“Wanna bet?” asked Cole.
“Sure,” I said through a mouthful of waffles. “What are we betting?”
He didn’t even have to think about it. “When blue wins, you go out with me tomorrow night.”
Fat chance.I swallowed down the lump of sugary goodness. “And if Ryder and I win?”
Cole gave me his cockiest grin. “Then I’ll let you go out with me tomorrow night.”
I laughed. “Nice try. How about this. If Ryder and I win, then you have to get naked at a future time of my choosing. No questions asked.” It wasn’t the perfect prank, but it would be good enough payback for all the times he’d tricked me. And Tanner choking on a French fry as I said it was a nice little bonus.
“What?” asked Tanner.
I had no idea what his angle was. Despite what he’d said in the car about dating being off the table, he sure was acting like a jealous boyfriend whenever Cole was around.
Because he was a crazy person.
That was the only logical explanation, right? I would have just said he was weird. But I was weird. And I didn’t want Tanner tomake being weird a bad thing. I used to love that he was weird like me… He was definitely just insane.
Either way, I couldn’t worry about his feelings. I was here for one reason, and one reason only: to find Rosalie. And maybe to flirt with Cole and make Tanner jealous…
“Deal,” said Cole. He stuck out his hand and we shook on it.
“Hope you’re ready to get naked,” I said.
Cole wasn’t fazed by my threat. “You don’t even know what the events are.”
“It doesn’t matter. With Ryder on my team, there’s no way I’m going to lose.”I squeezed his massive bicep to drive the point home. If Tanner was going to send me mixed signals, then I could do the same. Besides, I really liked touching him.
“She’s right,” said Tanner. “I hope you enjoyed your winning streak while it lasted, because it ends tomorrow.”
“We shall see.” Cole popped one more fry into his mouth. “May the best team win. See you tomorrow, Raven,” he said with a wink. And then he got up and walked out of the dining hall.
I turned to Tanner. “This is going to be so great. I can’t wait for his stupid cocky grin to disappear when you whoop his ass tomorrow.”
“Me either,” said Tanner. “That guy is so annoying. Did he at least have some information about Rosalie?”
“He said he’s been a counselor here foraboutthree years,” I said. “It’s possible he was here when that picture was taken, which means he might have known her.”
“I doubt it.”
“Why?”
“It just seems unlikely. Let’s talk to some other people instead.”
“Wait, are you jealous of Cole?” I asked.
“No. Why would I be jealous?”
“Because he was hitting on me.”
Tanner shrugged like it was no big deal. “He can hit on you all he wants. Clearly you were just flirting with him to try to get info about Rosalie. I know you’d never actually fall for a peasant like Cole.”
A peasant?I laughed. But I wasn’t so sure Tanner was right about my intentions. I mean…I was kind of already falling for Cole. Or at the very least I was flirting back for real. As far as I was concerned, the bet we’d made was a win/win. Either he’d take me out on a date, or I’d get to see him naked.
“So how were you planning to figure out if he knew Rosalie?” Tanner asked.
“I guess I’ll just show him a picture of her.”
