it. “Get it? Worth a shot, since you play—”

“Got it, Haze,” I said, laughing.

The game flew by, and it was fun seeing both teams play, although my interest was focused on Nate.

At one point, he sat by the table, ready to go in on the next whistle, and he started to talk to us.

“I didn’t know you worked here. You said something about reffing the younger kids.” He pulled up the bottom of his jersey to wipe the sweat off his forehead, and I might have been looking at his stomach and the definition of it longer than I should have.

“Yep,” was all I could think to say.

Hazel nudged me in the side, and I continued, “It’s, um, flexible during the season.”

He smiled, and everything inside me was tingly. “That’s cool. Just one more thing on your schedule. No wonder it’s hard to find a time to meet.”

The whistle blew before I could answer, but I already felt my cousin’s eyes boring holes through the side of my head as Nate went in for one of the older men.

“Meet? Girl, are you holding out on me?”

“No, we just got paired up on a group project. I was trying to come up with days we could meet to work on it.”

Hazel wrapped her hands around my arm and squealed. “This just keeps getting better and better!”

---