Page 52 of The Perfect Steal

“I’m sure some people would vote against you on that one. It’s better than my chicken scratch.”

“Can you make French toast?” I said, knowing that was my one chance to use cooking as a life skill.

Nate laughed. “Of all the breakfast foods in the world, that is the one I’ve cooked before. What if I teach you coding?”

I sat back, surprised by that. “Coding, like making an app?” That sounded like a lot more work than the few steps we had to show Mrs. Rhodes, but it would definitely mean more time with him.

“Yeah.” There was a long silence, and then he said, “Why don’t you teach me some basketball skills.”

“What are you talking about? I watched you play in that men’s game. You have plenty of skills in that area.”

“But what if I want those skills to be better? I’ve got to learn from the best, right?” If I were snow, I’d be a puddle in his hand.

I thought about it for several seconds and then said, “Okay, but I’m not sure that counts as an effective life skill.”

“I think you’ll be able to relate it to everyday life.” He winked and then yawned, covering his mouth with the back of his hand. “Should we work on that tomorrow? I’m going to get some sleep so I can actually show up to school tomorrow.”

“You better. I was feeling lonely without you there in class.” Not that we had class together tomorrow, but I might get to see him in the halls, and that was worth it for now.

Nate opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to say something. But after several seconds, he just closed it and shook his head. “Good night, beautiful. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He hung up before I had a chance to answer. Did he know how much I liked him? I was turning into a sappy girl. My only hope was that this feeling never ended.

35

Nate

I was officially grateful for my bed, the exhaustion of the past few days catching up with me. But I’d gone to sleep thinking about Brynn, and I couldn’t have been more excited to head into school, hoping to see her. Now I was finally understanding why the baseball guys had been so funny when they started dating their girls.

Ben slapped me on the back as we walked down the hall before art. “It’s nice to see you making it to class once in a while, Nate,” he said, chuckling.

“Really? You’re going to go there?” I said, before I remembered who I was talking to. Mr. Perfection. “How’s your dark painting going?”

The art teacher had asked us all to take a picture, and instead of painting it in the normal colors, we were to use shades that would evoke a different feeling. I was still trying to figure out what I was going to do for that, but I had to give Ben a hard time about something.

“It’s going. I chose a tree, and it’s a lot harder to not paint the leaves green than I thought it would be.”

“What color did you choose?”

“Orange.”

“Isn’t that cheating because they can turn orange in the fall?” I elbowed him in the side and laughed as we entered the classroom.

Ben grinned and shook his head. “We live in Texas. Show me the orange leaves.”

Dang. Shot down again.

“What’s going on with you and Brynn? Serena said she saw her over at your place a couple weeks ago.”

I frowned, not wanting to be spied on by my neighbor. “She came over once to work on a project we have together in Life Skills.” I stopped a second and glanced over at Ben. “How did you tell Serena that you liked her?” Technically I’d already spilled the beans, but I wasn’t sure if Brynn got the extent of the liking.

“That’s awesome. You and Brynn are going to be a great match.”

“But how will I know she likes me and won’t turn me down?” Insecurity was seeping through everything, and I hoped I’d be able to figure this all out soon. The suspense was killing me.

Ben shrugged, pulling out the paints and paintbrush he’d stashed in his desk. “You’ll just have to take that leap. But I’m pretty sure she likes you just as much as you like her.”

“How? She hasn’t talked about hanging out with the girls lately.”

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