Page 39 of Stealing for Keeps
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“The guy couldn’t get away from me fast enough,” I say to Lacey as I walk around my bedroom. She just finished cheer practice, and I’m video chatting with her while I nervously pace and wait for Austin to arrive.
“Maybe he was just having an off day.”
“No.” I shake my head. “Something is different. He would barely look at me.”
“Maybe Vaughn?”
I still and consider that. “No. Austin all but told me he didn’t care what Vaughn thought.”
“Yeah but…”
“But what?” I ask when she doesn’t immediately finish her statement.
“I didn’t want to say anything, but rumor around school is that the entire soccer team was hazing Austin pretty hard until the Meet the Knights scrimmage.”
“Why?”
“Why do boys do anything? Vaughn was clearly mad that Austin was moving in on his girl.”
“I am not his girl,” I say immediately.
I walk over to my bed and sit on the end. I knew Vaughn was pissed the night of Doyle’s party, but that was weeks ago. “I’m not sure that’s it. I saw them today at school. They seemed fine. Better than fine. They were friendly.”
“Doesn’t that seem suspicious? The day he starts acting chummy with Vaughn, he also starts avoiding you?”
I pause and reconsider the past few weeks. Austin and Rowan sitting with us at lunch instead of the rest of the team. Austin hanging out with his brother at the carnival. A text notification comes in on my phone.
Austin: Outside.
“I gotta go,” I tell Lacey. “He’s early.”
“Call me later,” she blurts out before I can hang up the phone.
I hustle downstairs and to the front door, but before pulling it open, I take a deep breath.
When I do open the door, Austin is standing on the other side. His head is down, looking at his phone, and his smile is carefree. As soon as he glances up at me, it disappears.
The embarrassment and irritation I feel at him treating me so coolly are almost enough for me to turn him away, but I need answers.
“Hey. Come in,” I say.
He steps in, gaze tipping up to look around. “What do your parents do?”
“My dad is a financial advisor, and my mom is a real estate agent.” The house is big. Way bigger than the one I grew up in as a kid. It was a foreclosure, and Mom got a good deal from the bank. I used to joke with Lacey that it was haunted by the ghost of other people’s crushed dreams. Now they’re just my dreams that haunt it.
“I thought we could work in my room.” I take off without waiting for his agreement. Every step, I get a little bit angrier. Who does Vaughn think he is? And why the hell would Austin listen to him?
I sit down on my bed and don’t bother to watch as he comes in and sets his backpack on the ground. I don’t care if he’s comfortable. We’re going to get through this and then hopefully not need to work together anymore. He can do his pieces, I’ll do mine, and we’ll divide up the rest.
“Wow. That’s a lot of trophies.”
When I glance up, he’s standing in front of my dresser, where all my skating trophies are displayed, with his back to me.
I ignore his comment and dive right into the project. “Do you think we should do a social media campaign or keep it grassroots?”
“The latter, for sure.” He turns to me. “Much artsier. Maybe we could have a secret password to get in too.”
