Deception (Dirty Secrets #2) (3 page)

I nod. “Okay.”

“This is weird,” Trey says. “Let’s just play.”

So we do. And I try not to think about the conversation that Jace and I are going to have after practice.

8pm

I wanted you to tell me first.

We have two guys play the bass for us — Caleb and Dan. They’re both pretty good, but Caleb is
hilarious
. He fits in well with the rest of us. We tell them both that we’ll call them, but we’ve already decided on Caleb.

After practice, Jace has to go get Thayer and I have to cook dinner. They come back over for dinner and I hardly eat anything because I am so nervous. What if Jace is going to tell me he
doesn’t
feel the same? I’m not sure if things could ever go back to the way they were. Not now.

Hailee offers to do dishes and I let her. Thayer and Trey go to play a game of basketball, so Jace and I sit on the dock dangling our feet over the lake.

We’ve been sitting here for a full five minutes, but neither of us has said anything. Until finally, he does.

“What was that text that you got while we were in the gym?” he asks.

I was not expecting
that
question.

“What text?” I ask, trying to feign innocence.

“It was from a blocked number,” he answers. “Does it have something to do with Daisy’s disappearance?”

Jace is too observant for his own good.

“I don’t want to talk about that text, Jace.”

“Okay,” he says, angling his body toward mine. “So you’re in love with me?”

“I never said the word
love
.”

He smirks. “I so knew you wanted me.”

“Shut up.”

“Why did you wait this long to tell me?” he asks. “From the way Trey was talking, you’ve been in
love
with me for a long time.”

“I never said the word love,” I say again. “But I didn’t tell you because I was scared. I still am. We’ve been friends for so long, and I didn’t want to ruin the relationship that we already have. I’m scared that you don’t feel the same way.”

“Is this the reason you’ve never had a boyfriend before?”

I nod.

“So while everybody else is hooking up at parties, you’ve been pining over me?”

“Jace, I am going to push you into the lake if you don’t stop torturing me.”

He laughs. “But it’s so much fun to torture you.”

I don’t respond. I just narrow my eyes.

“Madi, I told you, I’ve been in love with you since I was four years old. The first time I saw you, I told my mom I was going to marry you,” he says.

“If you’ve been in love with me since you were four, why haven’t you told me before now?” I ask.

“Same reason you haven’t. That, and I wanted you to tell me first,” he says.

I smile at him, feeling speechless.

“I’m not really good at all this,” he says. “I mean, I’ve never had a girlfriend before because I’ve been pining over the same girl since I was four. So… I guess what I’m trying to say is, do you want to be my girlfriend? Wait. Is that awkward? Is it too soon? Should we go out on a date or something first?”

“Thirteen years isn’t too soon. I want to be your girlfriend.”

He grins big. “So what now? Do we just… put it on Facebook? Tell your brother? What?”

“Facebook, I guess? I mean, I think people will figure it out pretty quickly.”

“Okay,” he says. “Does this feel awkward to you?”

“A little. But I’m glad we finally had this talk.”

“I kind of feel like kicking myself. Think of all the years we wasted…”

“Not wasted,” I say. “We had a good friendship. Now we’ll have a good relationship.”

“You’re right,” he says, then smiles. “We basically have thirteen years of sexual tension to work out.”

I laugh. “Um, more like two years. I didn’t really think a lot about sex until I was about fifteen.”

“I was ten when I started thinking about it,” he says, then pulls his phone out of his pocket. “I’m sending you a relationship request.”

My phone buzzes a few seconds later, and I accept his request.

I have a ton of missed texts and calls from my friends, but I don’t want to check those yet. I don’t want to talk about anything Daisy-related tonight. Maybe not ever again. I just want it to be Saturday so I can tell the cops the truth. I can’t handle the guilt that comes with keeping a secret this big.

“I want to kiss you, but your brother is currently watching us from your driveway right now,” he says. “Can we go out on a date? Tomorrow night? Then I can properly kiss you.”

Dang. It.

Stupid party.

Stupid kidnapper.

