Consider Me (Playing For Keeps, #1)

by Becka Mack

“I’ll see you on New Year’s Eve.” He nods. “Not a date.” “Not a date,” I repeat. Then he shuts the door, hits me with two finger guns, and yells, “It’s a date!”

HAHA HES SO DUMB

Hank is eighty-three years young

“You can’t kiss my date at midnight!” “For God’s sake, Carter, this isn’t a date.” “You can’t kiss my not-a-real-date-but-actually-is-a-real-date at midnight!”

I genuinely care about her and want to spend time with her, but I would also throw myself at her feet if it meant she’d let me destroy her body, because I want to absolutely wreck her. I mean that in the most respectful way possible, of course.

Her wide eyes lock on mine, cheeks blazing, hand hanging there in midair, holding on to a… A goddamn Oreo. Woman’s my fucking soul mate.

Garrett rips open a bag of Doritos in slow motion, gaze ricocheting between me and the phone screen as he brings a chip to his mouth at the literal pace of a snail.

LOL

“Enough about Olivia! Leave her name out of your damn mouth!”

KEEP MU WIFES NAMES OUT OF UOUR FUCKING MOUTH

You can’t fix your past, but if you want a different future, all you have to do is choose it.”

“And by the way, it’s hot as balls in theater four. You should maybe think about turning the heat down.” The kid behind the counter blinks slowly. “We keep all our theaters set at sixty-five degrees.” My brows rise as I give him a pointed look. “Yeah. Fucking scorching.”

HES SO DUMB

The truth is, I think I’d give her anything she ever needed, all she’d have to do is ask.

I glance at my watch. I’m one minute and thirty-two seconds early. And as I mentioned, I’ve actually been here for twenty minutes, sitting in my car. I got out three times, made it up the front

steps, and then turned around and hightailed it back to the car.

“Are you fucking kidding me, old man?” A man—Hank, I presume—with a full head of fluffy white hair and weathered blue eyes grins up at us from where he appears to be entirely too relaxed,

HANK IS SO REAL HAHAHH

the second we sit, a girl throws herself in my lap. I’m not sure my reaction is the best. I throw my hands in the air and scream, accidentally shoving her off my lap and to the ground when I rocket to my feet and yell out, “I have a girlfriend!”

“You have so much to learn about women, young grasshopper.”

“What? No. Other people? No.” She’s not allowed. I forbid it. I fire off a text to her before I can make my fingers stop. r u seeing other ppl???

LOLLL

“What if I fall in love with you?” “Then I’ll fall with you, too, Ollie girl.”

so I don’t bother saying good-bye. That’s a mistake; he screams my name from the bed when I open the front door. I lean against the bedroom door. “You rang, sir?” His arms reach above him, and he curls his fingers into his palms. “Need a hug and a kiss.”

“Oh my God!” Mom shouts out, collapsing dramatically onto her back. She springs off the floor and pounces on me. “I can’t help it! She’s adorable!” “Mom!”

Her words tumble tenderly off her tongue, and I empty everything I have into this woman my heart beats for.

Cara looks a lot like she just watched the best movie while she shovels popcorn into her mouth. She hits me with two thumbs up and an oversized grin. “Fucking right, Beckett! Knock ’em dead, baby!”

cara is me

But Carter’s dead set on embarrassing me in front of the entire fifteen, because when he scores six minutes into the first period, he skates by the bench and yells, “That was for you, pumpkin!”

“You’re my favorite everything, Ollie.”

“All right, gentlemen, welcome to gym time with Mr. Beckett.” Nabbing Olivia’s clipboard up off the ground, I pretend to flip through the notes, clicking my tongue against the roof of my mouth. “Ah, here we are. First order of business…which one of you called Miss Parker a puck bunny last Monday?”

HES SO STUPID

“I’m going to be really good at loving you, Ollie. I promise. Nobody will ever do it like I do.”

It’s a mariachi band. A fucking mariachi band. Carter hired a fucking mariachi band to serenade me at school. No. This cannot be real.

NOT THE MARIACHI BAND HES SO STUPID

“Remember me as I lived: full of love, laughter, and passion”

Angry Adam is so rare, I cherish every moment I get with him.” Adam’s face blazes as he rubs the back of his neck, but before he ducks his head, I catch sight of that smile, and fuck me, I smile too.

I LOVE ADAM