Biggest Flirts (Superlatives #1)(47)
Author: Jennifer Echols

“Since I’ve been in Florida, I’ve been exhausted,” he admitted.

I sighed. “Tonight will take care of itself. Angelica will be here. If she’s going to get jealous seeing you and me together, we don’t have to help that along. Let’s forget about our nightly goals and have a good time. Okay?”

The worry line disappeared as he gave me his sexy sideways smile. “What kind of good time do you mean?”

Fifteen minutes later, we were facing off for a dance-competition video game throwdown. I had thought I would laughingly drag him into the space in front of the huge TV and he would flirtatiously back out again. But as soon as I suggested it, he was ready to go. A crowd gathered around us, bored with my antics but astonished that tight Will Matthews was really going to do this thing.

And then, while the game beeped an electronic countdown to begin and the people around us held their breath, he pointed at me, meaning I was dead meat—just like I’d pointed at him on the football field before the challenge for drum captain.

“Oooooh,” the spectators moaned. I felt my face turn bright red. I had to win now.

But at the end of the song, Will had beaten me up and down Kaye’s expensively appointed living room. And he’d drawn an even bigger crowd. Will Matthews could totally do the Dougie.

“That is not even fair!” I squealed after guys had stopped slapping him on the back and Chelsea had shooed us off the dance floor so she could have a turn. “There’s no way I would have challenged you if I’d known you could actually dance! I should have made you sign some sort of disclaimer.” I poked him in the chest.

He grabbed my hand, grinning. “Never underestimate me.”

“I won’t!”

“My sisters have that video game. Let’s get in line and go again.” He tapped me on the chest like I’d poked him. This placed his fingers in the bare V-neck of my dress, just above my cle**age and my heart. “You’re mine.”

Over the course of the party, he beat the stuffing out of me twice more, then beat Chelsea to become the undisputed champion. The rest of the time, we were mostly standing to one side while somebody else took a turn. His arm circled my waist and my head nestled under his chin in a way that absolutely turned me on, and not just physically. I felt my friends’ eyes on us, overheard their whispered conversations about us, and I loved it. I began to understand, just a little bit, why couples latched on to each other and went off into a corner to watch the party instead of participating themselves. There was a certain high, a heady bonding experience, in seeing and being seen.

A bonding experience with Will was the last thing I needed when our alliance was only temporary, to drive Angelica to distraction. But I did think the party was good for both of us as individuals. As we moved from circle to circle, entering different conversations, everyone told me, “You look great!” I could have taken this to mean, “Normally you look like crap. I am pleasantly surprised that you can hang when the affection of a ridiculously cute guy is on the line!” But there was no point in taking offense about an observation that was true. I felt great.

And everyone said to Will, “Nice moves!” He colored and laughed when people told him this. He didn’t offer his own thoughts on his dancing prowess or join the conversation, but he didn’t look like he wanted to crawl away and die, either. Being crowned our unofficial Best Dancer had given him an identity besides Fucking New Guy or Cheating Dog, and his new title was one he seemed strangely comfortable with. I found myself looking up at him, his earring glinting in the lamplight, and experiencing a wash of pleasure that he was so adorable and, for the time being, mine.

But one thing nagged at me the whole night. When Will was in conversation with some football players about the Tampa Bay Lightning professional hockey team, a subject on which he was the authority and I was clueless to the point of not knowing the nouns from the verbs in this terminology, I took him aside and whispered in his ear. “Look without looking like you’re looking. Who is Sawyer staring at so forlornly?”

I held still while Will gazed over my head. Sawyer stood against the wall. He talked to the many people who passed by him, but he wasn’t organizing a practical joke or getting plastered on surreptitious boxed wine, like normal. He seemed quiet, for Sawyer—almost thoughtful. And I could have sworn he was staring at one girl in particular.

“Kaye?” Will asked in my ear.

That’s what I’d been afraid of. Talk about a girl out of Sawyer’s reach.

“Now he’s headed for the door,” Will reported.

I looked up at Will. “Don’t say anything about this, okay? It’s sensitive.”

“Okay.”

“I’m going to talk to him for a sec because I’m worried about him. I am not flirting with him.”

“I trust you,” Will said.

If he’d genuinely trusted me, he wouldn’t have needed to say this.

I couldn’t think about that right now. After squeezing his hand one last time, I crossed the crowded living room and slipped out the front door, hoping to catch Sawyer before he disappeared.

From the high porch, I should have been able to glimpse him descending the staircase or walking through the yard toward the street. I didn’t see him until I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. He was sitting by himself on the porch swing, one foot propped on his knee and the other on the floor, propelling himself gently back and forth. I slipped onto the bench next to him.

His arm had relaxed along the back of the seat, but now he pulled it close. “Careful. Your boyfriend will get jealous.”

I glanced at the house behind his shoulders. I didn’t want anybody inside to overhear us. I was pretty sure the nearest window was the dining room rather than a place where the party was going on. Not taking any chances, I asked very quietly, “It’s Kaye, isn’t it?”

He gave me that half-crazed look he got when threatened—but this time his raised eyebrows made him look less dangerous and more desperate. “Am I being that obvious?”

“Definitely not,” I assured him. “I only saw it because I was looking for it. Anybody else would be flabbergasted.” I gazed at him, his blond hair bright in the dim light. He looked incredibly sad. Now that I saw this, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed before. “How long?”

“Since I moved here,” he murmured.

That was two years ago. By that time, Kaye had already been dating Aidan for a year and was locked into the habits of her life with him.