Right Girl Wrong Timing (Offsides Book 3)
Always love with your full heart, be courageous, and have trust everything will be turn out as it should. Ethan and Leeah, you are my every things.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author makes no claims to, but instead acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the word marks mentioned in this work of fiction.
Copyright © 2019 by Natalie Decker
RIGHT GIRL WRONG TIMING by Natalie Decker
All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America by Swoon Romance. Swoon Romance and its related logo are registered trademarks of Georgia McBride Media Group, LLC.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-948671-88-0
ePub ISBN:978-1-948671-86-6
Mobi ISBN: 978-1-948671-87-3
Published by Swoon Romance, Raleigh, NC 27609
Cover design by Danielle Doolittle
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Acknowledgements
About the Author
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Chapter One
Austin
We’ve officially lost everything, and it’s all my fault. I watch my mom place another item in one of the many boxes cluttering what used to be our house. By Monday morning we have to vacate this place because I went to the dance instead of work. That extra bit of money was going to save us from eviction, but I let jealousy rule my judgment, and now I have to watch tears stain my mom’s face. Ones I caused.
I hope this sick feeling leaves the pit of my stomach. I should never have gone to that dance. Three weeks later I’m paying the price. Not only does Adaline Frost hate every fiber of my existence, but I’m also losing my childhood home.
“Mom, I’ll get it.” I reach for the box she’s trying to tape shut with shaky hands.
“Don’t. You’ve done enough.” She smiles at me, but it’s fake and cold. Like the room we’re standing in.
I want to kick all these boxes down. I want to turn back time and fix everything, but I can’t.
“Mom, how many times do I have to tell you I’m sorry?”
She glares at me. “You lied to me, and this is what your lie cost us. Our home. I needed you. I was depending on your word.”
The sadness in her voice cuts me like a dagger. She’s right. I did tell her I was going to work. Instead, I took some cash from our bill jar, snuck out in regular clothes, rented a tux, picked up my date, and eventually ended up at the dance. I sulked at a table most of the time, watching the one girl I want dance with some Mister-Freaking-Nerd-King. Yes, I Austin Reed failed to win the girl, and so my effort of going was all for nothing.
The shit I said to Adaline haunts me. Much like my lie to my mom. I’m such a screw-up. Now, Ads hasn’t answered any texts I sent. Hell, I even broke down and used my phone as an actual phone, and she didn’t answer. I think she blocked me. I don’t blame her. Voicemails are as dangerous as drunken texts. Once you babble some bullshit, you can’t delete it. Not unless the person who owns the other phone does it for you. Adaline probably thinks I’m a d-bag dumbass. It’s probably for the best she doesn’t answer me.
It’s not like I’m in the position to give her anything she deserves: dates, surprises, and what not. I mean, shit—I’m poor as hell now. I can’t let her see how crappy my life went. No one can know about this.
I pick up a box and carry it over to the others stacked neatly waiting for transport to the new house. It’s in the shit part of town. The house looks like it’s going to come down any second, but it’s all we can afford. It’s temporary.
“I think that’s the last of it. We’ll get the moving truck in the morning,” my mom says. The sadness still laces her words, and I hate it.
“Okay.” I look around the walls and sigh. I spent most of my life in this house. I met Adaline here. She used to live across the street until her family moved to a bigger house almost on the outskirts of town.
I turn and start to head upstairs to my packed-up room. My dismantled bed makes it look like I’m going to be sleeping on the floor. I bet the inside of my car would be more comfortable.
My phone vibrates from the back pocket of my jeans, and I slip it out. My buddy Tyler Richardson’s name lights up the screen. I sigh. Time for fake Austin because reality sucks.
“S’up man.”
“Dude, you coming to Moe’s?” Tyler asks.
“Oh, uh … ” I rub the back of my neck. This is the part I hate about pretending, the lies. “I forgot. I am kind of in the middle of something. Sorry.” That was close to the truth.
“Right. Who is she?” I hear my other buddy Jared Black say. Those jackasses put me on speaker phone.
“Caught me,” I say.
“Please tell me you guys don’t talk to each other while entertaining a girl? That’s so wrong,” Layla Valentine says. Oh, for shit’s sake, their girlfriends are beside them. I hope Adaline isn’t there too. I’m already in hot water with that girl. Now she probably thinks I am hooking up with someone.
“Well, whatever, man. I was calling to see if you were stopping by. Since you’re busy, guess not. We still on for hoops tomorrow?” Tyler says.
I swallow hard. “Uh. I can’t. I gotta work.”
“Really, man? You know Rachel isn’t hanging with us. I mean, if you’re still avoiding her,” Tyler says. “She’s kind of been on the fritz since you ditched her at the dance.”
