Stealing for Keeps (Frost Lake High Book 1)
Stealing for Keeps: Chapter 11

“That was unbelievable!” Blake shakes his head in disbelief, a big grin on his face as he holds out a hand for me to slap. “We’re going to be unstoppable this year.”

The mood is light and happy. We tied, which isn’t the way I hoped it’d go down, but it feels like that last shot helped me turn a corner with my teammates, so I’m taking that as a win.

A cautious win. I’m not holding my breath that they won’t go back to hating me tomorrow.

The only person that doesn’t seem all that happy is Vaughn.

Coach Collins comes into the locker room, and we quiet down to hear what he has to say.

“Nice job tonight. I saw some good things. I also saw some things that weren’t so good.” One side of his mouth tips up in an almost smile. “Practice tomorrow after school. Come ready to work.”

With a nod, he leaves us. The atmosphere isn’t quite as jubilant with the reality of practices and hard work to come tomorrow, but then Rowan turns on some music from his phone, and everyone slips back into party mode.

“Are you heading to the carnival?” Rowan asks as he pulls a clean shirt over his head.

“Yeah. I promised my little brother I’d take him.”

“Nice.” My buddy’s face lights up. “Great job out there. I told you they’d come around.” He cuffs me on the shoulder and then says, “I’ll see you there.”

He shuts his locker and heads off. I dress slowly, hoping I’ll get an opportunity to talk to Vaughn without a bunch of other people around, but before that chance arrives, one of the assistant coaches calls for him, and I decide not to creepily wait in an empty locker room for him.

The carnival is set up in a grassy area beyond the parking lot. All the usual carny games are represented—ring toss, hammer strength, goldfish bowl toss—plus food vendors and more. Mom is making new friends with the other parents, so I take Wyatt with me. Torrance disappeared before I got out of the locker room.

“What do you want to play first?” I ask my little brother as we walk down the row of games.

I spot Claire with Lacey and Andie next to a cotton candy cart.

“That one!” Wyatt takes off at a run toward where other kids are tossing Ping-Pong balls at small plastic bowls with goldfish swimming around.

By the time I reach him, a woman behind the table has already given him three balls, and Wyatt has launched the first one. It goes beyond the tanks by about two feet.

“Easy there, killer. Not so hard.” I ruffle his hair. “Which one are you going for?”

“The one on the right corner,” he says, pointing. He’s the biggest.

“He’s also in the hardest spot to get. If you aim for one in the middle, the ball might bounce or roll into another.”

“I don’t care. I want that one.” His tone leaves no other option, so I buckle in to watch him toss all his balls into the gravel.

“A kid that knows what he wants.” Lacey steps up beside me, smiling at my little brother. A rush of adrenaline spikes through me when I see her.

“Lacey, Claire,” I say, replaceing my voice, “this is my much cooler brother, Wyatt.”

“The much cooler was obvious from the haircut.” Lacey runs her hand over the top of his Mohawk.

Wyatt grins, but he is far less impressed by the hot girls standing with us than me. He tosses another ball toward the fish he’s decided he can’t live without and misses again.

“Nice goal tonight,” Lacey says. “Consider me impressed.”

“Thanks, Lacey.” My gaze moves to Claire. She hasn’t said anything. “Did you also enjoy the game?”

“The cheerleaders were great,” she says with just a hint of a smile. I could talk with her all night long and never get enough of her feistiness.

Lacey laughs and then covers it up by clearing her throat. “Speaking of, I better get back to the cotton candy stand. You’re good to keep Claire company for a while, right, New Guy?” She backs away and wriggles her fingers at us.

Claire takes a small step closer once her friend departs. “I don’t need you to keep me company. I know lots of other people here.”

“Of course,” I say. Wyatt is out of balls, and I hand over two more tickets for three more chances. “Maybe you can keep me company though. He has his heart set on a fish.”

She nods, and a small smile tips up the corners of her lips. “I had a goldfish once.”

“Really?” Wyatt finally gives her his full attention.

I lean closer to her. “If this tale ends in a tragic death, maybe not the audience.”

