The Deal Breakers (Love Quiz Book 2) Read online

  How had I resisted the urge to kiss her for all these years?

  I was such a freakin’ idiot. How did she stand me?

  “I was wrong to try and make you see me as more than a friend,” she said.

  “No, Jessica, listen—”

  “I was wrong,” she said again, firmer this time. “Because we are friends, first, last and always.”

  I stared at her, temporarily humbled into silence as she scolded me about our friendship.

  “I need you to know that no matter what…other feelings I might have…I will always love you as a friend. You can always count on me. I would never leave you or…” She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t want to shut you out.”

  “Jessica, please—”

  “No, let me finish,” she interrupted. She took a step backward. “I might need space…just for a little while.” Her gaze was pleading and that made my heart clench painfully in my chest. “It’s not your fault that you don’t feel the same as me,” she said. “And it was wrong of me to push you away because of that.”

  “Jess—”

  “I don’t want to lose our friendship, Rex,” she said firmly.

  “I know, I don’t want to, either, but—”

  “But I do need some space,” she continued, running roughshod over me as her words tumbled out in a rush. “Not in a mean way, but just…for my self-preservation, you know? If I’m going to get over you then I need to get some distance, but that doesn’t mean I’m not here for you if you need me or—”

  “Jessica!”

  She blinked rapidly in surprise. No doubt because I’d just shouted at her in the middle of an empty hallway. “Please,” I said, softer this time. “Let me talk.”

  She clamped her mouth shut with a nod.

  “You weren’t wrong,” I said.

  “What?”

  “You weren’t wrong. I was.” I thrust a hand through my hair in frustration in the face of her obvious confusion. Much as she tried to hide it, I could see the wariness in her, the hurt she couldn’t quite hide.

  I hated myself for hurting her, but I hated myself even more for being so freakin’ blind for so long. “I was an idiot.”

  One side of her mouth hitched up. “Well, yeah,” she said in that adorable drawl of hers. “That’s a given.”

  I let out a little huff of a laugh as some of the tension eased and I found the words I’d been looking for. “I love you.”

  She sighed. “I know you do, Rex. And I love you, too. That’s why we’ll always be friends—”

  “No, I don’t mean as a friend, Jessica. I mean…” I took a couple steps toward her and wrapped one arm around her back before she could flee. “I mean, I love you.”

  I tried to put every emotion I was feeling into those three words. I made sure to hold her gaze so she could see—she had to see.

  Her eyes widened, shock clear as day in those pretty blue eyes.

  She saw.

  “You…you…” she stammered.

  “I love you.” Man, the more I said it, the better I felt. Like for the first time in my life I was exactly where I was meant to be, with the person I was meant to be with.

  Everything was right.

  I had a flash of Tommy Miller and some of my perfect contentment deflated a bit. It would be perfect…just as soon as I convinced her that she shouldn’t give up on me.

  “Look, I know my timing is lousy,” I said. “I know you’ve moved on to Tommy, and I get that. I pushed you away, and I’m so sorry.”

  Her brows shot up and she gave a little shake of her head, her eyes adorably dazed like she was in shock. “I don’t understand.” Her eyes narrowed a bit. “Are you just saying this because you’re scared of losing me? Because I’m telling you—”

  “No, I’m saying this because it’s the truth.” I pulled her in closer and she stumbled a bit until she fell against my chest.

  I leaned down slightly, my nose brushing against hers. “You’re not forcing me into anything, and you didn’t scare me—” I stopped myself. “No, that’s not totally true. You did scare me. You do scare me.”

  Her lips quivered a bit like she didn’t know whether she was going to laugh or cry. “I scare you?”

  I smiled too because this was so very us. Making each other laugh even as our emotions were just about to spill over. My heart felt so full I wasn’t sure how to tell her everything that I wanted to say. “The thought of losing you scares me,” I finally said.

  Her brow furrowed. “That’s exactly what I’m saying, Rex. I don’t want you to think that you’re going to lose me just because—”

  I kissed her. I kissed her to silence her and to show her, because words were not my friends right now. I needed to show her how passionate I was about her. How much I wanted to hold her in my arms—always. Whenever I wanted. How I wanted to taste her and tease her and worship her for all the rest of my days.

  She sighed into the kiss and I felt the moment she stopped thinking and started feeling. Her lips met mine kiss for kiss as we said more than words could ever get across. Her arms were tight around my neck, her body pressed to mine.

  This was heaven.

  This was home.

  When we pulled back for air, I tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. I could do that now because I was her boyfriend…I hoped.

  I pulled back even more because while kissing might have shown her how I felt, there was still much to say. “I’m not saying that I love you because I’m afraid of losing you. I’m telling you I love you because I do. I love you, Jessica Morrison.”

  Her smile was watery. “You’ve said that a few times now.”

  I laughed. “Maybe I’m hoping you’ll get the hint and say it back.”