Yeah, I’m an asshole for this. Damn Valentine’s Day dance caused me a bunch of unwanted problems. Rachel Little has every reason in the world to be upset with me. What I did was cold, wrong, and flat-out a dick move. After I had words with Adaline, I left without my date, which happened to be Rachel. Yes, we went as just friends, but still, it was a bad decision. I shouldn’t have done it. I’ve been able to avoid her in the halls and at lunch during school. But I know my days are numbered. It’s just one more
thing I’m going to have to deal with eventually.
“Good to know. I gotta go, man.” I hang up.
Nothing prepared me for this moment. Not months of algebra I had to learn, not the history lessons, not even the amount of hours I’ve had to run for both football and basketball.
“Is that the last box?” my mom asks as we step into our new home.
“Yeah.”
She sniffles as she looks around the dump we now have to call our home.
“It’s going to be all right, Mom.”
“It’s not.” She drops down to the dirty floor and starts crying.
I slump down beside her and wrap my arms around her. “Mom, I’ll quit school. I’ll fix this. I swear I will.”
She jerks back. “You better never quit school! Do you hear me? It’s just a setback. This is temporary, and no one can know about this. Do you understand?”
There’s no way in hell I’d ever let any of my friends know I live in this shit-ball area. Never. I’ve gotta fix this and fast.
Chapter Two
Adaline
I get out of my best friend Juliet Valentine’s Wrangler and sigh at the sky. I drop my gaze, and it lands on my ex-best friend, Chase Bromwell. A deep ache settles in the pit of my stomach. I hate being like this. I don’t love Chase the way he wants me to, but I miss him. I miss our friendship.
Juliet slings an arm across my shoulder as I reach her on the sidewalk. “He’ll come around, Addy. I swear. Give him some time,” she says.
How much time could he possibly need? “It’s been a month since he’s talked to me.” I don’t want to say it aloud for fear it might be true, but if he hasn’t talked to me by now, I don’t think he ever will. He dodges me in the halls, refuses to even look at me in class. It’s so stupid. I get how he’s feeling. Unrequited love sucks. I know all too well how much it sucks. The one guy who holds my heart has done nothing but hand it back to me in a wadded up mess. Sure, his text messages say something different, but every time I give Austin Reed a chance … well, he crushes me. I’m through with the games.
Juliet hugs me, and we go through the front entrance separately. “It’s going to be okay. You’ll see. Everything will work out in the end,” she says.
She links her arm through mine in the hallway, and I give her a side-eyed glance. “You’re just spouting crap to me because you’re all in love with Jared.”
She laughs. “True. I remember not too long ago you were saying something similar to me, though. And you were right.”
“As much as I love being right, it’s not the same. Austin and I never went on a date. Shared one stupidly amazing kiss but that’s it,” I hiss.
Juliet and I stop by our set of lockers, and she starts spinning in her combination. “It might not be with him. Maybe it will. It will happen, though. Just keep being you,” she says as she pops open the metal door.
Which is what exactly? A book-loving dork who pines for the wonderful Austin Reed? The girl who can’t pick a college to visit, let alone apply to one because she’s afraid she’s choosing wrong? Hates that her SAT and ACT scores aren’t perfect but is afraid to retake them because she might get a worse result.
“Addy!” Juliet shouts, breaking me from my spell.
“Huh?”
“Wow, you were in the deepest daze, I thought you were never going to come back. We better get a move on, or we’re going to be—” She trails off with a squeak as Jared hoists her off the ground.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he says as he gently lowers Juliet and kisses her cheek.
She turns in his arms, and they get officially lost in each other. I would say goodbye, but I feel like I’m intruding on a moment. This has been happening a lot since they’ve gotten together. I am not mad about it. I’m happy for my friend. Jared is perfect for her. I just feel like a third wheel.
I leave my friend and make my way to class. I’m almost there when someone shouts my name.
“Adaline! Hey, hold up.”
I glance back and watch Greg Fletcher, my date to the Valentine’s Day dance, rush up the hallway. “Hello,” I say.
“Off to art?”
“English,” I answer.
“Right. Let me walk you,” Greg says.
I smile at him. “Okay.”
He and I continue down the hall, and he says, “You’ve been busy lately.”
I look over at him and then down at the floor. “What makes you say that?”
“Well, you haven’t texted me back when I asked if you wanted to hang. I also haven’t seen you in the halls since the dance.”
There’s a reason. I didn’t know how to respond. After the whole being-just-friends with Chase, I didn’t want to risk things and have someone else getting the wrong idea. Greg is nice, but we don’t have much in common. Besides, we only agreed to go to the dance together to help him get his ex-girlfriend Candance back. I thought it was working. I mean, if looks could kill, I should be dead a hundred times by now.
