“We aren’t taking the car today. Mom needs it to get to work,” Liam said as he swung his backpack over an arm. He adjusted his football jersey, so it laid straight on his bulky shoulders.
“Did you order a ride, or were you planning onwalking to school with me?” I asked, bending over to fix the strap of my sandal that meandered off the back of my heel in my rush out of the house.
“No, Trey’s on his way to pick us up.”
I paused, mid-rise; palms suddenly sweaty in the sixty-degree, shady morning breeze. My mind warred with wanting to be frustrated that I’d been rushed despite our ride not having arrived yet. But I was too preoccupied with the nerves that were now tightening and twisting in my chest.
Trey Turner.
Star running-back on the football team, the senior heartthrob—and my brother’s best friend. Those two had been two peas in a pod since sophomore year when my family moved to San Francisco.
While Liam was the star quarterback of the team, Trey was the first-string running-back and, of course, best in the state of California. Both boys shared the responsibility of being co-captains of the team. And when Liam ran for and won student body president, Trey was his devoted vice president. Now, Trey and Liam would continue their rule together in college, since they both just signed to play for the D1 football team of Southern Desert University this fall.
Except, I didn’t just know Trey Turner for being my brother’s best friend. I knew him for the way my heart threatened to combust in his general vicinity.
“Oh, okay,” I barely uttered before the honk of a black, topless Jeep flying up the road peeled through the morning air.
The vehicle pulled to a stop before us. The front doors missing from the hinges gave me an undisturbed view of Trey dressed in black pants and proudly wearing his football jersey. The scene was enough to shove my heart up into my throat.
“Hey, Triple Threat! Thanks again for the ride. I owe you one,” Liam shouted over the stereo music as he easilyslid into the front passenger seat.
“Anytime, but you do owe me.” Trey grinned as he turned the volume of the speakers down enough for me to better hear the roaring of nervous energy in my head.
Neither boy acknowledged me as I quietly—not so gracefully—climbed into the back seat of the driver’s side and buckled my belt.
“Name it,” Liam said as the Jeep lurched forward, and we made our way to Harbor High.
Now, I knew my brother was a decently good-looking kid. He had tight, blonde curls like me that bounced over his forehead in the wind. A tanned, muscular physique from football and long days of surfing in the sun. Then sapphire blue eyes and a strong white smile.
But while my brother was handsome, his best friend was in a league of his own. I may have been a little biased, seeing as I was comparing him to my brother... But there was no exaggeration in saying that Trey Turner was a seriously blessed young man.
As the Jeep hurried down the road, the wind tousled Trey’s light caramel brown hair, knocking soft waves into his forest green eyes. His eyes were framed by dark, long lashes any girl would sell her soul for. His smile was a weapon. Dimples flashed as if he knew just how lethal they were.
This boy would never understand the horrors of an ugly, awkward teen phase.
It took every bit of my very limited amount of “coolness” and self-respect not to drool at the rear-view mirror that gave me an unperturbed view of those green eyes.
That is, until…
“I need you to set me up with Tracey Carter. The cute cheerleader you said is in your physics class.”
I suddenly found the black screen of my powered off phone very mesmerizing.
“Trey, no,” Liam rejected bluntly, shaking his head ofhoneycomb curls.
Betrayal etched itself into the lines of Trey’s usually unblemished face. “And why the hell not?” he demanded.
His focus wasn’t entirely on the road before us, which had me tugging on the seat belt across my chest, double-checking to make sure it was still doing its very vital job.
Liam’s jersey twisted with him as he faced his best friend. “Trey and Tracey, for one, sounds so stupid together. And two, I was with Tracey over the weekend—if you catch my drift.”
The dancing of my brother’s brows caused the betrayal blanketing Trey’s face to mold into something akin to disappointment and faint amusement.
“Of course you were,” he huffed.
Liam chuckled, slapping his large, football-throwing hand on Trey’s muscled shoulder. “What about that one girl that was doing my homework this last semester? Alyssa something?”
Trey side-eyed him. “You mean Olivia?”
