Chapter 6
SIX
HAVEN
Even though I live in a house that’s filled with female athletes from sports outside of softball, tonight, I’m not sure where all the others are who aren’t softballers.
Gigi, Harley, and I sit on the couch, all way too invested in Love Island for our own good.
It’s a little unbelievable that people could fall this fast, but it sure makes for good entertainment.
I take a big scoop of Halo Top ice cream and push the huge spoon into my mouth. I’d rather have Ben and Jerry’s, to be honest. But at least with this kind, I know I’m getting some protein in.
“He’s so cringy,” Gigi utters, putting the pillow under her chin, hugging it to her chest. “Why are those two idiots fighting over him. He’s a literal tool bag.”
“Yeah, I’m not really sure,” Harley says with the smallest laugh. “And it’s obvious he’s going to be bald in the next five years. Look at his hairline.”
“Sometimes baldness is hot.” I shrug. “Especially when the guy’s, like, jacked.”
A sudden knock at the door has us all shooting straight up. The three of us stare at the door, and I gulp down my last bite of ice cream, eyes wide.
“What if it’s Tabor?” Gigi whispers.
He tried to call me twice after I left the café, and then, a few minutes later, Dallas called me too. It’s not unheard of for me and Dallas to need to get ahold of each other, but it’s not so common over the past year or so.
Well, really ever since we kissed. Before that, we called each other all the time.
I assumed he was trying to butt into my business again, so I ignored it before finally turning my phone off. The point is, if Tabor has been going crazy trying to reach me? I wouldn’t know.
“I’ll peek through the side window,” Harley whispers before she walks around the couch to take a look. Before she gets there, she grabs a softball bat from her bag, tossing it over her shoulder.
For as many home runs as that girl has hit, I’d hate to be the person on the other side of our door if she decided to swing.
Damn. There’d be no coming back from that.
Peeking through the curtain, she sighs and drops her bat lower on her shoulder, relaxed now.
“It’s just Dallas,” she grumbles, and before I can tell her not to, she opens the door at the same time as I fling myself onto the couch and pull a blanket over my body.
It’s a weak attempt to hide, but hopefully it works.
I don’t want to see his smug expression when he finds out he was right and that Tabor was as weird and creepy as he warned me.
“Hey, Harley,” his deep voice says. He always sounds so nice to anyone who isn’t me. To me, he’s just a dick most of the time.
“Hi, Dallas,” she answers nervously, and I guarantee it’s because she saw my stunt and now knows she messed up by answering the door. “Can I … help you?”
“Yep, I need to talk to Haven.” He says the words, and I can hear the amusement in his tone. My heart beats faster, worried he knows I’m here. “She around?”
“Uhh, no,” Harley says, and in my brain, I can see the image of her nervously fidgeting and shaking her head quickly. “She’s not. She’s … out. Somewhere.”
For a moment, he doesn’t say anything. Then finally, his douchey voice speaks.
“Hey, Gigi.” He pauses. “Oh, and hi, Haven. You know I saw you dive onto the couch, right?” he calls loudly, and now I’m sweating. “Thanks for ignoring my phone calls, by the way.”
Footsteps walk toward me, and I groan under the blanket, knowing I’m about to have to deal with him. Call me a baby, but sometimes, I just like to run away from situations like this one.
One where I may have to admit that I was wrong and he was right. Ew.
The blanket is flipped off my body, landing by my feet, and there he stands, smirking down at me. His hair looks wet, like he just took a shower, and even with him standing over me, I get a whiff of that damn intoxicating smell of his body wash.
“How do you think your mom and dad would feel if they knew you were avoiding me,” he drawls, tsking me. “Seeing as we’re like family, I don’t think they’d be very happy with you, Short.”
I roll my eyes. “What do you want, Dallas?”
Suddenly, he’s uncomfortable. His gaze shifts from Gigi to Harley before falling back to mine.
“Can I … uh, talk to you alone for a second?” he murmurs, and suddenly, there is no smugness on his face, but instead, shame. For what, I have no idea.
I may not have wanted to see him right now, fearing he’d make me feel worse about the Tabor situation than I already do, but it all goes away when he looks at me like that. Because I know, with everything that I am, he needs me. Maybe that makes me pathetic, yet here I am, slowly standing up.
“Sure.” I nod, walking past him and toward the hallway. “We can go to my room.” As he starts to tag along behind me, I look over my shoulder at the girls. “You can finish this episode without me, bitches, but don’t you dare start a new one!”
“Fine,” they both say before settling onto the couch again.
Once we’re in the hallway, I stop in front of my door and glance back, eying him over a bit. Inhaling a deep breath, I push the door open and walk inside.
Dallas closes the door behind him, making me more nervous. My mind shouldn’t, but it travels right back to the night we kissed. I hate that my heart flutters at being alone with him.
Sitting on the edge of my bed, I watch him pace back and forth in front of me.
I don’t have a clue what he’s about to tell me or ask.
Back before he went and made everything weird with the kiss, we spent a lot of time together, just the two of us.
Noah may have been his best friend, but Dallas and I had our own friendship.
Even if that friendship meant me stuffing my feelings down for the sake of keeping it.
“There’s no easy way for me to say this,” he finally blurts out. “This is the last thing I want to be doing, Haven. Before I ask you what I’m going to, please know that this was your dad’s idea.”
That makes me frown. “What?” I whisper. “What are you even talking about?”
