Foreplayer (Rookie Rebels #4) - Kate Meader Page 0,101
Howe was sniffing at the edge of the fire pit, but had enough sense not to get too close.
Another message came in from Cal, this one with a link. She clicked it, and was taken into … oh! The “Am I the Dick” forum. She read avidly, trying to absorb every word as quickly as possible.
Original_SkaterBro
Update to this post.
AITA for letting my past hurt ruin the best thing to ever happen to me?
You’re not gonna believe this update, guys. Turns out Tia, the bouquet catcher, is totally into me. Sure, I kind of knew because I’m good with the ladies, so usually it would only be a matter of time. Long story short, we were thrown together for a “work project” and I tried to resist because there’s a bunch of complications I can’t get into here. But we ended up really connecting.
So far, so good, right? Except here’s where I might be the dick. Basically I tapped into my usual MO and came up with a strategy that pushed her away. Yeah, yeah, I know. I have some baggage with a capital B and I’ve been hauling it around, expecting I can make it go away by just, uh, ignoring it. (I’m a guy, it’s what I do.) Well, Tia called me on my BS, asked me straight out to tell her how I feel, and bailed in disgust when I didn’t fess up.
Part of the reason I didn’t spill was because she’s got her heart set on someone else and to be honest, I don’t know if she still feels that way about him. I wasn’t her end game, I was just the one she was with right now.
What I didn’t tell her is that I’m completely and utterly in love. Tia is the bravest, most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. Nothing keeps her down for long, she just picks herself up and tries again. She came into my life and turned it upside down. That’s often what love does, or so I hear. It comes when you least expect it. Best of all, my love for this woman has a strong foundation in friendship. In respect. There’s no one I’d trust more with my thoughts, my secrets, and my heart. If it doesn’t work out between us, I hope and pray that we can be friends again because mostly, I miss talking to her.
I haven’t always fought for what I want. For a while there, I preferred to be liked by most people than loved by a few. Or one. I thought that would be easier. Less risky. I thought that would keep my heart safe.
But it didn’t. Because when you meet the person who sees through all your crap and makes you want to punch a battalion to get to her, you need to fight like a savage to hold on to this good thing you’ve found. Of course, if she loves someone else, I can’t change that. But I’d be a coward if I didn’t let her know how I felt.
tl; dr The bouquet catcher is my OTL but I screwed up. AITD?
Mia took a deep breath, aiming for calm after what she’d just read. This must be what Tara meant. She had assumed Mia wrote it trying to get Cal’s attention.
Yes, you’re the dick. Big time.
But Mia had pulled a few dickish moves of her own. She had given this man little reason to think he actually had a shot with her. He was her mentor, her practice buddy, the guy who got her in shape for the real thing. How would he know that she was falling for him unless she told him? As intuitive as Cal was, could she really expect him to be a mind reader on top of it all?
“Hey, Wallace.”
She looked up and there he was, standing on her brother’s patio in one of his sexy fall sweaters, taking her breath away for the millionth time.
Mia’s cheeks were flushed and wet, her eyes bright in the firelight, those beautiful, pillowed lips slightly parted in surprise. Yet again, she simply slayed him.
“Got a minute?”
Swiping at her eyes, she nodded and moved an inch to the side on the patio sofa, an invitation to join her.
He sat. “Read anything good lately?”
“You stole my online identity.”
“You stole mine first.” He gusted out a breath. “Are we really fighting over the rights to claim the handle Skater Bro?”
Her lips curved, but her smile crumbled at the edges. His gorgeous girl was emotional.