Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,33
There’s nothing else, really. That’s the truth.”
He relaxed. The smile was back. “Sorry. I know you guys are close, and he says the same thing…but sometimes I can’t help but feel jealous.”
Ryker? Actually jealous? Because of her?
“That’s ridiculous,” she finally said, surprise making her careless with her words. “You’re…you could have anyone.”
Anyone else attempting false modesty would have denied that, but Ryker only nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Because I’m on the basketball team, right? But it’s not like I’ve done this before. I’m not someone who wants a girlfriend for the sake of having one.”
“You…don’t?” She usually had so many things to say about anything. So many words she knew how to use. A googolplex of subject-verb-predicate combinations, even. But right here, on what should really be the most romantic highlight of her life, she was forgetting how to string English together.
“You know that game we had earlier this year? The practice one with the Rosefield Wildcats?”
Of course she did. Alex had wheedled her into waiting in the gym while he retrieved some baseball equipment from storage. She’d started watching the game while he was gone—at first out of boredom, until she realized she was paying far too much attention to the blue-eyed, dark-haired guy wearing number twelve than she had wanted to. That was three months ago. Number Twelve had looked up and given her a wide grin, and instead of smiling back like any sane girl would have done, she had tried to blend into the stands like an embarrassed chameleon, and was relieved when Alex returned shortly after.
“I was the new kid, then. Just gotten onto varsity basketball and nervous about proving myself to the team. That was my first game.” He stared off into the distance, smiling. “Landowski passed me the ball, and I had a clear shot. I turned to make it, and I saw you, getting up to leave and looking bored out of your mind.”
Tala blushed.
“That was a compliment, by the way. The cheerleaders were there, and so were lots of people, rooting for us—but you stood out. I think it was because it struck me then how lonely you looked despite being surrounded by a crowd. I missed the shot.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It sailed right past the hoop, ricocheted off the board, and hit Coach Myers right in his bald spot.”
Tala covered her mouth to hide her sudden giggle.
“They never let me forget that, you know. They still joke about it. But all I remember in that moment was watching you leave with Smith. And that I hated that you looked lonely. And I wondered how to change that, what would bring a smile to your face.” He ran a hand through his hair, suddenly self-conscious. “I didn’t even know your name, then.”
He hadn’t known her name, but she had caught his attention and she hadn’t even noticed. “I’m sorry.”
He laughed. “Don’t apologize. Based on what Alex was willing to tell me in those weeks after, wooing you was going to require a different approach. You definitely weren’t going to be impressed by my basketball stats, for starters. He said you had all the romantic inclinations of a scared rabbit.”
If Alex really was still in Invierno, Tala was going to have to find the time to strangle him first before they sent him away.
“I didn’t do a good job, did I?” Ryker sounded rueful. “In the end, it was Alex who made the assist for me, and I still have to thank him. He left me a pretty good opening in the cafeteria to swoop in and just ask, after the month I wasted racking my brain and worrying you’d turn me down. Figured getting rejected was better than spending more weeks agonizing whether you would.”
“You didn’t really have to do so much,” Tala mumbled into her shoes. “I would have said yes.”
“Is this permission for me to start over, so I can ask you out the right way this time?”
Tala nodded, nearly petrified with anticipation.
“Tala.” Strong hands cupped her jaw, the touch light enough that she barely sensed it, and she was greedy enough to lean in so she could feel more. “Go out with me again? Please?”
“I would very much like that,” she breathed.
He was so, so close. His eyes were a ridiculous cobalt blue, a faint flush slashing across his cheeks. If Tala had been of a braver sort, she would bridged the distance between them and…
She made a brief, inconsequential movement, one that caused her to inadvertently