Page 4 of Keep Me
I shook my head. “Nope. Gave it up before coming here because I figured I didn’t have a chance against college level players.”
He shook his head while mumbling “Unbelievable,” and I almost didn’t hear it. With his hands clasped, he finally looked at me again. “I’m a kicker too. I got scouted in high school because I was using analytics to help some players calculate the most effective kick. That’s when they realized I was pretty good at doing it myself.”
Thiswastoo good to be true. We were in the same classes. We loved the same sport, even played the same position. It was like Matty had been made for me.
“Are you on the team now?”
He nodded.
“Does that mean you’ve met Ben Mathieson? I keep hearing his name because he’s some kind of kicking legend, and I can’t wait to see him in action.”
He pressed his lips together, drawing my attention to how full and pink they were. I’d never met a guy with such bowed lips before, but I liked them because they brought out his high cheekbones.
“Yeah, I’ve heard of him. I think he’s a little overrated, though.”
My feet danced, letting out some of that nervous energy as I hyped myself up. This all felt too perfect not to be fate. I wanted to ask him out on a date, which was weird. I’d never done thatbefore. I’d always waited for the guy to make the first move, but I couldn’t let this opportunity go to waste.Spillitwas right.
What did I have to lose? We’d been talking for twenty minutes and got along so well.
“Ben, baby, what are you doing?!” Some girl’s hand dropped to Matty’s shoulder, and disappointment slithered through my veins.
“B-Ben?” My brows furrowed. Matty’s smile collapsed as he glared at the hand clutching his shoulder. “I thought you said your name was Matty?”
His eyes pinged back at me, but they were darker this time. “Yeah, sorry, I guess I should have said I’m Ben Mathieson. Matty’s my nickname.”
Oh my—
Heat rose to my cheeks. This couldn’t be happening, could it? I was just fangirling over him, and he didn’t say a damn thing. Was he mocking me? Was all that chemistry in my head?
Matty looked over his shoulder, giving the girl a tight smile.
“Olana. This is my friend, Britt.”
Could the fire burn me alive please?
He called me his friend.His friend.Bile caught in my throat, and my face burned. I’d completely misinterpreted the signs, didn’t I?
There I was planning our first date, and he just wanted to talk about football. He was treating me like I was one of the guys, and here I was, sounding more and more like a Pick Me with every sentence that came out of my mouth.
Olana made this churlish noise from the back of her throat and dragged her glare over me, stopping when she got to the stick in my hand—sans marshmallow. That, along with my self-respect, had burned away a long time ago.
Did she know what I was thinking? Could she tell I’d planned the next ten years of my life with her boyfriend in my head?
“Britt, this is Olana.”
He pointed his thumb at her but kept his gaze on the ground. My heart was crushed. Fate wasn’t intervening. Matty had just met me, and here I was lovesick and overly romantic, desperately hoping a guy like him would see something more in me.
“Really? That’s how you’re going to introduce your long-term girlfriend to people?This is Olana.”He still didn’t bother looking up or acknowledge her, and the air became thick, almost like I’d walked in on them midargument or having sex.
Why the heck did I just think that?!
“It’s nice to meet you, Britt.” She held out her hand, so I had no option but to take it.
With brown hair buzzed on the side that had been dyed to look like leopard print, Olana was clearly a rebel, and if that was Matty’s taste, then I never stood a chance. I wasn’t rebellious. My family was an athletic dynasty, one I didn’t like to talk about much because I didn’t want people to know. We didn’t do things differently. We drew inside the lines and followed the rules. Olana did anything but that.
When I dropped her hand, I glanced over at Matty, wanting an explanation from him. Still looking at his shoes, he wasn’t even attempting to make eye contact. In fact, his shoulders were slumped and all that confidence from earlier seemed to fade away.
As we were sitting in near silence, I decided to take things into my own hands.
