Page 37 of Playmaker

“Yeah, I’ll come. I just have to go home and shower first.”

“Cool.” We step outside into the parking lot and he adds, “Are you sure you don’t have any dirt on Mark? I don’t want to set my sister up with someone with a bad reputation.”

God, I wish I had something to tell him. IwishMark had fucked up in high school and gotten into a fight, was busted for drugs, or had done anything I could use to persuade Ethan to change his mind, but from what I know, Mark is a decent guy. There’s no reason for him not to take Maddie out, and there’s no reason for me to stand in their way.

“Even if I said yes, are you really going to consider my opinion? I’m not the best person to take advice from on this.”

He chuckles, tilting his face toward the sky to catch the sun. “You’re right, but I’m asking anyway. After the whole Michael situation, I just don’t want her to get heartbroken again, and if Mark has any playboy tendencies, I’m confident you’d be able to fish them out, you know? You excel at being a player. What’s the saying? It takes one to know one?”

Stating the obvious has never bothered me before, and here I am acting like a total idiot wanting some sort of acceptance from Ethan, which is pointless. With all the bullshit he’s seen me pull? All of the girls I’ve used for a night only to discard? It’d be impossible to redeem myself in his eyes.

It doesn’t matter anyway.

Maddie and I aren’t in a relationship.

We never will be.

This isphysicaland nothing more.

“No, he’s a good guy.” The sentence tastes sour on my tongue, but I swallow the bitterness and force myself to say the next words. “You should set them up.”

Fifteen

Maddie

I half expected Cameron to join us for dinner. The times he’s declined have been few and far between, and him coming out with us has never put me on edge before. For the past six years I’ve avoided him at all costs, sitting on the opposite side of the table, and while I’d listen closely to his and Ethan’s conversation, I’d never join in. Instead, I’d speak to my parents about school, or whatever book I’d been reading at the time.

But tonight Cameron doesn’t give me the choice to escape. Tonight Cameron sits directly beside me, our thighs pressed together beneath the elaborate tablecloth.

Since we’ve all been away at school, my parents splurged on a fancy dinner at one of the most expensive Italian restaurants in downtown Phoenix. It’s the kind of place where your napkin should be on your lap and you should know the difference between a salad fork and a dinner fork. We don’t come here often, but when we do, we all dress up for the occasion. If wedidn’twear our best, we’d stick out like sore thumbs.

Maybe that’s the reason my body feels electrified sitting beside Cam. He’s wearing a pair of dress pants that hug his figure just right, with a long-sleeved white button-down shirt left partially open to reveal the tiny bits of chest hair he has. That damn gold chain glistens beneath the dim lights of the restaurant, and I wonder if he wore it on purpose. I’m not going to be able to focus on eating let alone speaking. Not when my thoughts are clouded with the memory of tugging on that chain during our frenzied kiss.

I shift uncomfortably in my seat, and Cameron notices, staring down at me with an amused expression. “Everything okay?”

No. Goose bumps pebble my skin, and it has nothing to do with the temperature. The red satin dress I chose to wear seems like a horrible idea now that the fabric feels like a caress against my nipples—the kind of caress that reminds me of Cameron’s fingers.

“I’m fine,” I reply, as if the rippling heat from his body isn’t utterly distracting.

Thankfully, my father interrupts. “So, what’s everyone getting?”

Ethan, who is sitting to my left, rambles about the steak he deserves after his and Cameron’s hard-core workout earlier this evening. I do my best to focus on the menu, but then I feel a hand on my knee beneath the table.

Every muscle tenses at his touch. My skin is likelive wire, waiting and on edge to see where he’ll move next. I want him everywhere, and yet I want him nowhere. We’re at dinner with my family. Has he lost his mind?

“Their risotto is todiefor,” Mom says.

His fingers create small circles on the inside of my knee, completely unaffected when he delves into sports with my father, and Ethan indulges my mom about what his favorites on the menu are.

How can he do this and not be suffocated by the need to kiss me? I want him to stop teasing and tackle me on this table. Right here. Right now.

“What about you, Maddie?” Mom asks. “What’s your favorite here?”

“Oh, um.” I blink down at the menu, suddenly forgetting every fucking dish this place makes when Cameron trails his fingers higher to my inner thigh. I should have worn tights beneath this dress. I should have made it difficult for him, but I didn’t. It’ll be too easy for him to slide his hand up to feel my silk panties. It’ll be too easy for him to slide them to the side and—

The question.

Right.

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