Page 56 of Pucking Bad Boys

Macklin is still looking at me, and that dark blue gaze makes it hard to think. “Hmm,” I muse. “Do you think she’s gonna mess with me? It’s not like there’s anything between me and Becks. I met him at Joe’s and we talked when he walked me home. But we barely know each other.”

“Gen doesn’t need much to come after you. Did you see the shit she kept doing to Taryn all summer when she thought she and I were hooking up?”

A shudder works its way down my spine. Macklin is right. Genevieve saw Taryn as a rival for the top spot at making the Shooting Stars team and as an obstacle to getting back together with him.

Nothing was beneath her. From sabotage to assault, Gen was determined to get rid of her rival.

“Fuck,” I whisper. “Gen is president of Zeta Theta Beta this year, and she could make my life very uncomfortable in the house. Maybe I should speak to her and let her know that Becks doesn’t like me.”

He tilts his head to the side. “What makes you think that he doesn’t like you?”

“He walked me home, and I thought there was a flirty vibe between us. But he didn’t kiss me. He said goodnight and walked away. And when we saw each other in class and at the party, he barely said hello to me. Maybe because he’s into Gen.”

Macklin considers my words, taking the soda cup from me. He drinks noisily, sucking up the last of the soda from the bottom of the cup and chewing on the end of the straw, deep in thought.

He does that on the ice too, with his mouth guard. I’ve noticed him chewing on it between plays or if he has to sit in the penalty box.

“So you’re hot for my brother, huh?”

Heat rises to my face and I can’t look at him. I like Becks, but my crush on him has never been so intense. Especially after I know how it feels to kiss him. “I…” I can’t say that to him. “I don’t know if he likes me back. And if Gen wants him, there’s no chance Becks would even look at me.”

“Why do you say that?” Macklin’s light brown eyebrows hit his hairline. “You’re as pretty as Gen. Prettier, if you ask me.”

I know what he’s doing. He’s hyping me up like he does on the ice with his teammates. I own a mirror and I know I don’t have Gen’s runway model-type body. “Thanks, it’s kind of you to say that. But it isn’t just about being pretty. The truth is that I’m out of my depth with someone like your brother. He’s hot and popular. He was always surrounded by beautiful women in Bridgeport, too.” I sigh, embarrassed that I stalked Becks’s social media after I saw him again in class. “You might not know this, but I’ve never even had a boyfriend. I’m so inexperienced that Becks would get bored with me and run back to Gen even if I could get his attention.”

Macklin’s reaction to my admission isn’t what I expected. “He would be a fool to get bored with you, Talia. You need to have more confidence in yourself.”

If this weren’t one of the most embarrassing moments of my life so far, I would laugh. “Thanks. But I mean it. I have zero dating experience.”

Something passes in his eyes as he sets the empty soda cup back into the cup holder. “I have an idea that could be beneficial to both of us. You want to date my brother, right?”

“Yes, but—” I nod.

“Let me finish before you object. You want to date Becks and I want to get Gen off my back once and for all.”

I shrug, not sure what the two things have in common.

“I’ve been trying to get Gen to understand that no matter what she does and how insistent she is, I have no intention of ever getting back together with her. I thought that seeing me hook up with half the cheerleading team would send that message loud and clear, but it didn’t work. My mistake was that hookups are casual and Gen must have thought that once I got some things out of my system, I’d go back to her. What I need is something more important, more permanent. A girlfriend. If you were my girlfriend, Gen would see that whatever we had is over. Once and for all.”

Is he asking me what I think he’s asking me?

“I saw the way she looked at us last night when we kissed. Be my girlfriend, Talia.”

I blink, unsure I heard him right. “Come again?”

“Be my girlfriend.” He insists. “Not for real. But seeing us together would get Gen to finally realize that she and I are done. And there is no better way to make my brother want you than seeing you with me.”

“I don’t understand.” I whisper.

Macklin’s jaw ticks as he explains. “It’s the fucked up dynamic between me and Becks. Our whole lives, he has always wanted what I have. So if you were mine, he wouldn’t stop until he got you. Why do you think he was at that party with Gen last night? He can say they went as friends all he wants. But he developed a crush on Gen the second we started dating in high school.”

My heart is beating so fast that I’m dizzy. “So you’re proposing to have a fake relationship, so that your ex stops pursuing you and your brother starts pursuing me?”

Macklin

The deal I just proposed to Talia could be either the smartest or the stupidest idea I’ve ever had.

A myriad of emotions surface on her pretty face while she considers it. It’s a long shot, but at least she didn’t immediately say no.