Page 30 of Bending Under Pressure

“Eyes on the road, Hales.” I chuckle when she quickly rolls her eyes and faces forward again. “And I’m afraid not. We need to get back so you’re not late getting home.” I stop at the end of the road for the stop sign. “You should get back in your seat. The last thing we need is for someone to see us like this.” I unbuckle the seatbelt.

Haley surprises me when she doesn’t get out. Instead, she turns a little in my lap. The motion makes me want to groan as all the dirty thoughts I’ve had since I met her start bombarding me.

“The guy who gets me to sneak out, go racing, and lets me sit in his lap while we drive at insane speeds wants to make sure I get home on time?” she smirks.

“Yes, because how can we hang out when you aren’t sneaking out if you’re grounded?”

“I guess you have a point,” she sighs in agreement.

I grin. “Then get your butt over there.”

“Fine.” She opens the door and runs around the car.

Once she’s inside and is safely buckled in, we head back to my house. It doesn’t take us long, but it’s too soon. We get out and I walk with her to her car. I open the door for her and she turns to face me, turning her keys over in her hands.

“So, you’re coming to my matches tomorrow?”

“Yep.”

“Keelan,” we turn to see Cam standing on the porch. “Glad you’re back. I need your help whenever you’re done.”

“All right.”

He disappears inside and Haley says, “I guess I should go then. Thanks for today.”

I want to kiss her again, but I refrain because as much as I hate it, I don’t have the courage right now. Maybe it’s because Cam interrupted the flow of things. “I’ll text you later,” I say before kissing her cheek.

She nods before getting into her car. I watch her leave before going inside and to find out what Cameron needs my help with.

“Hey, Haley.”

I smile as I take a seat next to Seth. “Hey.”

“Did you have any trouble with the worksheet?”

Worksheet? “Crap,” I mutter as it hits me. “I totally forgot about it.” I pick my bag up from the floor and unzip it, searching for the piece of paper. I think I put it in my binder and yep, there it is. The homework I was supposed to complete and instead was too busy contemplating my dad’s text and then hanging out with Keelan. Dad said he felt bad and wanted to meet me for dinner. I told him I couldn’t because I had a tennis match. The good thing about telling the truth is it bought me time.

“Here.” Seth slips his paper onto my desk. “You have two minutes.”

I glance at the clock and see he’s right. Two minutes until class starts. “Thank you.” Quickly, I jot down the short answers, purposely getting two wrong because I’m paranoid that it’ll be obvious. It probably wouldn’t because we just had to pick words from a box and match them, but still. With a smile, I return his paper. “You’re a lifesaver.”

Seth grins. “Any time, Haley.” He flicks his eyes to the front of the room before leaning toward me a bit. “My birthday party is a pool party. It’s Sunday if you want to come. It’ll be the last fun summer thing before it gets too cold,” he adds as if he needs to convince me. When I don’t immediately agree, he continues, “Everyone will be there.”

“Like Jess?” I definitely wouldn’t want to go alone. Plus, if Jess is there, then I can bet a certain pair of brothers will also be there.

“Yep.”

“Tell me the time and place and I’ll be there.”

His grin widens. “Sweet.”

The teacher claps her hands to get our attention and class begins. About halfway through, Seth rips the top corner off his sheet, writes something down, and passes it to me. He gave me his number to text him and he’ll text me the details in case I don’t ride with Jess. Honestly, I thought things might be weird with him after he asked me out, but they haven’t been. I’m so thankful because he’s my fourth period buddy. I have Keelan in first, Jess in second, everyone in third, and then I sit near Seth and do group work with him in fourth.

He’s pretty cool. If I weren’t hoping for something to happen with Keelan, I probably would have gone out with him. Is it bad that I turned him down because of that? Should I have said yes because Keelan and I aren’t technically something? But I think it would have put a damper on things with Keelan if I went out on a date with Seth. Obviously, right? Ugh, I don’t need to overthink this. It’s done and over.

Once the bell rings, I quickly grab my things and head to my car. We have ten minutes to make it to the courts. Nervousness flutters in my stomach. Keelan is supposed to watch today. Usually, I don’t pay attention to whoever is watching, like my mom, my dad, or Walter, because it distracts me. How in the world am I going to focus with him here? How can I acknowledge him while ignoring him?

There’s no time to think about it.

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