The Boyfriend League Read online

  Then I realized what he’d been staring at. It wasn’t my eyes. It was a little ring of black dots where my mascara—while it was still wet—had touched above and below my eyes. I looked like some sort of Cirque du Soleil performer.

  “Great! Just great!” I muttered.

  You get only one chance to make a first impression. This wasn’t exactly the impression I’d planned to make.

  Chapter 4

  During dinner, I did little more than eat and sneak sideways glances at Jason. I was kind of freaking out about the unfavorable impression I was certain I’d made on him. A klutz who ran into him. Not to mention the weird fashion statement. It hadn’t helped matters that Tiffany had whispered, “Good, you got rid of the clown face,” before we sat down to eat.

  Meanwhile, Mom, Dad, and Tiffany peppered him with questions.

  “Where did you grow up?”

  “Round Rock.”

  “That’s near Austin, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Now you go to the University of Texas?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Great team.”

  Jason smiled. “Yes, sir.”

  “Do you have a girlfriend?” That, surprisingly, was from Tiffany.

  I found myself way too interested in that answer. For Bird’s sake, I told myself. I needed to know the answer in case she decided he was the guy she wanted to hook up with.

  Jason blushed. “No. Don’t really have time with school, practice, work—”

  “Are you going to summer school?” Tiffany asked.

  Jason’s blush deepened. “Uh, no, but I’ll be working.”

  He looked at Mom, then Dad. “The team manager arranged for me to work at Ruby Tuesday, so I can help out with the extra cost of meals.”

  “No, you can’t,” Mom said. “You’re our guest. We have more than enough food.”

  “I’ll be here for almost two and a half months. That’s a lot of groceries.”

  Groceries? Not in our house. But I figured he’d learn.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Mom insisted.

  “She’s right, son, don’t worry about it,” Dad said. “It’s our pleasure to have a ballplayer in the house. You can thank Dani for that. It was her idea.”

  Jason looked at me then. “Thanks.”

  I felt the heat creeping up my face. “No problem.”

  We kinda stared at each other. He was the first to look away. It should have been me. I knew that, but I really liked looking at him.

  “So, what are the chances of the ’Horns being NCAA National Champions next year?” Dad asked, and the awkward moment had shifted into players, coaches, strengths, weaknesses, strategies.

  Have I mentioned that Dad’s a UT alumnus? So, not only could Jason and Dad talk baseball, they could talk college, too.

  After dinner, Dad’s dream came true. He took Jason to the backyard so they could pitch the ball back and forth.

  “You gonna join us, Dani?” Dad had asked.

  “Maybe another time.” Did I really want Jason to know I had a decent throwing arm?

  So I went upstairs, grabbed my cell phone out of my tote bag, and called Bird. “I blew it.”

  “How’d you do that?” she asked.

  I gave her a quick rundown of all my most memorable moments, including the mascara fiasco.

  “Like he noticed,” Bird said when I was finished.

  “Oh, he noticed. I’ve never had a guy look at me that hard before. He was probably trying to figure out if it was a birthmark, a tattoo, or if I was preparing for Halloween a few months early.”

  She laughed. Bird has a totally fun laugh that has a way of making you feel better, even if you don’t want to feel better.

  “I’m betting he was mesmerized by your eyes. No one has eyes as green as yours. Not even colored contacts can make eyes that green. Seriously, he probably didn’t even notice the mascara,” she repeated. “Stephanie says guys don’t really pay attention to stuff like that. But I can ring her hotline if you want to be sure.”

  “No, that’s okay.”

  “So, what’s Jason like? And start with the vital stats.”

  “Black hair, blue, blue eyes. Tall, slender, nice, kinda quiet. Pitcher. No girlfriend.”

  “Fantastic! I can’t wait to meet him.”

  I wasn’t sure why, but I wasn’t exactly thrilled by her enthusiasm for meeting Jason. She was my best friend. I wanted her to have a boyfriend. I just wasn’t sure I wanted it to be him.

  “What’s your guy like?” I asked, anxious to move on.

  “He’s a hottie. Todd McPherson, but everyone calls him Mac. Dark hair, brown eyes. A little on the short side, but still cute. He’s a catcher. No girlfriend, either.”

  “Are you crushing on him?” I asked.

  “Not really. I mean, he’s nice, and I like talking with him, but I’m not going to have a problem with him sleeping down the hall.”

  I told myself I wasn’t going to have a problem, either, but I wasn’t so sure.

  “I’ve got an idea,” Bird said. “Why don’t you date my guy, and I’ll date yours?”

  It seemed like an easy and perfect solution. I didn’t know why I didn’t jump on it. Maybe because I couldn’t see her with Jason. Maybe I didn’t want to see her with him. “I don’t know.”

  “You can’t date Jason,” she reminded me.

  “I know.” Mom hadn’t made Tiffany and me sign a contract, but she had made us cross our hearts like we were five years old. Sometimes our parents just didn’t see us growing up.

  “They have their first practice tomorrow,” Bird said. “I went out to the team’s website and printed off a roster of the players. We’ll scope them out tomorrow.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  A knock sounded on the closed door. Could it be Jason? What if it was? I hadn’t changed for bed, but still…

  “I’ve gotta go,” I said.

  “’Kay. Later.”

  I closed my cell phone and set it on the nightstand.

  “Dani?”

  It was my mom. Before I could respond, she opened the door and peered in. “You okay?”

  It seemed like an odd question.

  “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  She came inside and sat on the edge of the bed. I pulled my legs up beneath me.

  “You’re usually the one your dad plays ball with. I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about him playing with Jason.”

  I shrugged. “I’m fine with it. It was part of the reason I suggested we host a player, so Dad would have a guy to pitch to.”

  “You know your dad doesn’t wish you’d been a boy.”

  “I know. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t wish he had a son.”

  “That’s true, I suppose.” She lifted some lint off the bedspread.

  “Was there something else, Mom?”

  She looked up, held my gaze. “You seemed pretty infatuated with Jason during dinner.”

  I felt the heat rush to my face. Did anything ever escape her notice? “I’m just not used to having a guy at the table, that’s all.”

  “And the extra mascara before dinner?”

  “A tip I picked up from Tiffany’s blog. Obviously she neglected to mention it takes longer to dry with three applications.”

  She grinned. “You read Tiffany’s blog?”

  “She’s the glamour expert.”

  “You’re not usually into glamour.”

  “I’m almost seventeen. Don’t you think it’s time I was?”

  “I think you need to be true to yourself.”

  I couldn’t help it. I rolled my eyes. It was such a Mom thing to say.

  She patted my knee. “I’ll leave you with that thought.”

  Mom was really good about not belaboring a point. She got up.

  “Mom?”

  She turned and looked at me.

  I scrunched up my face. “I’ve never had a boyfriend.”

  She smiled sadly. “I know, swee