  Her expression turned so hopeful and wary all at once, and I grabbed one of her hands and held it to my heart. “I’m sorry,” I said before she could say anything. “I’m sorry I was blind for so long. I know now that I’ve felt this way for a long time. Maybe for as long as I’ve known you. But I was so afraid that if things between us changed, I’d lose you. And I never wanted to lose you.”

  Understanding filled her eyes. Of course she understood. This girl knew me better than I knew myself.

  “But you were right when you said that things had changed,” I said. “I couldn’t keep burying my head in the sand and hoping that would keep us safe.”

  She nodded. “I get that,” she said. “Change is scary.”

  “But it’s going to happen whether I acknowledge it or not. And I want us to change, Jessica…as long as it’s together.”

  She grinned. “That sounds good because I’m scared stiff at the thought of us changing too. But…if we’re in it together…”

  My smile matched hers as I leaned down and dropped another kiss on her lips. “Then there’s no way we can lose.”

  “We’re a team,” she said.

  She blinked and I just knew we’d both had the same thought at the same time.

  “The team.”

  I glanced back at the locker room. They’d all be out warming up by now. I was late.

  “Go on,” she said. “We can talk more after the game.”

  I pulled her close, not quite ready to let her go. “Does that mean you’ll stick around to watch?”

  “Of course,” she said. “Have I ever let you down before?”

  “Never,” I said quickly. But then I remembered… I cleared my throat. “Look, I know you’re technically on a date right now, and I know that’s all my fault so I can’t be annoyed, but—”

  “The date’s over,” she said, laughter tingeing her voice and making me happy beyond belief.

  Man, but I loved this girl. Her happiness was mine, her fears and her worries, too. We were two halves of the same coin, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  “I, uh…I saw you and Tommy,” I said. “In the parking lot.”

  Jealousy, my new nemesis, was already creeping up, lacing my voice with an edge I didn’t like.

&nbs
p; Her smile softened it. “He knows that I belong with you.”

  “But he kissed you.”

  Her laughter was filled with delight at my expense. I felt a rueful grin forming because at least she found my jealousy amusing. I supposed that was something. She tilted her head to meet my gaze. “I think he was just trying to make you jealous.”

  I frowned. Jealous? I knew I never liked that guy. “That egotistical little—”

  She kissed me with a laugh and I forgot all about Tommy Miller, and all about the fears for the future or any deals from our past.

  Clearly, that deal we’d made had been a dumb one. A desperate grasp to hold onto the moment and make sure it never changed.

  But in this particular moment, with my girl in my arms and her lips pressed to mine? I’d never been happier to see our relationship change…and that deal?

  That deal was meant to be broken.

  Epilogue

  Day of the Valentine’s Day Dance

  Jessica

  My phone dinged incessantly on my nightstand.

  “Leave me alone,” I grumbled to no one in particular.

  My mom, who’d been watching me get ready from her perch on the edge of my bed, reached toward the phone. “Want me to see who it is?”

  I shook my head, the curls I’d pinned atop my head wobbling dangerously. “No need. It’s Rex nagging me to hurry up.” I flashed my mom a smile over my shoulder. “This is one time I will not let him rush me out the door.”

  When I turned back to the mirror, one of the curls had escaped and I sighed as I reached for more bobby pins. If ever there was a time to try getting fancy with my hair, I figured tonight was it. My first dance with a date. A real date.

  My first real date with Rex.

  Oh, we’d been hanging out together every day this week—at school, going for our runs, in front of the TV—but that was very normal Jessica and Rex behavior.

  I mean, sure. Kissing was now a part of our time together, but other than that it was pretty much life as usual around here. This would be the first time we did something romantic together, and I was weirdly, inexplicably nervous.

  I pressed my hands to my belly to stop the fluttering and heard my mom laugh behind me. “What are you so nervous about?” she asked. “That boy has been crazy about you for years.”

  I gave her a fake scowl in the mirror. “You just have to rub it in, don’t you?”

  She laughed, as I’d known she would.

  Rex and I had decided to go slowly with this new relationship thing. We wanted to keep the news to ourselves for a while as we figured out what it meant to be a couple.

  Honestly, going from friends to couple hadn’t been as tough of a transition as we’d thought, but it was still nice to be able to ease into it without everyone looking at us or gossiping about us.

  The first people we did tell were our mothers. They were happy for us—beyond happy for us—but not exactly surprised.

  Turned out they’d known all along. Like…since we were in the fifth grade. Apparently, they’d been placing bets behind our backs about when we’d finally wake up and realize that what we had was more than friendship.

  It was love.

  True love.

  I grinned at my reflection in the mirror. I wasn’t sure when this crazy giddiness would fade when I thought about him, about us—but I was going to enjoy every moment of it.

  The doorbell rang and my mom and I both laughed because this was Rex’s M.O. If one of us didn’t answer he’d let himself in and drag me out of my room.

  “Becoming your boyfriend hasn’t made him any less persistent, I see,” my mom said as she stood. “I’ll go let him in.”

