Partner Games
Page 31

My face was bright red with embarrassment. “Not completely new. I mean, I’ve kissed guys before.”
“Yeah, but do you want to go further with him?”
I was pretty sure my face got even redder. I tried to make a casual sort of ‘oh whatever goes’ sort of noise and it came out as a strangled bleat.
To her credit, Georgie didn’t laugh. She just squeezed my hand and stared out the car window. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t. I mean, you’re probably gathering dust down there–”
I smacked her arm.
She grinned. “–so I am encouraging you to do whatever you want to do. I’m not saying don’t get involved with him. Just that you should be ready to have your heart broken. Players rarely give theirs away.”
My sister was the expert on men, so I nodded and filed that information away. I’d let Swift make all the moves. That seemed…easiest. I glanced over at Georgie’s sad face as she trailed a fingernail down the steering wheel. “What about Plate?”
“He’s not a player. He’s just…I dunno. More of a laidback sort. I don’t have a lot of experience with those.” She gave me a wry look. “It’s probably for the best. I don’t know that I’m ready for anything. I mean, I think I like him, just because he’s so easy to talk to and get along with. He always makes me smile and I feel good around him…but how do I know that my head’s not full of lies and I’m not looking for validation from a guy just to prove that I’m pretty? You know?”
I had no answer for that. So I squeezed her hand back. “Maybe we should focus on the things we do know.”
“Which are?” she asked.
“Drew and Foster are dicks,” I said. “And we absolutely, positively cannot come in last place today.”
“Amen to that.”
 
~~ * * * ~~
 
When the sun started to crest on the horizon, we got out of the car and headed up to the dam. According to our watches, we had a half hour to go, but we’d seen the Doctor Moms start to head up, so we went, too.
My nerves were setting in. The dam looked really freaking high in the daylight, and my stomach got queasy at the small structure on the side of the lip. That was the place where we’d bungee from, I imagined. It just looked so…small.
“Maybe only one of us has to do this,” I told Georgie hopefully, my voice cracking with nerves.
She snorted. “Doubt it.” But she reached out and squeezed my hand anyhow. I held on to hers and we walked the long, curving path toward the bungee station. Other teams were setting up there, and as we approached, camera-men turned and began to film.
“Ticket?” A man in a knit cap came up to us and asked, voice accented. “What time to you have?”
We showed him our ticket.
“You are third,” he said, and gestured for Georgie and I to get in line behind the Doctor Moms.
We did, and the two men ahead of us in black shirts turned around to look at us. Swift’s face was impossible to read, but there was no missing the slight scowl on Plate’s face as he gazed in our direction.
“You know what?” Georgie said when someone approached us with harnesses. “I have to pee. Just hold my spot.”
“What?” I stared at my twin.
“Nervous pee,” she said, then trotted down the long walk over the dam. “Be back soon!”
Georgie wasn’t the nervous pee-er. I was. That coward. I scowled in her direction and then eyed the guy with the harness warily. “Do people die on these things a lot?”
He wrinkled his brows at me. “Do want to do this or not?”
“I don’t want to do it,” I said. “But I have to.”
He stood there, staring at me with the harness in hand. “Yes, or no?”
I sighed. “Yes. Dammit.” I crossed my arms as he bent and began to put the harness around my waist. I was not going to look over the side. I was not.
Up ahead, someone began to whistle. I heard the strains of a familiar tune, and tried to place it…then scowled at Swift when I realized he was humming Right Next Door to Hell, another Guns N’ Roses tune. Like I wasn’t freaked out enough? “You’re not helping,” I called out to him.
He just looked back and winked at me. He was totally harnessed in, the long bungee cord hanging from him. All he had to do was wait for the right time.
He didn’t look scared at all, either.
I’d be scared enough for all of us, then. I couldn’t look over the side. Even a glimpse would make me so nervous and freaked out that I would lose what little confidence I was holding onto. I considered a penalty. If we didn’t do the particular stunt we were supposed to, a team would be slapped with a time penalty. But we were really high up…and I was considering it.
Also, now I had to do a nervous pee. Damn Georgie.
Plate glanced back at me again, and when he didn’t see my twin, I saw the frown on his face deepen. He was harnessed, but not tied in, which meant he was going second.
The man finished my harness. “There, you are ready to go.”
I swallowed hard, the penalty looking better and better.
Between me and Team One Percent were the Doctor Moms, who were also harnessed and scrupulously avoiding eye contact with either one of us. They leaned in and whispered to each other, and I knew they weren’t big fans of the fact that the boys helped us out now and then. No doubt the Green Machine had gotten to them at some point. I looked down the line at the other teams and wondered who else would be working against us. Jendan and Annabelle were sharing a few kisses behind me, so lovey-dovey that it made me envious. I liked them, though, and I knew they were on our side. Behind them were the Green Machine and then Team Houston, a married couple who were aggressive and not happy about being in 5th place at the moment. After them were the Red Hat ladies, and in last place was Team Daddy, their faces tense.
I wasn’t sure that any of them — other than Jendan and Annabelle — would be on our side. Well, crud. And I’d pissed off half of Team One Percent by jumping Plate for stupid reasons.
Ugh. I felt really bad about that, too. Plate had been the nicest, most laid-back guy on the race, and had helped Georgie at every turn. And I’d thought he was going to hurt her? I’d just panicked after what she’d told me, and stopped thinking.
I needed to apologize.
So I moved up to where Plate and Swift were standing. I bit my lip and when Plate didn’t look at me, tapped his arm. A hint of a smile touched Swift’s mouth and he stepped back, pretending to check his gear.
Plate grunted and looked down at me. “What?”
“I wanted to say I’m sorry for jumping you. That wasn’t cool of me.”
He relaxed, his big face easing. “You’re apologizing?”
“Yeah. I acted like a jerk. I’m sorry.”
Plate grabbed me around the shoulders and pulled me under his big arm, and then began to noogie the top of my head. I squealed as his knuckles rubbed over my scalp, and squirmed away. He chuckled as I snarled at him. “S’okay Tiny. You were just being protective.”
I rubbed my head. “And it probably seems crazy as to why–”
“Nah,” he said. “I know Georgie’s plenty messed up.”