Be Mine (25 page)

“So what are you doing here?” Dexter asked again.

Eden's mind scrambled, trying to make up a story that made sense. Why hadn't she thought this out ahead of time?

“Eden?”

She held out her wrist, showing off a silver charm bracelet. “I lost one of my charms and I think it might have fallen off when I was over on Saturday night. Do you mind if I look for it?”

“Come on in,” Dexter said as he searched his jacket pocket for his house keys.

Once inside, Dexter headed up to his bedroom with the balloons while Eden pretended to search the living room. What did she do now? There was no missing charm. She hadn't even been wearing the bracelet on Saturday night! Luckily, Dexter hadn't remembered. Now all she had to do was work up the courage to ask him to the dance by the time he came back.

“Find it?” Dexter asked when he came back downstairs.

Eden jumped from the couch cushion she was flipping over. He was back already? She saw he had changed into a pair of sweatpants and a longsleeved T-shirt. “I must have lost it somewhere else. Sorry to have bothered you. I better go. I'm sure you've got lots of homework to do.”

Dexter walked her to the front door. “Is everything okay, Eden? You seem kind of jumpy. Jittery.”

That's because I don't know how to ask you to the dance!

“I stopped at the Frosted Cupcake on the way over and had a latte,” she explained. “Too much caffeine.”

The phone rang and Dexter excused himself, heading into the kitchen to answer it. He walked through a swinging wooden door, leaving Eden to wait by herself in the hallway.

Even though she knew she shouldn't eavesdrop, Eden couldn't help herself. She needed to know who Dexter was talking to. It could be her competition!

Eden tippy-toed to the kitchen door, pressing her ear against it. It was hard to hear the conversation on the other side, but from what little she could hear, Dexter was laughing. Laughing! Girls always tried to make guys laugh when they were flirting with them. That could only mean one thing. He was talking to
her
!

She needed to know what she was up against. Eden pressed her ear more closely against the door, wanting to hear things more clearly. As she did, the door unexpectedly swung inward and she fell to the kitchen floor, flat on her stomach, right at Dexter's feet. He stared down at her in shock.

“I'll have to call you back,” he said, hanging up the phone and returning to Eden as she struggled to stand up.

“Are you okay?” he asked, helping her to her feet.

Eden was totally embarrassed. What did Dexter think of her?

“What were you doing?”

Eden couldn't take the suspense any longer. She had to know. “Were you talking with her?”

“Her?”

“You know. Your secret admirer. The one who's trying to take you away from me!” she blurted out.

“Take me away from you? Eden, are you feeling okay?” Dexter stared at her with concern. “Did you hit your head when you fell? You're not making any sense.”

Eden knew actions spoke louder than words. So instead of answering Dexter's questions, she threw her arms around him and gave him a kiss.

“What was that for?” a stunned Dexter asked when Eden pulled her lips away from his.

“I'm crazy about you, Dexter King. I don't know why it took me so long to realize it. You're sweet and you're smart and you're thoughtful and any girl would be lucky to go out with you.” Eden paused and then exclaimed, “I want to be that girl! Will you be my date for the Valentine's Day dance? That is, if you don't already have a date.”

“Who would I go with?” Dexter asked.

“Your secret admirer.”

“I don't even know who she is.”

“Weren't you just talking to her on the phone?”

“I was talking to my friend Ozzy.”

“So you don't know who's been crushing on you?”

“I don't know and I don't care.” Dexter closed the distance between himself and Eden, lifting a hand to her cheek. “Want to know why?”

“Why?”

He leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “Because you're the only girl for me.”

“I am?” Eden asked in disbelief.

Dexter nodded.

“I am!” Eden happily shouted.

At that moment, Angie, Yvonne, and Thelma burst into the kitchen.

“Yay!” they exclaimed. “It worked! It worked!”

“What's going on?” a confused Eden asked as Dexter's sisters danced around them. “What worked?”

“Our plan!” Yvonne exclaimed.

“What plan?” Dexter asked, sounding just as confused as Eden.

“
We're
your secret admirer,” Angie confessed.

“It was us!” Yvonne cried. “Us! Us! Us!”

“We wanted to make Eden jealous and it worked,” Thelma said.

“Somebody had to get the two of you together. Otherwise you'd still be pining away for each other,” Angie explained. “After I told Eden that you were crazy about her, I decided she needed a little push. When a girl knows that another girl is interested in her guy, she'll do whatever it takes to snag him.”

“We sent you those gifts,” Thelma explained.

“I picked out the balloons!” Yvonne shouted.

Eden couldn't believe Dexter's sisters had been so sneaky. Luckily, she had played right into their hands!

“Listen to your little sisters, Dexter,” Eden said. “They
so
know how the female mind works!”

When Jennifer got home from school, she found a package waiting on her doorstep. It was a square box wrapped in red foil with a pink bow on it. The card attached had her name on it.

She instantly recognized the handwriting.

It was Will's.

Another fake Valentine's Day present.

She snatched up the box and brought it inside, shaking it against her ear. It didn't make a sound, but she wasn't the least bit curious about what was inside. Why should she care? The gift didn't mean anything. Just like the rose petals hadn't meant anything. It was all for show.