  “Tell him to wait down there,” I called after her.

  She laughed. “I’ll try!”

  I wasn’t even a little bit surprised that her attempts to stall him didn’t work. My mother had always caved in the face of Rex’s charm, and she knew as well as I did that when Rex wanted to see me, he wouldn’t let anything stand in his way.

  I heard his feet pounding up the stairs and then he stopped short in the doorway, his eyes going wide at the sight of me. “You are so beautiful.”

  It was the way he said it that made my chest ache and my throat swell with ridiculous tears. I’d waited so long for moments like this—for my best friend to look at me and see me. Not as his bestie, or as his pal—but as the woman he loved.

  I reached up and touched my curls tentatively. “Not too ridiculous?”

  He shook his head, his mouth hanging open slightly as he eyed me from head to toe. “You look amazing.”

  And then he rushed me, pulling me into an embrace as he kissed me. “I have no idea how I lasted so long without doing that,” he said when he pulled back.

  I laughed but he shook his head. “I mean it. I need to be near you to breathe.” His grip tightened on my waist. “I need to hear your voice to feel calm. I need to touch your skin to feel warmth.” He slid his hand over my bare arm as he said that. When he looked back up at me, his eyes were dark with desire. “I have no idea how I managed to ignore all these feelings for so long, because now that I know how I feel, I don’t want to go another day without kissing you.”

  “The good news is, you don’t have to.” I sighed with happiness as I leaned into him, my hands running over his suit jacket as my lips found my favorite spot on his chin, teasing out that smile I adored—the one that had always been just for me.

  “I guess what I’m trying to say is, I don’t want to try and take this slowly anymore,” he said. “Being with you isn’t hard, there’s nothing complicated or weird about this relationship. And I know without a doubt that it’s not going to end—not until one of us dies.”

  I arched my brows. “Are you trying to say you want to go public with this thing?”

  He nodded. “I do. I want the world to know how much I love you.”

  I gave him an admittedly dreamy smile, because…dang. I was one happy camper.

  “Besides,” he said. “It’ll probably be obvious when I’m holding you close like this on the dance floor.”

  I laughed. “That might give it away.” I sobered a bit as I thought about who all we’d have to tell tonight. “We’ll have to come clean with Edie and Dane,” I said.

  He nodded, growing serious as well.

  I bit my lip, forgetting momentarily that I had lipstick on. “We should have told them earlier.”

  Rex shrugged. “Maybe, but also…it wasn’t really anyone else’s business, right?”

  I nodded. “But still…”

  He nodded too. I didn’t have to say it. Our falling for each other pretty much ruined our results for the group experiment. Last time I checked, Rex and I were still a perfect match on the app, and while we’d gone through the motions of going out with Tommy and Missy one last time, we’d actually used those dates to nicely break things off, in Rex’s case, and to thank Tommy for his role of matchmaker for me and Rex.

  “How do you think they’ll take it?” I asked with a wince. Dane and Edie were both nice but Dane was intense and Edie was terrifying. They were both driven and ambitious, and neither liked to lose. To say I wasn’t looking forward to their reactions tonight was an understatement.

  “I don’t know,” Rex said. “But we’ll just tell them the truth. I mean, it’s not like we meant to ruin the experiment.”

  “True.”

  “And it’s partially their fault they don’t already know. If either Edie or Dane had done their job and checked in with us this week, I would have been honest with them.”

  “Me too,” I said quickly. “But neither of them even seemed to remember the experiment this week. Did you notice that they both seemed pretty distracted?”

  “I did,” Rex said. “Maybe they’re fighting or something.”

  I nodded thoughtfully. “Or something.” I’d seen Edie and Dane fight. Often. Pretty much all the time. They were never subtle or passive when they were fighting. I had a feeling wh
atever was going on between them wasn’t as simple as an argument over who would be the one to announce the results tonight.

  Rex tugged me close again and pressed his forehead to mine. “Hey, don’t worry about it, okay? We’ll tell them the truth and then we’ll apologize. That’s all we can do.”

  I nodded, tugging him closer by his lapels. “I’m not worried, because we’ll tell them together.”

  “Dang straight,” he said, teasing my accent in the process. “That’s the way we’ll deal with every obstacle from here on out. Together.”

  “Right. Because that’s what friends do,” I said lightly.

  He kissed me and held me close. “That’s what friends in love do.”

  Thank you for reading! If you missed Anna and Zach’s story, you can find it in The Love Fakers. Next up, read Edie and Dane’s tale in The Match Makers.

  Want to see where the Love Quiz app originated? The fictional app was created by the hero of Maggie Dallen’s YA rom-com Tall, Dark, and Nerdy.

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  About the Author

  MAGGIE DALLEN IS a big city girl living in Montana. She writes romantic comedies in a range of genres including young adult, historical, contemporary, and fantasy. An unapologetic addict of all things romance, she loves to connect with fellow avid readers. Subscribe to her newsletter at http://eepurl.com/bFEVsL

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