Wicked Grind (Stark World 1)

"It's in the afternoon. You don't have to work, do you?" He knew she didn't; he'd already checked her schedule.

She shook her head. "That's my day off."

"Great. Your parents will let you come, right?"

"I don't--" She cut herself off, then lifted her chin. For the first time, she looked him straight in the eye, and he felt the reverberations all the way through him. "I mean, I don't think that would be a problem. Thank you," she added, then drew a deep breath. "I'd love to go with you."

Those tickets turned everything upside down, switching his world from just okay to absolutely perfect. He and Kelsey started walking together regularly, taking the long way from the snack bar to the tennis center. They snuck in more time, too. Breaks at the edge of the golf course. Hours stolen during weekends.

He learned that she danced whenever she could sneak in the time, and that she adored her little brother. "I try to stay mad at him," she admitted. "But then he'll make up a story in these crazy voices he does, and whatever irritated me just sort of fades away. Griffin's great."

"I want to meet him." They'd paused on the main walking path at the turn-off to the tennis center. "Why don't I just come with you?" Every day, this is where he left her. But every day, he didn't want their stolen time together to end.

"Someday. But I--"

"Ashamed of me?" he quipped.

She bit her lower lip, looking younger than her fifteen years. "It's just that Griff's only twelve, and if he says something . . . I mean, I'm not allowed to date--"

"We just went to the competition together."

"Yeah, well, that wasn't really a date. I was doing you a favor filling that seat, right? And, um, my parents were out of town. They took my brother to LA for an appointment, and I knew they wouldn't be back until late."

"So you didn't tell them."

Her cheeks bloomed pink. "I don't usually sneak around," she admitted. "But I--you know." She met his eyes, then looked at her shoes. He thought her shyness was adorable. Hell, he thought she was adorable.

She drew a breath. "I guess I told myself it was like going to a movie. Only with live dancers. But seriously, Wyatt, if my dad--"

He held up a hand, then pressed his finger to her lips. "It's okay. Really. I get it." He flashed a grin. "I'll meet Griffin some other time. Once your dad approves of me," he teased.

"Yeah?" Her smile was like sunshine. "You don't mind?"

"I want to hang out with you," he said. "All the rest is no big deal."

With every day that passed, they managed to sneak in more and more time. He took photo after photo of her. By the pool, on the walking path, anywhere he could. Mostly, they talked incessantly, learning everything they could about each other. He learned she liked salted chocolate, but hated nuts. That she loved pink in her dance outfits, but hated it in her regular clothes. That her favorite author was Mark Twain, but that she had a weakness for Nancy Drew books, and that even though she stopped reading them years ago, she had her entire collection packed neatly in plastic boxes she kept stacked in her closet.

He confessed that he generally despised fast food but had a weakness for In-N-Out Burger. That he'd accidentally blown up the garden shed in middle school when he was trying to come up with a project for the science fair, and that he'd once played Pac-Man for twelve hours straight on the free-standing machine that his grandmother kept in the game room.

The last revelation led to an even bigger one, because he hadn't realized that she knew about his family until she asked him, point blank, if it was hard growing up around so many famous people.

"Wow," he said, thrown by the question. "I didn't think you knew about my family."

"I overheard Grace and Marsha talking that first day you came to the pool."

"Really?" He cocked his head as he looked at her, then realized he was grinning so wide he must look like a fool.

She laughed. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"No reason." He was still grinning, but how could he not? He thought back on all the days he'd been pursuing her, and it gave him a nice, warm feeling in his gut to know that all that time she knew who he was.

"No reason?" she repeated, then laughed. "Come on. Tell me."

"Maybe I like you," he said, though the simple words did nothing to capture the euphoria he felt from just being around her. From knowing that she wanted to be around him, and not the Segel boy. He reached out and took her hand, then twined his fingers with hers.

She ducked her head, then gently hip-butted him. "Maybe I like you, too."

They walked, hands swinging, toward the little copse of trees between the eighth and ninth greens. Wyatt had discovered it when he was wandering the grounds taking landscape shots, and now they were heading that direction so that he could take photos of Kelsey sitting on the massive, low-lying limb.