Page 53 of The Perfect Steal

“Yeah, but they’re girls. They’ve been analyzing everything they could gather.” We both laughed at that.

Maybe the best way to tell Brynn was to show her. Ideas flooded my mind, possibilities to code something to show her. And there was the need to find out more about what her sister had liked. John could be a good asset there. I just had to get the full plan worked out to make it all come together.

36

Nate

Over the next two and a half weeks, I was thoroughly impressed by Brynn’s skills. Her ability to shoot three-pointers all along the arc was insane, and for a forward, her dribbling was a lot better than mine. I think she’d stolen the ball from me several times before we moved on to the next set of skills.

I’d wanted to tell her how I felt, but each time it felt like the perfect time, we were interrupted.

With her practices and games, trying to get together to teach her my skill had been harder, but now we only had two days until the assignment was due before the end of the semester and the beginning of Christmas break.

My attempts at showing her how much I liked her kept getting foiled, as her schedule only got busier before break. I’d been tempted to just confess it all a few times, usually in passing or through a text, but that didn’t have the same feeling as it would face to face.

I had everything in place, the computer booted up and ready to go down in one of the old spare bedrooms. I’d had to wipe off most of the equipment, as neither my dad nor I had used it in a long time.

Brynn came in, and I guided her downstairs.“I’ve got everything set up here,” I said, waving to the tables of equipment.

She walked into the room and took a seat next to the main computer desk.

“No, go ahead and sit in the big chair. You’re going to be driving this thing,” I said.

Brynn gave me a look of surprise. “I’m not sure you want me doing that. I might be really good at spreadsheets because of their organizational capabilities, but with all the numbers and letters that go into coding, I might blow up your computer.”

“Well, if that happened, I’d just have to teach you how to put it all back together.”

She stared at me, her mouth slightly open for several seconds. “You know how to build a computer?”

I grinned. “I put together my first computer by the time I was nine. It was one of the best days I can remember, pressing the on button and hearing it all work together.”

Her face was more somber than I’d expected, since she’d been so encouraging and excited about things before. “Are you all right?”

She nodded, giving me a quick smile before turning to the computer. “Okay, let’s get started.”

I’d had several ideas of how teaching Brynn to code would go, and most of them consisted of her being more than excited about this. But something was off, and I hoped she wasn’t mad at me for something.

“Okay, just let me get logged into my program here,” I said, leaning over her slightly since I’d forgotten to do that before she came. I accidentally brushed her arm, and the spot where we’d connected tingled a bit. Well, at least our connection was still there, even if Brynn seemed off today. Maybe something had happened with her mom? I’d just need to let things play out.

Once everything had pulled up, I pointed to the screen and gave several tips, starting from the beginning like my father had done for me all those years ago.

After about an hour of work, she typed in something and said, “Like that?” She looked terrified that she’d done it wrong, and I could understand. I’d had moments of thinking I’d broken everything, but my dad was usually able to fix it, allowing me to continue.

At one point, I glanced over at her and saw her yawn. Had I bored her to tears?

“You know what? We can probably be done. I mean, you’ve got the basics down now, and, yeah, that should be good.” A nugget of disappointment filled my chest, and I sat back in the chair, trying to figure it out.

“This was really fun. I had no idea all that went into coding something.” She gave me a quick smile and then turned her gaze to her hands.

I reached forward, a zip of electricity rushing through my arms as I touched her hands.

She glanced up, sadness around her eyes.

“Are you okay? Are we okay?” I asked, several moments of panic hitting my chest and making it harder to breathe.

“I’m fine, Nate. I’m just curious, I mean, how is it that you know how to do stuff like this and calculus practically in your head, but you’re in all the easiest classes?”

My defenses rose, and I pulled back, sitting up a little straighter, as if her questions were prepping me for some kind of battle.

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