Chapter One
Carson
I fucking loved Halloween parties.
What wasn’t to love? Almost every girl here was dressed sluttier than I had ever seen them. Everyone was drinking, and my chances of getting laid tonight were pretty damn high.
The slutty nurse sitting on my lap right now was proof of that. Everything was perfect. My ideal night.
Until Allie Taylor walked through the damn door dressed like a cowgirl who could never possibly ride a horse. Her rhinestone cowboy boots went up to her knees, and her shorts barely covered her ass. There was a black cowboy hat resting on the top of her head and a pink bandana around her neck that did nothing to hide her tits that were practically busting out of her top.
Frankie and Josie were both dressed similarly, but I could barely see them because Allie was so distracting.
How the hell did Beck let them walk out of the house like that?
“What the hell are you supposed to be?” I asked them all, but I was looking directly at Allie. For the life of me, I couldn’t fucking quit looking at her.
“We’re rhinestone cowgirls.” She grinned and adjusted her bandana.
I knew I should have just left her alone, but I couldn’t. It was either be cruel to her or fuck her. Those were the only two thoughts I had when it came to Allie. It was all I had been able to think about for years, and there was no way we were going there, so cruel it was.
“You look like a slut with a cowboy hat.”
Her face fell, and my chest ached for the smallest moment. But I forced that shit to go away. I hated Allie, hated her, and the sadness on her face wasn’t going to change that.
I refused to let it.
“You are such an asshole, Carson.” This came from Frankie, and she wasn’t wrong. I was being an asshole. Allie looked beautiful, too beautiful, and it was driving me crazy.
There was no way in hell I was telling them that, so instead I simply shrugged my shoulders with a fake-ass grin on my face.
Allie’s gaze slid away from me and moved to where my hand rested on the nurse’s hip. I didn’t even know her name. I knew how horrible that sounded, but I preferred it that way. Because I had no plans with this girl beyond tonight.
I never did.
“Do you have an issue?” the nurse asked Allie, but I wished for once she would just stand up and say that she did. I wished she would say exactly what was going on in that head of hers, but she never did when it came to me.
Not anymore.
Not since we were kids.
“I do.” Frankie raised her hand and moved in front of me. She cut off my view of Allie, and I wanted to push her out of the way. I loved Frankie, but God, I just wanted to stare at Allie. I wanted to watch her be upset by the fact that there was another girl on my lap.
Frankie moved to my lap and sat down on the opposite knee from the nurse. She wasn’t gentle, and almost squashed my balls as she forced herself closer to me and forced the nurse out. The girl looked back at me, but there was no way I would deny Frankie. Not after everything that girl had been through.
“Are you kidding me?” She was waiting for me to push Frankie away, but I didn’t.
She stood, her fine ass swaying as she stomped away from me, and Frankie shooed her away with her hand like she was a dog.
I wrapped my arms around Frankie and nuzzled into the back of her neck. “You’re such a cock-block, you know that?”
“I do.” She patted my thigh. “But you’re a slut. You didn’t need that girl tonight.”
“Wow, Frankie.” I chuckled against her just as Olly and Beck walked up behind the girls. I hadn’t seen any of them all night. “Tell me how you really feel.”
Frankie was beautiful too, but she was innocent. She was one of my best friend’s baby sister, and sometimes I felt like Olly and I were more protective of her than Beck was. But there were other times, like right now, when Olly was staring daggers at my head like he wanted to kill me, that I thought maybe Olly felt more for this girl.
But it was something that would never happen.
Not after what Lucas had done to her.
Beck would never forgive Olly for going there. Never.
Olly knew that too. It was why he caught himself and looked away before anyone noticed that tortured look on his face, but I noticed. I always did.
“Come on, girls. Let’s go get a drink.” Josie wrapped her arm in Allie’s as she stared daggers at me, and I hugged Frankie tighter against me one last time before she climbed off my lap and walked away.
“I swear to God, you have to be the biggest idiot sometimes.” Beck ran his fingers through his hair as he watched his girl walk away.
“I know.” We had this conversation multiple times before. He and Olly both thought I was too harsh on Allie. They thought I just had a boner for the girl, but that wasn’t it at all. They didn’t know Allie like I did. They had no fucking clue what happened between us. “But I wasn’t wrong.”
“Every girl here is dressed like that, but you just had to say something to Allie, right?”
“I can’t help it that she was the first one I saw.” I shrugged.
“Or that she was the only one you couldn’t quit eye-fucking.” Olly shook his head. “I wish the two of you would just have it out and get it over with.”
“Not going to happen, my man.” I stood and patted him on the shoulder before I passed them to get a drink. I needed one, desperately.
A few of the players on our baseball team were gathered around a bottle of dark liquor laughing, and I quickly snatched it up before I took a long drag. “What the hell are you all up to?”
I liked most of my teammates, thought of most of them as brothers, except for Josie’s stepbrother, Lucas, and his idiot friends. I fucking hated them.
“We’ve got a bet going.” Seth, our center fielder, had the biggest damn grin on his face.
“A bet about what? I’m sure Vos is destined to lose.” I patted Lucas on the chest and watched the anger rise in his eyes.
“You want to join?” He shook the baseball cap that was in his hands. There were dozens of folded-up pieces of paper inside.
“What are we betting on?” I matched his stare because there was no way in hell I was willing to back down from this asshole.
“Getting the girl.” He cocked his head to the side, and there was so much challenge in his stare.
“You all need to make a bet to get a girl?” I looked around at my teammates. “I thought most of you had better game than that.”
“Oh, we have plenty of game, but these girls are the ultimate challenge.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to remind Lucas exactly what he had done in the past. I wanted to throw it in his face what a piece of shit he was, but he already knew. We both did, and bringing it up here would do nothing but hurt Frankie.
“So, what? We just have to get the girl? Make her like us?” This sounded pretty fucking lame to me.
“Make her like you. Fuck her. All before fall break.”
“Damn.” I chuckled. “You all need that long to get a girl in bed?”
Lucas stuck the hat out in my direction. “Draw a name, Hale.”
I shook my head as I thought about their idiotic plan. “No, thank you. I don’t need to play your little games to get pussy. I’ve got that handled.” I winked at Lucas and a couple of the guys laughed.