He stares at me, his head hanging in a way that I haven’t seen since he was a boy.
A boy who had finally found his new family but was still very much living in the past.
“My grades are bad, Haven. Like … really bad.” He pauses, reaching his hands up and resting on the top of his head. A slit of his abdomen above his sweatpants band peeks out, and I hate that my eyes immediately drop to take a look. I hate even more that my mouth waters.
Lucky for me, he’s so engrossed in what he’s trying to tell me that he misses my pure desperation.
“I’m going to get kicked off the football team if I don’t get my shit together.”
Forcing my eyes upward, I narrow them. “What does that have to do with me?” I shake my head, confused. “And why would my dad make you come here?”
His head rolls back and he looks up at the ceiling. I open my mouth to repeat myself, but before I can, he looks at me again.
“Your dad says you’re the best tutor there is at NEU.” His cheeks turn redder by the second. It’s never been a secret to me that school isn’t Dallas’s strong suit, but I didn’t realize it was this bad. “He said you could help me.”
His deep voice comes out in hardly a whisper.
The big, strong, confident man is gone, and even though I wish it didn’t, it’s killing me that he’s this self-conscious about asking for help.
The truth is though, I stopped tutoring because I didn’t have the time for it.
Between softball and my own school load, it was too much.
My dad knows that too.
I’ve made it this far without falling apart when it comes to him because I’ve put a wall up around myself. A wall where he has limited access. A wall that allows me to act indifferent some of the time. Doing this may be good for him … but it’ll be absolutely detrimental for me.
“I haven’t tutored anyone in quite a while, D,” I whisper, pushing my palms down against the bed nervously. “I know a lot of people who would be more than happy to help you.”
His eyes stare at me. Though they flash with resentment, I can see the pain too.
“You don’t get it,” he mutters before turning away. “You know what? Never mind, Haven. I should have known better than to come to you with this.”
For years, he’s called me Short. When he calls me Haven, it’s when he’s pissed or being serious.
Before I can force my mouth to speak, coming up with some lame excuse to cover my ass for why I can’t help, he storms out of my room. The look in his eyes—the hurt when I didn’t immediately say yes—flashes over and over again in my mind, and before I can stop myself, I’m running after him.
He’s already outside by the time I get to the door, and I slide my Birkenstocks on and rush behind him, catching him as he heads down the porch steps.
“Damnit, D,” I blurt out. “Wait! Would you just wait!”
His shoulders tense as he hits the last step, and though he doesn’t turn around to face me, he stops walking away.
Since I was twelve, I have been in love with this boy. And once again, here I go, putting him before myself. I know it’s the right thing to do, but fuck … it’s going to be so hard.
“I’ll do it,” I huff out. “I’ll tutor you, okay?”
DALLAS
Since the moment I met Haven at the park, right from the first day, I’ve known one thing to be true.
If at least a tiny part of her doesn’t want to do something, she isn’t going to do it.
So, when she runs after me, saying she’ll be my tutor, I know that for whatever reason, she doesn’t want to say no.
At least not one hundred percent of her.
Maybe just ninety-nine. But that one percent?
That’s what’s going to keep my ass on the team.
Slowly, I turn to face her. I try not to let my eyes roam over the way her oversized NEU hoodie makes it look like she isn’t wearing any shorts.
Because if I allowed myself to really look, I’d be entranced by those strong, sculpted, thick legs of hers.
And right now, I can’t ogle the girl who is going to be my tutor.
“Really?” The word comes out in practically a rasp.
A pathetic, weak rasp. Maybe it’s because I’m desperate.
Or maybe because Haven King is agreeing to help me.
A girl I’ve thought the whole world of for so long while always pretending to find her annoying.
“Thank you, Short. I know that you’re busy. But I really appreciate it.”
That can’t stop now either. Just because she’s helping me, I still can’t let her in. I’ve made it through our childhood friendship by being the shallow asshole. Now, I need to pivot while still keeping her at arm’s length.
She leans on the post at the top of the porch steps. “Yeah, I mean, whatever.” She shrugs, playing it off like it isn’t a big deal. “Dad has high hopes for this season. I’m not going to be the one to take it away from him.” She folds her arms across her chest. “Don’t make it a thing.”
I can’t stop the grin that spreads across my face. “Thank you again, Short. I mean it.”
I want to hug her, but I don’t. Mostly because if I did, I wouldn’t want to let go.
Or I’d fucking smell her hair like psychopath Tabor does, and then I’d be a creep too.
“Do you have your schoolwork with you?” she asks, absolutely no fucking around, just going straight to business.
“Uh … no?” I answer truthfully, trying to fight a grimace. Apparently, I should have come over prepared. I guess I didn’t think she’d actually say yes. And if she did, I didn’t think she’d want to start tonight.
“Good,” she utters before tapping the screen on her watch.
She glances from it to me before cocking her head to the side.
“I have one more episode before the finale of Love Island airs tomorrow night.” She tells me this like I’m supposed to know what the fuck that even means. “Go get your work. Be back in an hour.”
When I stand here, frozen and looking like an idiot, she suddenly throws her hands up. “What the hell are you waiting for? Go!”
That has me stepping backward, and quickly, I rush toward my truck. And as I get behind the wheel and watch her walk back inside before backing out of the driveway, the grin on my face quickly fades.
Because now … she’s going to know how stupid I am. And I really hate that.