After hanging up her coat, Jennifer tossed the box on the couch in the living room and headed into the kitchen. There she found Sheba sitting in front of the sliding glass doors. Outside, on the other side of the glass, was a yowling tomcat missing one eye.

“Even you have a valentine!” Jennifer told her cat.

After grabbing a handful of Oreos, Jennifer went upstairs to her bedroom. She hadn't found a dress the day before, so she needed to search through her closet. It didn't matter what she wore, though. Will wasn't going to notice.

Flipping through her hangers, Jennifer pulled out an emerald green satin silk dress with spaghetti straps. She'd only worn it once, to her cousin Julia's wedding in November. When she bought the dress, her mom said that the color went perfect with her hair and skin tone and she'd been right. She'd gotten tons of compliments at the wedding.

Now that she knew what she was going to wear, she had to decide on how to do her hair. Up or down? If she wore it up, like she had at the wedding, she'd look more sophisticated. If she wore it down, she'd look hotter.

Definitely down.

She was putting the finishing touches on her makeup when the doorbell rang. That had to be Will. Since her parents were staying in the city after work to celebrate Valentine's Day, she had to answer the door. She wasn't used to walking in high heels so she went down the stairs slowly, holding on to the banister so she wouldn't fall.

When she opened the front door, Will whistled at her as he stepped inside.

“You don't have to do that,” she said as she closed the door behind him.

“Do what?”

“Pretend like you're interested. No one's watching.”

“I wasn't pretending.”

Jennifer walked past Will to get her coat out of the hall closet. “Whatever.”

Will touched Jennifer's arm. “Are you mad at me?”

Jennifer casually stepped away from Will so his hand would fall off. She didn't want him touching her because she liked when he touched her. After tonight, there would be no more touching. She had to start getting used to it. “Why would I be mad?”

“You tell me,” Will said. “This isn't about Kristy, is it?”

Jennifer laughed. “Kristy? I haven't thought about her at all,” she lied.

Will placed a hand on Jennifer's shoulder, turning her around. He studied her from head to toe. “You look really pretty, but something's missing.”

“Missing?”

“You didn't open up the gift I left for you.”

Jennifer had forgotten all about it. She dropped her coat on a chair and went into the living room to retrieve Will's gift. When she returned to the front hall, she found Sheba meowing and rubbing herself against Will's legs. Traitor!

“She likes me,” Will said, petting Sheba on the head.

“All the girls like you,” Jennifer said as she tore away the wrapping paper on the box. When she lifted back the lid of the box, she gasped. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Nestled against a bed of black velvet was a necklace with a heart-shaped pendant.

The same necklace she saw Will buying yesterday.

But he had bought it for Kristy Jenkins, hadn't he? She'd seen Kristy wearing this necklace in the photo Claudia had shown her. What was going on?

“Aren't you going to say anything?” Will asked, stepping closer. “Do you like it?”

“Did you get a discount on these?” Jennifer asked. “Buy two and get twenty-five percent off?”

“Discount?” a confused Will asked. “What are you talking about?”

Jennifer angrily waved the box in Will's face. “I saw you buying this necklace yesterday afternoon. This is the same necklace Kristy Jenkins was wearing last night.”

“How do you know that?”

“Claudia took great pleasure showing me a picture of the two of you and I saw it on Kristy's neck.”

“I didn't buy that necklace for Kristy, I bought it for you.”

“Really?” Jennifer skeptically asked.

“I did,” Will insisted, his own temper starting to flare. “Why are you being so suspicious?”

“You're the one who's called the Heartbreaker, not me.”

“When Kristy came to see me on Sunday afternoon, she was wearing the necklace,” Will explained. “I thought it was pretty, so I asked her where she bought it.”

Jennifer hadn't expected to hear that. If he hadn't bought the necklace for Kristy, then that meant . . .

“You bought the necklace for me?” she squeaked, all her anger draining away. “Only me?”

“Uh-huh.” Will took the necklace out of the box and stepped behind Jennifer, fastening it around her neck. “You never know when you're going to need to buy a present for someone special.”

“Someone special?” she asked in disbelief.

“I don't know how you did it, Red, but you've gotten under my skin,” Will whispered into her ear. “You drive me crazy! But you also make me laugh and smile and I can't remember the last time I had so much fun hanging out with someone. I don't want it to end after tonight.”

Jennifer wanted to pinch herself. Was she dreaming? This couldn't be real, could it? Will was telling her the words she'd been longing to hear!

“You don't?” She turned around, gazing up at Will from between lowered lashes.

Will shook his head. “I don't. What do you say we try this for real?”

Before Jennifer could answer, Will pulled her into his arms and gave her a kiss. It was a long, slow, deep kiss that was just as wonderful as the last one he'd given her. It was the perfect Valentine's Day kiss.

“So, will you keep going out with me?” Will asked when the kiss ended. “Will you be my girlfriend for real?”

“Yes,” Jennifer laughed, giving Will a hug. “Yes yes yes! But just one thing.”

“What?”

“Stop calling me Red!”

“Where's Claudia?” Eden asked Natalie as they stood on the dance floor of the auditorium and waited for Principal Hicks to announce which couple had been voted Most Romantic. “I haven't seen her all night. This is the moment she's been waiting for.”