Before turning to face her, I ran my fingers through my curls, which were as wild as I’d seen them. In truth, even with the worst humidity in the middle of a long, wet summer, I’d never had the volume look as if I’d driven my wet finger into an electrical socket in the middle of a rainstorm.
A rush of embarrassment caught me off guard. I wasn’t usually this self-conscious. I’d never considered myself a gorgeous girl by anyone’s standards and honestly had never worried about emulating a beauty queen. My father had made certain to tell me at least several times a year that I didn’t hold a candle to my sister’s beauty. I was the intellectual sibling, which was true except I’d also had dreams.
Had being the operative word.
“Wow. You know how to make a girl feel so beautiful.” I yanked my salad and diet drink from the refrigerator in the teacher’s lounge. At least I’d thought ahead and prepared something or I’d be gnawing on a hard granola bar.
She chuckled and grabbed her sandwich, moving toward one of the tables. As soon as we sat down to eat, an amused look crossed her face.
“What’s wrong?”
“Don’t look now,” she whispered.
When hairs stood up on the back of my neck, every thought in my brain shifted to using the sturdy plastic knife in my hand to dig out Mark’s eyeballs and feed them to the birds hanging around outside. I felt my body stiffen even before he rolled his arm over my shoulder, slapping something down on the table.
Maybe he thought he was being cute hiding whatever was under his hand. Meanwhile, I was wishing I had a steak knife in my hand so I could drive the sharp tip into the middle of his.
“Guess what I have,” Mark said in a tone of voice no man should ever use. Ever.
“What’s that?” Tawny asked the question when I refused to encourage him.
“Oh, hi, Tawny. I didn’t see you there. Just something special for my girl here.”
Tawny bit her lower lip at the same time she kicked me under the table. Hard. She knew me well enough to know my curled fingers weren’t from some medical condition. I’d decided to choke thelife out of the man. My bestie was doing the right thing in reminding me that the school administrators would frown upon a murder at lunch.
So I chose terse words instead. “The last time I checked, I’m not nor will I ever be your girl.”
“Ah, come on. Just one date. Guess what I have. Just guess.”
He was so excited I found myself pulling back on my murderous desires. “What do you have, Mark?”
“Tickets for the Tampa Bay Gators.”
I shifted my gaze toward Tawny who was doing her best to keep from laughing.
He grew frustrated when it was obvious I had no clue who he was talking about.
“You know, the hot hockey team they brought into town a little over a year ago.” His exasperation continued and when he jumped a little, it reminded me of a kid needing to use the bathroom.
“Oh, wow,” I answered.
“Come on. I scored big with these. Lower-level center ice and row fifteen. It’s perfect.”
“Good for you.”
“Do you know how much these set me back?” He slid into the seat next to me and I swear I did my best not to recoil, but I could tell by his eyes I hadn’t succeeded.
“Well, hopefully you can find someone who will enjoy the show with you.”
He eyed me in the same way Tawny had the day before. “It’s not a show. It’s a game. Haven’t you ever watched a hockey game before?”
“Not if I could help it.”
“Oh, wow.” He sat back as if he had no idea what to say about my admission. “I was hoping you’d go with me. It’s on Saturday night. I’ll teach you everything you need to know. We could meet on Friday and I could begin to teach you a few things.” He’d gone from having a look of surprise to one of explicit leering that left almost nothing to the imagination.
Why did I have a feeling that what he wanted to teach me, while a contact sport, had nothing to do with hockey.
Tawny kicked me again, hard enough I winced. Maybe because my clawed hand was poised to strike.