She huffs a laugh and ignores me. “He stays at my dad’s house, so I guess I still do, but I don’t see him as often. Wanna see a picture?”

Of course Wyatt does, and Claire humors him by opening up the photos app on her phone and replaceing a picture of a big goldfish in an aquarium with pink rocks and a fairy-tale castle.

“That’s so cool,” he says. “What’s his name?”

“Her name is Princess Goldiefin.”

My brother scrunches up his nose, but his excitement over winning a fish is reignited, and he focuses hard on aiming.

“Your parents split?” I ask, guessing by the tidbit she offered up about her living situation.

“Yeah, a while ago.”

I think it’s the first personal piece of information she’s given me since she told me she used to skate. It makes me greedy for more.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” She shrugs one shoulder.

We stand side by side, her arm brushing mine, as Wyatt tosses another ball that hits the rim of the tank and bounces away. His face falls with clear disappointment.

“That’s all right.” I place my hands on his shoulders and squeeze lightly. “Try again.”

“I only have one more, then I’m out of tickets, and Mom already said she wasn’t buying me any more if I blew them all on one game.”

I hold back a chuckle.

“Which one are you aiming for?” Claire asks.

He points, and I add, “The big guy in the far right.”

“You know.” Claire squats down at eye level with Wyatt. “I bet if you get the ball in any of the fish tanks, you could ask the nice lady if you could swap the fish for the one you want.”

He considers her carefully. “What if she says no?”

“Well, then, I guess you’d still have a really cool fish anyway. Wanna know a secret?”

He nods his head quickly.

She leans in. “I helped picked out all these fish.”

“No way! That’s a lot of fish.”

“Yep. It was really fun. And I promise.” She holds one hand over her heart. “I only selected the coolest fish. You’re safe with any of them.”

His grin widens, and he turns back to the game, ready to take another turn.

“Thanks,” I say to her quietly.

“He’s cute.”

“Well, he takes after his big brother.”

She looks like she wants to debate that but then smiles. Wyatt misses again and turns with slumped shoulders.

“Actually, you know, I have all these tickets left, and I have to go soon. Maybe you could use them?” Claire holds up at least twenty tickets. I’m going to be at this one spot all night.

Wyatt hesitates until I nod my permission.

“Thank you,” I say again. “So…you picked out the fish?” I raise one brow in question.

“Lacey is head cheerleader and vice president of student council, so I got roped into helping.”

I chuckle, because I’m easily able to picture Lacey handing out orders to anyone and everyone to pull the carnival together.

On his next try, Wyatt sinks the ball into one of the bowls. His excitement is contagious. Claire and I are all smiles as he bounces with joy in front of us. The woman gets the fish and brings it to us. He can barely hold it.

“Easy. Don’t shake him too much.” I help him steady the fish.

“I won’t,” he says like he wasn’t doing just that a second ago.

There are two balls left, but he has already forgotten about them. He’s staring at his new fish and talking to him through the bag. I pick up one of the remaining balls and look over at Claire. “Have a favorite?”

One brow lift, and she surveys the fish. “Second row from the back, fourth over.”

With my right hand, I aim while holding her gaze. “Are you sure?”

She lifts one brow in challenge. “Third over.”

I move my hand over an inch to the left and wait for her to decide if she’s going to keep fucking with me. I hope so. I like it.

“Fourth,” she says defiantly.

I slide my hand back over.

“There’s no way,” she says.

The ball leaves my fingertips, and I hold Claire’s gaze a beat longer. I know I’ve made the no-look shot by the shock on her face a second later. The rush is almost as good as making that last goal tonight. Almost.

She covers her surprise quickly. “Nice trick.”

“No trick. All skill.” I wink.

The woman brings her fish over to me.

“Now you’ve got a fish at each house,” I tell her.

Her hard-ass expression morphs slowly, then she laughs, and a real smile plays over her face as I hand over the plastic bag with a squirming goldfish swimming in it.

“Thank you.” She looks touched by the gesture, which makes me want to do a whole bunch of nice things for her.

“Want to hit up another game with us?” I ask. “I could win you a big stuffed animal to go with it.”

