Page 39 of Playing with the Heartbreaker

“That has to be the pizza,” Maya says, smoothing her flowered dress.

“How’s my hair?” Hannah asks me, her face turning the same deep shade of red as her stick straight locks.

“Looks great. But⁠—”

Dani leads the girls to the door and opens it. I can’t hear the delivery person, but I do hear flirtatious laughter from all three girls. Ah, everything makes sense now. I smirk to myself. Charlotte, Anita, and I did the same thing a few years ago: ordering pizza just to see if the cute delivery guy would come to our houses.

Though Dani creates her own luck.

“Chloe, can you bring the money?” Dani calls. “I left it on the table.”

I spot the cash and grab it, making my way back through Rhoads’s childhood pictures to the door. “Here you go.”

“Chloe?” the delivery guy asks.

I squint at him and swallow hard. “Graham?”

“Guilty.” He tips his orange Super Pies baseball cap up so I can see his face.

I mask my discomfort at seeing him, yet again, by laughing. Why is he suddenly everywhere? “Nice outfit.”

“I would tell you to shut it, but there are ladies present.” He winks, and the girls giggle behind me. “So, it’s fifteen even for the pizza.”

I hand him the twenty.

“Keep the change,” Dani calls, batting her eyelashes.

“You girls have fun plans today?” Graham asks.

“We’re just hanging out. Pizza, manicures, boy talk. You know. Girl stuff,” Dani says, before I can tell him I’m not actually hanging out with middle schoolers.

He nods. “Sounds fun. Enjoy the pizza.” He tips his hat back down. “See you at school, Chloe.”

When he starts the Jeep’s engine, I shut the door. The entryway erupts with “ohmygod” and “he’s so hot.”

I carry the pizza back into the kitchen, the girls trailing me like ducklings following their mother.

“Did you see him? He looked soooo good,” Maya says, fake fainting into a chair. “Orange doesn’t work on everyone, but he totally pulls it off.”

“He called us ladies. And he winked!” screeches Hannah. “God, he’s dreamy.”

“I can’t believe you know him,” Dani says to me. She opens the pizza box and takes a slice. “Are you friends?”

“Umm…” How to explain my and Graham’s relationship? If these girls are anything like my friends and I were in middle school, a whole day could be spent analyzing every detail. Keep it simple. “Umm, sure.” Not exactly the truth, but I don’t want to get into our complicated history.

“Did you ever date?” Maya asks. I should have known I wouldn’t get off that easily. Maya places a piece of pepperoni pizza on a paper plate and stares up at me expectantly.

I could lie, but I’m terrible at it. So I don’t even try. “We did. For a little while.”

“Why’d you break up?” Hannah asks. She blinks up at me with large, innocent brown eyes.

God, where is Rhoads? I am not prepared to give a dissertation on my romantic history. “It just didn’t work out.”

“What about my brother?” Dani asks. “He could use a girlfriend.” She takes a bite of pizza, the cheese stretching.

Uh oh. Backed into a corner. I rack my brain for a way to change the subject. “Umm, we’re just⁠—”

“What about me, what?” Rhoads asks. “Chloe?” His face turns from confusion to realization. He checks the clock. “I’m late, aren’t I? I’m so sorry. I lost track of time.”