“I want to, but I promised my friends we’d go to Luke’s party,” I say. “But I want you to go to his party with me. I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunity for us to make out while we’re there.”

“Okay. And Saturday we are going camping. Where we can make out more.”

Oh right.

It’s Labor Day Weekend, so that means Trey, Hailee, Thayer, Jace, and I are going camping. It’s a yearly tradition, and this year is no exception.

“You’re going to get sick of spending time with me,” I say.

“Never,” he says back. “Maybe Sunday night we can go out, since there isn’t school on Monday.”

“I’d like that.”

“What does one
do
on a date?” he asks.

I shrug. “I don’t know. I haven’t been on one before. Maybe you should ask Trey. He’s been on lots of dates.”

“I can’t ask your
brother
for dating advice.”

“But he’s your best friend,” I say. “Besides, he totally approves of us. He’s known how I felt about you for a
long
time.”

“I told you, twin code is stronger than bro code,” he says. “Besides, all of his dates end up in the back of a dark movie theater being felt up. I highly doubt he’s going to tell me to do that with you.”

My mouth falls open. “Trey told you that’s what he does on dates?”

“We tell each other everything.” He looks at me. “Well, almost everything. I highly doubt your brother will want to hear about the… stuff… we do.”

“I’m pretty sure we won’t be able to hide anything from him,” I say. “Trey has a way of knowing everything.”

“Is that a twin thing?”

“Yeah, I guess. Trey told me when he lost his virginity.” I frown. “Actually, he went into pretty great detail about the whole thing.”

Jace laughs. “Oh my God, please don’t tell him when we…”

“I don’t plan on it.”

“Not that I’m rushing you. Because you’re worth waiting for.”

And I think I just fell in love with him a little more.

I lean my head on his shoulder and watch as the sun falls behind the trees.

Today started off sucky, but the good made up for it.

And oh my God. Jace Axel William is my
boyfriend
.

Life. Is. Good.

Friday, August 29

I’ll help you hide the body.

When I get back from my morning run, I decide it’s time to face the music and check my texts. I read the ones from Cassidy first.

Cassidy Armstrong:
Oh my God, Madi. They KNOW about the texts. I’m freaking out.

Cassidy Armstrong:
Where did you go?

Cassidy Armstrong:
Call me.

Me:
Sorry I didn’t text you back yesterday. I just kind of freaked out. I can’t believe this is happening.

Frannie Davis:
That was intense.

Frannie Davis:
I can’t believe that Daisy was threatened and KIDNAPPED. This is crazy.

Frannie Davis:
Do you still think she’s messing with us? Maybe she sent the texts to herself and made it look like a kidnapping.

Frannie Davis:
No, probably not. She’s crazy, but not THAT crazy.

Frannie Davis:
Where did you run off to?

Frannie Davis:
Oh my God. You’re dating Jace? FINALLY.

Me:
Sorry I just ran off without a word. That was crazy, and I needed to just process.

I click onto my Facebook page and see that I have over fifty comments on my relationship change notification. Most of them all say ‘
About freaking time.
’ Trey’s comment makes me smile.

Trevon Grey:
FINALLY. I’m so sick of hearing you both whine about how much you love each other, but NEVER doing anything about it. And Jace, if you hurt my sister, I will hurt you.

Jace replied to Trey’s comment.

Jace William:
I don’t plan on ever hurting her, bro. I’m pretty sure a girl like her only comes along once in a lifetime, so I’m NEVER letting her go.

Aw!

I ready Hailee’s comment.

Hailee Grey:
This doesn’t mean you’re going to start making out all the time in front of me, right? Because that would be gross… BTW, congrats. I was wondering how many more dinners you two were going to drool over each other before you finally hooked up. :)

The last comment is from my grandma.

Margret Grey:
;) Congrats, baby girl… Jace, you break her heart, I will break your pretty face.

I love my grandma. She’s awesome.

I throw my phone on my bed and get ready for school.

The whole time I think that today is going to be an awesome day — until I remember what I have to do tonight. My stomach fills with dread. Daisy’s kidnapper is going to be in touch, and I have no idea what she or he is going to have up their sleeve next.

