Page 38 of Quarterback Crush
“I really appreciate it.”
“Your mom says your protein balls are pretty tasty.”
“Huh?” I frowned. I’d never given Mom any of my protein balls to eat.
“Oops,” Penny said with a chuckle. “Apparently she sneaks them from the fridge. Guess I shouldn’t have said that.”
There was a surge in my chest, a swelling, amazement that Mom had tried my protein balls and raved about them to Penny. She’d never said anything to me. If anything, she’d tell me off about not cleaning up the kitchen after I made a batch. Washing up the food processor could be such a pain.
After putting on a cap and an apron, Penny showed me how a commercial kitchen worked. She had set up a workspace where she was getting her desserts ready for the dinner menu. She worked meticulously and efficiently, measuring and mixingingredients—and yes, I learned that vanilla doesn’t come from a jar at the grocery store, but a vanilla pod that you cut and scrape the seeds out of. Penny whisked up a French Vanilla ice cream which she covered in clingfilm to refrigerate before putting it in the ice cream maker. I was disappointed that I wouldn’t taste the finished product, but I was already inspired to make my vanilla coconut balls more authentic by using the real thing.
“You know, I can’t believe Savannah never brought me here, to the kitchen,” I said. “It’s been awesome.”
Penny smiled. “I can see you enjoyed it.” And with a wink, she said, “Savvy only comes here to eat. Not to work.”
But I wasn’t here to diss Savannah. “Thanks so much, Penny. It’s been fun.”
“Well, after the big game, you must come for dinner. I don’t want to ruin your routines before game day. Your mom said Coach is a little superstitious.”
“Yeah, he’s going a bit overboard,” I said. “So, what will we do next time?”
“I thought we’d look at different flavor combinations and if possible, can you bring in a few samples? Let’s see what Nicole’s raving about.”
“Yeah, of course,” I said. My smile was wide and I was buzzing—until I went out to my car. Savannah’s truck was parked next to it and she jumped out as soon as she saw me coming.
“I heard you were doing your senior project on cooking,” she said, leaning against the door ofmycar.
“Yeah, your Mom is mentoring me.”
“If you wanna get back together, just say it,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes.
“Excuse me?”
“If you wanna get back together, you could just say so,” she repeated, curling the end of her hair around her finger. “You don’t have to use Mom as an excuse.”
My first instinct was to lash out and tell her she was crazy but I took a breath to calm myself.
“I mean, since when have you ever wanted to be a chef?”
I inhaled deeply again, not wanting to start an argument, but Savannah seemed intent on pressing.
“You can pretend you don’t miss me, but I see through your game, Ollie. You chose a project so Mom could be your mentor. And so you can be close to me.”
I didn’t want to jeopardize my mentorship with Penny by insulting Savannah, but she had to know we were never getting back together.
“I’m with Maya now,” I said softly, raising my eyebrows to indicate she should move away from my door. “You know that.”
“Ha!” Savannah rolled her eyes with an evil sarcastic laugh. “That’s just some little fling to make me jealous,” she sneered. “It’s pretty obvious.”
“It is?” I asked.
“Of course it is. Everyone knows you’re just using Maya to get back at me.” And with a flick of her hair, she fake smiled, and took a photo with her phone. “Good choice though. I mean, you’re getting A’s in AP English now.”
My throat tightened and my chest heaved over Savannah’s inference. Did everyone think that I was fake dating Maya as payback to Savannah and using her to get better grades? I felt sick to my bones.
“You’re wrong,” I said.
“Am I?” she said with a condescending pout. “You mean you have real feelings for little Maya Shelton?” She laughed as if it was the most outrageous thing.