“I should probably go if I’m going to set up my new fish tank and still finish my chemistry homework.”

I nod, kind of wishing now that I hadn’t given her a reason to leave. “See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” She looks at Wyatt. “Have any ideas for fish names?”

He thinks hard. “I was trying to decide between Dash and Flash. I think I’m gonna go with Flash.”

“Good name.”

“You can have Dash if you want.”

“Hmm.” She nods and looks at her fish. “How about Captain Dash?”

Wyatt giggles. “That’s even better.”

She smiles at him, then me, and holds up a hand as she backs away. I watch her go, and then Wyatt and I continue perusing the games.

When Mom catches up with us, she shoots me a weary look as Wyatt shows off his new fish.

“Isn’t it great, Mom? I named him Flash!”

“Yeah…great.”

He hands the fish over to her, and she holds out the bag hesitantly.

Wyatt takes off for the next game, leaving Mom to carry Flash.

“Have you seen your sister?” Mom asks as we follow him.

“No,” I say at the same time as I hear someone yell my last name.

I swivel around until I see Vaughn standing behind me. He’s the last person I expected to track me down tonight.

He closes the distance between us, then glances between my mom and me. “Can we talk?”

My surprise makes me slow to respond.

“Yeah,” I say finally, then to Mom, “I’ll be right back.”

“Not too long. I have an early meeting tomorrow. I want to be in bed in the next hour,” she says and gives the fish another dismayed look.

With a nod and a promise that I won’t take long, I head off with Vaughn. He says nothing as we walk slowly through the carnival. Did I imagine it, or did he ask if we could talk? This is painful. Maybe he’s leading me toward some other prank. Are they going to tar and feather me next?

I shove my hands in my jeans pockets and stop walking. “What’s up?”

His jaw ticks as he stares back at me. “I didn’t send the email.”

I didn’t really think he had, but I’m sure he knew about it. I can’t think of a single thing to say in response, so I stay quiet. If he wants to talk, fine. I don’t have to talk back.

“It was a good goal,” he says, almost like it pains him to do so.

I start to smile. Jesus, is it that hard for him to give someone a compliment?

“The right thing would have been to set up another play. What you did was risky, but tonight, it paid off.”

A backhanded compliment. Okay, that’s more of what I’d expect.

“It was the only way I was going to get a shot,” I say, arching a brow. He knows as well as I do that I wasn’t getting passes from my teammates, apart from Rowan. Sure, I could have stalled and given us time to set something up, but I wouldn’t have been the one to shoot the goal, and I knew I had it.

He doesn’t outright admit it, but he nods. “I saw you talking to Claire earlier.”

“Yeah.” I don’t bother denying it. Then I think about what Torrance said, how everyone is saying I broke them up and how Jenn basically confirmed that the rumor around school was that I was into his ex. “Just talking.”

“So there’s nothing going on with you two?” His gaze narrows while he waits for me to answer.

“There’s nothing going on,” I confirm. It’s true, there isn’t anything going on right now, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about it.

The relief on his face is immediate. “Things with Claire and I are complicated. We’re not together right now, but…” The implication is obvious. He thinks they’ll be together again. “I know you didn’t realize the situation when you got here, but I guess between the kiss and everything else, I got in my head that you were interested in her.”

He doesn’t phrase it as a question, but I can tell he wants me to confirm.

“It’s just you two have been sitting at lunch together, and I heard you have art class together, then tonight…”

“We’re just friends.” The word doesn’t quite sum up how I feel about her, but it’s technically true. She’s not exactly jumping at my offers to hang out. Even tonight, she ran off at the first opportunity she had.

He considers me for a moment. “All right. I appreciate you being honest with me.”

A feeling an awful lot like guilt wraps around me, making my skin feel tight. But I don’t owe him anything. He’s made my life hell.

“You’re a good soccer player, and we have a real shot at state again this year.” His words take a moment to land, and by the time they do, he’s holding out a hand to me. “Truce?”

I hesitate before I take it, then Vaughn bumps his shoulder against mine with a wide smile.