I just hope we
really
get Daisy back tonight. I want this nightmare
over
.

When I come downstairs to leave for school, Jace is standing in the living room, as always. Except today, he’s got a huge grin on his face. His eyes light up when he sees me. My heart jumps, and my stomach is filled with butterflies.

Oh my God — I’m nervous.

“Hi,” I say as I get to the bottom of the stairs.

He steps in front of me. “Hey.”

I hear a groan from behind me. “Ugh, seriously? Are you two really going to be this disgusting all the time?”

“Pretty much,” Jace answers, and then grabs my hand.

It’s the first time we’ve ever really held hands… at least in a boyfriend-girlfriend kind of way. And I like it. A lot.

“Do you want to ride to school with me? My car is way cooler than Trey’s truck.” I lean closer to him. “Plus, we can make out in my car.”

Jace laughs. “Oh, I’m definitely riding with you.”

“Oh sure. Let’s just pretend I didn’t give you rides for the past year and a half,” Trey jokes, throwing his arms up. “You ditch me for the first pretty girl that pays attention to you. I see how you are.”

“Aw,” I say. “Trey, you think I’m pretty?”

“Mads, we’re
twins
. If I call you ugly, it means I’m calling
myself
ugly. So, yeah, you’re pretty, because I’m gorgeous,” he says.

“Whatever,” I say to him, then turn to Jace. “You want to get out of here before he starts making out with the mirror or something?”

Jace laughs. “Yeah.”

He holds my hand all the way out to the car, and then he opens the driver’s side door for me. I get inside and he shuts it. Once he gets in the car, we take off. And for the first time, I wish my car was an automatic so I could hold his hand.

When we get to school, Jace grabs my hand to stop me from getting out of the car.

“Hey, Mads.”

“Yeah?”

“Just so you know, I’m really glad that we’re together,” he says.

“Me too.”

“Also, I really want to kiss you, but I don’t want our first kiss to be in the parking lot of our school.”

“Technically, our first kiss was in our school’s gym,” I say. “Also, I don’t care
where
our first kiss is… just as long as it’s with you, it’ll be special.”

“Well, I also don’t want your brother to be looking at us while we kiss.” Jace nods his head toward the front of the car. Trey is standing there with his arms crossed over his chest. He looks amused.

I roll my eyes but turn back to Jace. I put my hands around the back of his neck and pull him closer. Our lips are about to touch when my brother hits my hood.

“Hey! Break it up!” he yells.

“I’m going to kill him,” I say, reaching for my doorknob.

“I’ll help you hide the body.”

“Deal.”

English

A lot of love.

Today in English, we are writing. I’m definitely more cautious of what I put down, just in case Jace reads it.

While we write, Jace and I pass notes back and forth.

I have a feeling your brother is never going to let us be alone. Ever. — Jace

He was just kidding this morning. — Madi

I don’t think he was. — Jace

We will get to be alone tonight at the party. — Madi

He will be there. — Jace

You think my brother is going to babysit us the whole time? If I know him, he will have a couple shots and be making out with some blonde bimbo within an hour. — Madi

Probably. — Jace

So why have you never hooked up with other girls at parties? — Madi

I was waiting for you. — Jace

So you won’t be disappointed that I’m really inexperienced? Like, I’ve never made out with a guy. Or kissed a guy. Or anything. — Madi

I haven’t either. With a girl. (Or a guy for that matter). I kind of like that we get to be each other’s first everything. — Jace.

Me too. — Madi

I plan on you being my first and last. — Jace

:) — Madi

We are going to fail English. — Jace

No we won’t. And if you start failing, I will tutor you. — Madi

I definitely need tutoring. Preferably alone in your room. — Jace

I look over at Jace and shake my head.

You perv ;) — Madi

That’s why you love me. — Jace

I never said “love” ;). But seriously, is it weird to say “love” when we’ve been dating less than 24 hours? — Madi

That reminds me. Happy 12 hour anniversary. And no, I don’t think it’s weird. It’s how I feel. I’ve felt this way for a long time. I LOVE YOU, MADELINE HOPE GREY!!! — Jace