“Sorry.” I chew on my lower lip. “I better get in there.” I motion to my English class and then step into the room. And with a crap response, I head to my desk and have a seat.
I have a feeling I’m not done making a huge mess of things this year.
Chapter Three
Austin
At school, everything around me is fake. Fake smiles, laughs. Hell, I even pretend caring. It’s easier than the truth. I’ve done it so long at this point it’s practically natural. Only one person here sees through the act.
Ever met a person in life, and you just know they’re going to be with you for a long time? Might be as friends. Might be as enemies. Might even be as soulmates. Okay, the last one is total movie-style, fairy-tale bullshit. The moment I met Adaline Frost I knew, good or bad, she was going to be in my life for a long time.
When we were kids, I thought she was a pest. She’s the one person who puts me in my place, and I don’t like it. The same person who has me all twisted. Seeing her now with Greg Fletcher leaning too close to her locker jolts a spark of jealousy inside me.
A hand slapping my shoulder startles me, and I blink, then turn to my left. “Missed you last weekend.” Tyler Richardson, my best bud, says. “You look like shit. What were you doing?”
What was I doing? I was moving out of my childhood home and into a house in the shittiest part of town; it’s practically the ghetto. I can’t say any of this, though. Not even to my friends. They wouldn’t understand. They couldn’t. They all have nice homes, parents both have nice jobs. The word here to remember is “parents,” meaning two damn people making a living. Not a single mom who used to have a fantastic job and lost it. Not a father who decided we weren’t worth the effort and left us. That would be my life.
“I was working,” I say.
He nods. “Ah, gotcha. Well, there were some ladies asking about you.”
The only person I want missing me is two yards away. I highly doubt she was asking about me because she didn’t answer any of the texts I sent her. Besides, I’m pretty certain she wasn’t at Moe’s or even at one of Tyler’s parties. Fun facts about Adaline: she never goes to parties; she can usually be found at a Starbucks, school, Sprinkles the donut shop in town, any bookstore, library, or art store; and she’ll be most likely traveling with her friends Chase Bromwell and Juliet Valentine. Not that I’m a stalker, these are just things I picked up on when Adaline and I were partners for a history project.
I paste on a smile. “I bet. You know how ladies can’t get enough of all this,” I joke with Tyler.
I sound like an asshole. It’s all a game. That’s what high school is—one big game—and you’re either on the winning side or the losing side. I plan on being on the winning side. So of course, I say shit I don’t mean. I say things that make me sound like an idiot or a prick.
I stop by my locker, pop it open, and switch out books I need for the morning with the ones I brought home. I shut the door, swing the lock, and start toward first period. Usuall
y, I walk with Tyler or Jared Black, but I don’t want to wait. I also don’t want to feel like a backseat friend since they started dating the Valentine twins.
I pass by Adaline and Greg, and my jaw clenches as soon as I hear her laugh. I hate it. Every single freaking moment of it. But this is all my fault. I need to remember that. Being a dumbass caused this, and I better man up and deal.
Even if I have to stomach mister-freaking-wanna-be-Rogers and his stupid sweater vest making Adaline happy, I will. I try meeting her gaze at least once, but she only looks at Greg while she walks to class. I trudge on.
Finally, history, it’s my favorite class of the day. Don’t care about the history bits, just the person who’s in this class with me. I went through three periods of hell just to get to this one.
I spot her now light blond hair glimmering in the streaks of sunlight pouring in through the windows. I don’t know what brought on the change of hair color, but it suits her. Adaline chews on the tip of a pen cap, and I swear I could watch her all day long. I know, this isn’t entertaining at all, but everything Adaline does is fascinating.
Kate who usually sits between us isn’t here, so I take her seat. “Hi.”
Adaline turns her sharp gaze at me and scowls. “Stop.”
“I can’t say hi to you?”
“You ignored me for years before … ” She doesn’t say before our kiss. I know that’s what she means.
I shrug. “Yeah. I’m told I’m slow. Took too many hits in football,” I joke.
She sneers at me and then faces forward. “That would be your cop out.”
The bell rings, and I remain in Kate’s seat even though I should probably get in my own. I hiss at Ads, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Now, stop talking to me. I don’t want to get in trouble.”
I roll my eyes and focus my attention on the whiteboard in front of us. Adaline is many things—beautiful, strong, funny—but she’s also persistent. Once her mind has been made up, that’s it. Her walls are up again, and I’ll need more than a hammer to break them down. She has every right to be closed off. I lied to her.