Page 75 of How He Got the Girl
“You’ve got me pegged,” Mallory says when we reach a stop sign. She looks both ways before crossing the road.
“Oh, I’m not done yet.” I dive a little deeper. “The way you light up whenever you’re around your friends and family. The beautiful laugh you get when something someone says or does really gets you.” I place my hand over hers, which rests on my arm. “The best part of the Mallory starter pack is that you’re always undeniably you. You never hide how you feel. There’s an honesty in your words and actions that’s admirable.” I let my hand fall back to my side as we continue walking. “Am I missing anything?”
She glances up at me, her eyes bright. “That’s really how you see me?”
My lips pull up in a tilted grin. “That’s only me scratching the surface, beautiful.”
“I wasn’t sure any man would ever love my bluntness.”
“That might make some people push you away, but not me. I love that I never know what you’re going to say next. That you challenge me in a way no one else ever has.”
Mallory dabs her gloved hands under her eyes. “You have no idea how much I needed to hear that. Thank you.”
“Anytime.” I slide my free hand into my jacket pocket. “I can keep going if you want.”
She squeezes my arm. “I think if you keep going, my head might start getting as inflated as yours.”
“Okay, Ms. Confident, let’s see if you know me well enough to say what’s inmystarter pack.” I narrow my eyes while smiling at her, a challenge.
Mallory raises an eyebrow as if to saygame on. “Chicken wings, for sure. Aviator sunglasses. Speaking in movie quotes. And I can’t forget your million-watt smile, according to Granny.”
“I prefer my Mallory-induced smile,” I say before I can think any better of it.
She reaches up and touches the tilted corner of my mouth. “This one?” I nod. “I always wondered why your smile around me looked different than the one I see you use everywhere else.”
“Do you like that it’s only for you?” I tease.
She blushes, but mirth twinkles in her gaze. “I didn’t say that.”
“But your flushed cheeks did.”
They flame a deeper shade of pink. “It’s from the cold.”
“If that’s what you have to tell yourself to sleep at night.” This back and forth with her is what I live for. It makes me feel alive in a way no one else can.
“I’m probably just getting frostbite since you dragged me out here in the freezing tundra.”
“I think you’d have to be outside for hours to get frostbite with this temperature. It’s barely cold enough for it to even be snowing.” I watch as a flurry lands on the road and immediately melts.
“Can’t you let a girl blush in peace? Or is confidence your main setting?”
I can’t hold back the grin now that we’ve finally reached the truth. “I want to hear you say it. Out loud.”
“I’m a vampire,” she whispers. Her face remains neutral for a moment before she breaks into laughter. I can’t help but chuckle with her at theTwilightreference.
Once we’ve both calmed down, I swipe at the tears under my eyes before they have a chance to freeze to my face. “That was hilarious.”
“You set it up; I just knocked it out of the park.”
“Are you a professional baseball player now?”
“No, but I could get you tickets to a Mustangs game. Make you finally cheer for therightteam for once.”
I don’t say that I think I could easily get my own tickets. I don’t want to sound conceited, and I try not to use my level of fame for things like that anyway. “Do you have a connection to the team? You know, other than the old posters over your bedroom wall?”
She knocks her hip into my leg. “Alyssa is friends with Austin Bradford.”
“The shortstop?”
