Page 21 of Fall for You (Flirting with Forever 4)

“You know what I think? I think someone in class is bothering you.”

She eyes me warily. Softly, she whispers, “If I tell you, do you promise not to tell my parents?”

I cringe, squinting an eye at her, and weigh my options. Typical teenage drama is one thing, but if it’s something more serious, I may have to report it or at least talk to Liam about it. I decide to

take a neutral approach. If I know what it is, maybe I can help her somehow. She’d have one person in her corner. “Sweetie, I can guarantee whatever you tell me I’ve probably heard before.”

She looks at her hands, which she’s folded on her desk. “I dropped a note into the locker of the guy I like. It just said I liked him. I didn’t sign it.” She rolls her eyes, mostly at herself, I think. “I’m so stupid.”

My forehead creases. “You aren’t stupid. But I don’t understand what the problem is if your name wasn’t on it.”

“This girl saw me put it in there and she’s been teasing me about it ever since. She’s a cheerleader and she told a bunch of the other cheerleaders about it and because he’s on the football team, it’s all turned into a big mess.”

I grit my teeth. “Sounds like it.” Now I have a good idea which students are messing with her; there’s a trio of cheerleaders in that class who are the likely culprits. “Why do they even care?”

“I have no idea.” She shrugs. “Cheerleaders are weirdly possessive of all the football players. Kind of like if you aren’t a cheerleader, you couldn’t possibly be good enough?” She chews on the corner of her lip. “I don’t even know what I did to make her not like me, but she’s been taunting me for weeks that she’s going to tell him who the note was from.”

“That’s just mean. Am I right in assuming that we are talking about the group of cheerleaders in the class?”

With a deep sigh, she meets my eyes, giving me a quick nod. “Yes. Katie is the one who saw. The other two are just her sidekicks. They go along with whatever she says.”

I nod cautiously. I don’t think it’s something I need to tell anyone about, at least not yet. But I’m no counselor, and wonder if maybe I should pull Zoey into this. I tuck that idea into the back of my head. All I can think to do for now is to reassure her that this sort of thing has been happening for as long as teenagers have existed. “There are always going to be people who think they are better than everyone else. People who behave this way to feel better about themselves. You’ll look back on this someday and probably just shake your head.”

“I guess. But I’m so afraid she’s going to publicly embarrass me I can’t think straight when I’m in the same room with any of them.” Her eyes flick to mine. “You won’t say anything, will you? To them? Or to my parents?”

I take a deep breath before I assure her, “Not unless you want me to. But know this—you’re letting these girls hold a lot of power over you when it’d probably just be easier to either ignore them or go ahead and tell him how you feel.”

Her eyes get really big, and she blushes. “Oh, no. I could never.”

I give her a gentle but knowing smile. “Never say never. Is he cute?”

She presses her lips together, trying not to smile, but she can’t stop herself. She grins shyly as she says, “So cute.”

Chapter 13

Quinn

Olivia and I wrap up her tutoring session and head for the front of the building together, only to realize the rain is coming down in buckets. Liam’s RAV4 is parked right next to my Xterra. We stop under the overhang right outside the door.

“Ugh. I don’t think this rain is stopping anytime soon, and I did not bring a raincoat or an umbrella.” I make a face.

Olivia points to where Liam is stepping out of his vehicle, umbrella in hand. “Dad to the rescue.”

Every time Olivia calls him “Dad,” I feel a little funny about keeping our budding relationship from her. “Well, he’s handy to have around, isn’t he?”

She grins and nods at me right as he jogs up the stairs to us.

“Hi.” He huffs out a breath as he comes to a stop.

“Hi, Dad. I told Ms. Lockmore you’d be our knight in shining armor.” Olivia steps under the umbrella, and he tucks her under his arm.

He grins at me, and the force of the feelings he creates within me practically knocks me backward. “I didn’t want either of you to get wet. It’s a nasty, cold rain.” He jerks his head toward the car. “If you wait here, Ms. Lockmore, I’ll come back for you.”

I nod at him. “I’ll wait, then. Thank you.” He sends me a wink over his shoulder as he huddles close to his daughter and hurries down the steps with her and deposits her in the waiting vehicle.

As he hustles back up the stairs to me, I peruse the length of his body. His legs are encased in mildly distressed jeans and his broad chest and shoulders are hidden under a long-sleeved black T-shirt with his cider mill’s logo. And as he comes up the final few stairs to me, my gaze lifts to his ruggedly handsome face, where his jaw is covered in a day’s worth of stubble, and his chocolate-brown eyes twinkle at me. All the air in my lungs whoosh out in an unintentional gasp, and I almost forget to take another breath, such is the effect he has on me.

“I told Olivia I wanted to ask you about how the tutoring was going, so we have a minute. Really, though, I just want to be close to you. Texting is a poor substitute.”

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