I gather my courage and face her. “You left.

In a hurry. And what I did…we were drunk. I don’t get drunk and I don’t take advantage of girls. You left upset. I crossed lines, and the way you left…I’m sorry.”

Beth clears her throat. “Ryan.” She stretches out my name, as if giving herself time to think.

“I was the one who took advantage of you.”

I still. “No, you didn’t. Girls don’t take advantage of guys. Guys take advantage of girls.”

Her lips bunch and twist to the side as she shakes her head. “Nope. I distinctly remember telling you I didn’t want to be alone.”

“And that’s the moment I should have

walked away.”

“I didn’t want you to.”

“But I should have. It’s what an honorable guy does. Especially for a girl he likes.”

Beth points a finger. “See, that’s where

you’re confused. You don’t like me.”

Why is she making this apology

complicated? Why does she make everything complicated? “Yes, I do.”

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like me.”

She drives me insane by finding a way to

slink underneath my skin. “That makes no

sense.”

“You feel guilty for hooking up with me so you’re trying to make yourself feel better by convincing yourself that you like me, when you don’t.”

“Wha…” The more she talks, the more my

mind becomes a cluttered mess. “I like you. I.

Like. You. I’ll admit, you’re annoying.

Sometimes you agitate me to the brink of

insanity, but you can throw it back at me like no one else. When you laugh, I want to laugh.

When you smile, I want to smile. Hell, I want to be the one to make you smile. And you’re pretty. No, you’re sexy, and last night was…”

“Stop.” Beth holds out her hand. “You’re a good guy and you don’t want to think you

could have done something not good, okay?

What we did wasn’t bad. It wasn’t wholesome, but it wasn’t bad. Don’t read anything more into it.”

Beth’s beautiful blue eyes are pleading with me. Pleading! She wants me to agree with her.

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bolt last night?”

The front door opens and, with narrowed

eyes, Scott glares at me from the other side of the storm door. Beth glances at him over her shoulder and holds his gaze. He walks away, leaving the front door open. A knot forms between my shoulder blades. Not good.

“You should go,” says Beth.

Probably, but I can’t. Not with Beth telling me that I don’t like her. Not when she honestly believes it. “Go out with me again—a real date this time.”

“What?”

I climb the three steps and sit next to her. We were so close last night. Skin against skin.

She’s inches from me, but it feels like miles.

My hand becomes heavy with the need to

touch her, comfort her. I raise it. Put it down.

Come on, I had no problems touching her last night. I raise it again and place my hand over hers.

Under my fingers, Beth stiffens. My heart beats once against my chest, creating an ache. I don’t want her to hate my touch. “We’ve

started everything ass backwards. I like you.

Let’s see what happens.”

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“Date you?” she asks.

“Date me.”

“Like friends…” Beth scrunches her face in disgust “…with benefits?”

I can almost feel her body under mine again and I shake away the memory. I’m not going to prove to her I like her if we have a repeat performance of last night. “No. Friends who go out together. I pay. You smile. Sometimes we kiss.”

She raises a skeptical eyebrow on the word kiss and I immediately backtrack. “But we date first—for a while. Friends who like each other and want to date.”

“I never said I liked you.”

I chuckle and a warm tingle enters my blood when she gives that small, peaceful smile.

“You haven’t said you hate me.”

“Friends who date,” she says as if she’s

trying to find the hidden meaning in the phrase.

“Friends who date,” I repeat and squeeze her fingers.

Beth tenses and withdraws her hand. “No.”

She pads down the stairs on bare feet. “No.

This isn’t the way things work. Guys like you don’t date girls like me. What angle are you HC TITLE-AUTHOR

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playing? Is this about the dare?”

Her words cause me to flinch, but they

aren’t a surprise. Last night, I pushed her too far. I showed her no respect. She has no reason to believe me, yet I want her to. “No. The dare is done.”

“Because you won last night?”

No, I didn’t. The dare required that Beth and I stay at the party for an hour. We barely lasted fifteen minutes. “It’s over, Beth. I don’t play people I care about.”

Myriad emotions cross her face, as if she’s wrestling with God and the devil. “You could be playing me. If this is the dare, just tell me.”

“I did tell you. The dare is over.” I told Lacy that no one gets hurt on my dares. Especially in this one. How could I be so blind? I thought Beth walked away from the trust fall because she wanted to hurt me. I thought she wanted to watch my team lose. Wrong. Beth didn’t jump because she doesn’t trust and, because of this dare, I’ve ruined any trust she could have had in me.

“Did you win then?” Beth stubbornly holds on to the dare. “Were you dared to make out with me?” The hurt gives way to panic. “You HC TITLE-AUTHOR

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fucking asshole, you did play me, didn’t

you? Does everyone at school already know?

Are you here for bonus points? Try to fuck the girl, tell your friends, then convince her you want more?”

“No!” I shout, then remind myself to rein it in. I created her doubt when I accepted the dare. “No. What happened between us last

night wasn’t about any dare. I didn’t plan it and I would never tell anyone.”

“So, I’m a secret. We’ll date in private, but not in public. No thanks.”

Damn. I can’t win. I rub my hand over my

head. “I want to be with you. Here. At school.

Wherever. I didn’t play you. Just trust me.”

Beth angles her body away from me. Trust must be the ugliest word in her vocabulary.

Desperate to make everything right, I blurt out,

“Ask me for anything and I’ll do it. Trust me with something. I’ll prove to you I’m worth trusting.”

She assesses me: Nikes first, blue jeans, Reds T-shirt, then my face. “Will you take me into Louisville again?”

The nausea I fought all afternoon returns.

Anything but that. “Beth…”

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“I won’t disappear again. I need you to

drop me off someplace and I swear I’ll be at the same exact spot you left me at the exact time you tell me to show. You’re asking me to trust you, well…you’re going to have to trust me first.”

It doesn’t seem fair, but fair went out the window the moment I touched her last night. It possibly went out the window the moment I accepted the dare at Taco Bell. “I did trust you.” My mouth shuts and everything inside me hardens. The words taste bitter on my

tongue. “I told you about my brother.”

Beth bites her lower lip. “It’s a secret?”

I nod. I really don’t want to discuss Mark.

Worry lines clutter her forehead. “Drunken admissions don’t equate to trust.”

I sigh heavily. She’s right. “Fine. I have a game two weeks from Saturday in Louisville, but you’re sitting through it. I’m not budging on that requirement. Take it or leave it.”

Beth’s face explodes into this radiant smile and her blue eyes shine like the sun. My

insides melt. This moment is special and I don’t want to let it go. I’m the one that put that look there. “Really?” she asks.

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Do I want her to come to my game? Do I

want the opportunity for her to see that I’m more than some stupid jock? “Yes. Don’t play me, Beth.” Because I’m falling for you, more than I should, and if you betray me again, it will hurt like hell.