The Boyfriend Project Read online

  “I can’t believe your abs,” Kendall said as she ran her hands over them.

  “Now that I have them, I’ll probably work to keep them.”

  “I feel badly that I nudged you into working out, that I made you think I was dissatisfied. Maybe I was the one who needed to change.”

  “The thing is, Kendall, we’re both going to change. No one remains the same. I shouldn’t have been bothered by the surface changes because I think you’re okay with who I am.”

  “I love who you are.”

  Then she was kissing me again, I was kissing her. I thought maybe, just maybe, we were going to be all right.

  Chapter 47

  KENDALL

  It was my last day, actually my last few minutes, to serve as a volunteer at the shelter. A few more days and I’d be heading off to college. I was saying good-bye to all the dogs, even the ones who had just been taken in, ones I didn’t really know yet.

  I heard the door that led into the lobby open, looked over my shoulder, and stared in surprise. “Mom?”

  She looked really uncomfortable standing there, so I rushed over. “Is everything okay?”

  She shifted from one foot to another. “A house needs paw prints to be a home. But I don’t know how to do this, how to select the right dog.”

  I squeezed her hand in reassurance. “It’s pretty easy. You just look at them until one touches your heart. You might not even find one today, and that’s okay. You can’t force it. Come on. Let’s see what we have.”

  She stopped at each kennel, crouched down, and held out her hand for dog kisses. I didn’t know why she’d never considered herself a dog person. She was a natural.

  Near the end we found a cute, little miniature long-haired dachshund named Jake. He seemed to smile at her.

  “Oh, I like this one,” she said.

  “Let’s take him into the visiting room so you can see how he behaves.”

  She’d barely sat down before he jumped into her lap, licked her face. Mom laughed so deeply, so joyously that I knew she’d found her dog.

  Two days later, I called Jeremy and asked if he would go someplace with me after work. He didn’t hesitate to say yes. He didn’t ask where. He just said yes.

  When he pulled into my driveway, he was behind the wheel of a large sedan. He got out and grinned. “What do you think?” he asked.

  “Where did you get it?”

  “I convinced my parents that I needed a bigger car to get all my stuff to school.”

  “That’s great.”

  “More than great. They actually agreed on something. And they’ve started seeing a marriage counselor.”

  I squeezed his arm. “I’m so glad.”

  “Me too. It’s been a long time coming.” Then he gave me a sympathetic look. “Are you ready to go?”

  “Yeah.”

  As he drove, I sat there holding a small wooden box. The people who had surrendered Bogart to the shelter had left their contact information, so I called them and they told me what I needed to know.

  Jeremy turned off the main road and drove through a gate watched over by a stone angel.

  “The section we’re looking for should be near the end of this road,” I said. “Near that big tree.”

  Jeremy came to a stop. He got out of the car, came around, and opened the door for me. I climbed out. He reached in and grabbed a garden trowel that I’d brought. We walked along the rows of headstones until we came across the name I was looking for.

  I knelt down at the foot of the grave. Jeremy crouched beside me. With the trowel, he dug out some of the dirt, enough so that there was room for the box. I tucked it into place and we patted the dirt around it to keep it secure. A small plaque on top read:

  BELOVED BOGART

  ETERNAL FRIEND

  I stood up. Jeremy put his arm around me.

  “He’s where he belongs,” I said quietly. “Resting at his owner’s feet.”

  Jeremy and I walked solemnly back to the car. When we reached it, I glanced back.

  “I didn’t know it rained today,” I said.

  “I don’t think it did.”

  “But there’s a rainbow.”

  “Maybe it rained wherever that rainbow really is,” he said.

  I shook my head. “No, I think it’s the rainbow bridge and it was waiting for Bogart.”

  “I like that idea,” he said.

  He opened the car door for me, and I slipped inside, watched as he jogged around and climbed behind the wheel.

  As he drove away, I realized that there are a lot of things in life that can’t be controlled, a lot of things that shouldn’t be controlled. A dog’s love was one of those things.

  Actually all love was one of those things.

  “I love you, Jeremy,” I said.

  He grinned at me. “I love you, too, Kendall.”

  Settling back against the seat, I asked, “What should we do tonight to celebrate you getting a new car?”

  “Let’s go to the lake and check out this larger backseat.”

  With a laugh, I took his hand. “It’s a date.”

  Three days to go before Jeremy and I headed to A&M. I was in my bedroom, considering what else I needed to pack for the university, when I heard a motorcycle roar into the drive. Looking out the window, I recognized the bike. What was Fletcher doing here?

  Then he removed his helmet, looked up at my window, and I stared at Jeremy. I guessed that he saw me in the window because he waved for me to come down. Leaving my list, I hurried outside. “What are you doing?”

  He grinned. “Fletch taught me how to ride a motorcycle.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and showed me his license. “I even took the test for a Class M license so I’m all legal.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because from your interest a few weeks ago, I figured you wanted to ride one.”

  “You didn’t have to do this for me.”

  “I did it for us. I was going to surprise you on your birthday, but I didn’t want to wait any longer.”

  “Was this what we were going to do instead of a movie that afternoon when we got back together?”

  “Yeah, but Fletcher had already taken off, so I decided to wait for another perfect moment. Then today I realized any moment would be perfect. Do you want to go for a ride?”

  His words touched me. I knew not all our moments together would be perfect, but I figured most of them would be. I nodded. “Yeah, but I’m a little scared, too.”

  “So was I at first, but now I kind of dig it.” He handed me a red helmet that I knew was Avery’s. “Are you up for it?”

  He was straddling the bike. He looked so sexy but I realized it didn’t have anything to do with the bike or his hair or his clothes. It was him. The way he made me feel.

  I took the helmet and pulled it down over my head. Then I got on behind him and wound my arms around his waist. He revved the engine a couple of times before peeling out of the driveway. I released a little screech as we headed up the street.

  I held on to him tighter. Heard him laugh.

  I didn’t know where we were going. It didn’t really matter. It only mattered that we were going there together.

  Excerpt from Trouble from the Start

  “You can’t just stand here, Avery. You have to get out there and flaunt it.”

  I wasn’t quite sure what Kendall Jones, my best friend since forever, thought I had to flaunt.

  “It seems a little late for all that,” I told her. “We only have a week left until we graduate.”

  “Which is exactly why we’re here,” she said, removing the clip from her red hair, retwisting the curling strands, and securing them back into place. “Jeremy and I had our pick of three parties tonight. I knew this one would have the most people.”

  Because it was totally without chaperones. Scooter Gibson’s parents were out of town and he had the key to his family’s lake house so here we were, standing out by a magnificent pool, catching glimpses