The Fullback and His Best Friend, Book 5 - Paperback

Collette

I’d kill to be the kind of dancer my mom wants me to be, but it’s just not in the cards. I’m sick of dieting. I'll never fit into the perfect ballerina mold and I’m tired of wishing that I could.

I’m over it. I’m done trying.

I’m perfectly content to dance alone in the dark while the rest of the school is sleeping.

Ethan

Coach says our football team needs discipline. That dancing alongside a bunch of prissy prima donnas is how we’ll learn our lesson.

Only problem?

I don’t have time for ballet. Not when I’m busting my butt to be the star quarterback, the dutiful son, and the perfect student…all so I can achieve my father’s dream.

When I meet Collette, I can’t help but take notice. She’s a vision of grace and beauty all wrapped up in snark and sass. And she helps me see that my own dreams aren’t so stupid after all.

I just wish she could see that in herself. But when I try to bring her out into the light, I can feel her slipping away. Her walls are built up so high, I fear they’ll never come down. I want to love her like she deserves—but that’s just the problem.

She doesn’t believe she deserves it.

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I threw another T-shirt into the luggage lying open on my bed and pretended I couldn’t hear my parents fighting.

“I don’t see why you agreed to this in the first place,” my mother was saying.

“He’s nearly a grown man, Eva,” my father answered. “Let the boy sow his oats.” I winced at his analogy. It wasn’t one an almost eighteen-year-old wanted to hear uttered from his parents’ lips. 

Dad’s tone was one of boredom. This was a conversation I’d had with my parents roughly two hundred times before. But I wasn’t worried. I opened another drawer to pull out some underwear. Despite my mom’s current freak-out, my leaving for the last semester of senior year was a done deal, and my mom knew it. 

“Besides, we all agreed it would be good for Derek’s football career to train one on one with a respected football coach. The new one they hired here is a joke.”

I nodded as I packed like they could even see me. Even if I agreed with them or not, it wouldn’t really make a difference in this well-worn argument. I was going. Period.

A familiar feeling began to bubble in my gut. The feeling I always got as I repeated those two little words in my mind, over and over again. 

I won. 

I get to go to Oakwood High. I get to get out of this hell hole that was my house and escape out from under the boot that was my parents. I get to feel...free. 

I glanced over at my phone for the millionth time, waiting for it to light up with a new text from my best friend. Most importantly, I get to see Olivia.

A stupid and goofy smile had me pinching my lips and shaking my head. I had to get a grip on my reaction before I got to Oakwood, or Olivia would never stop making fun of me for being such a dork. But she didn’t understand. How could she know that this was the moment I’d been waiting for since she and her family had moved away three years ago? 

Technically, we’d both moved away. After nearly a lifetime of being best friends, her family had moved to Oakwood in Upstate New York to support Olivia and her dreams when she got accepted into The Ballet Academy. Meanwhile, my family moved to Washington DC to support my dad and his political dreams. 

We’d both moved to the East Coast. One would think we could have seen each other once in all that time, but one would be wrong. To say our families moved in different circles would be the understatement of the century. While my parents had always liked Olivia and her family, they weren’t exactly jumping through hoops to help us maintain our friendship.

But we’d still stayed close. Mostly through emails and texting. 

I glanced over again at the sound of the familiar chime that accompanied her text. It felt as if my insides were lighting up like a roman candle. I dropped the clothes I was holding and lunged for it.

Texting was new for us. My parents forbade me from being on social media and kept a tight lockdown on any communication I had outside of my messages to them. Living with such a high-profile Dad sucked. I couldn’t just live my life like a normal teen. Not when everything I did could be used as a club to hit my father over the head. 

I clicked open Olivia’s message and burst out into a loud laugh when Olivia’s face filled my screen. Her eyes were crossed, her black curls were flying in every direction, and her tongue was sticking out the side of her mouth. The text below it said, So you recognize me.

I couldn’t stop grinning as I stared down at the picture. Funny face or not, she was still beautiful. This wasn’t the first disheveled selfie she’d sent, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. 

Like always, she seemed to have made it her mission in life to make me smile. I had to wonder, did she remember what our household was like so well that she knew my last night in this house would be filled with bickering and negotiations? Or did she have some sort of friend ESP?

I could hear Olivia’s opinion sounding off in my head without even being in the same room as her. She’d tap her forehead and wiggled her fingers around in front of her like she was some fortune teller reading her glass ball. She’d always claim to have telepathic powers when it came to me...and her other ballerina friends.

It wasn’t like I was jealous that she had other friends but...yeah, okay, maybe I was a little jealous. I’d never fit into the social scene at my high school. It wasn’t like the other kids weren’t nice to me. That was the problem. They were too nice. Everyone there knew who I was, and, more importantly, who my parents were. My background wasn’t something I would ever be free from. 

At least, not until I got to Oakwood. There, I hoped I could fly under the radar. I could be...me. 

I laughed as another text came in. 

Olivia: Your turn.

I held the phone up to take a selfie but was interrupted by my mom. “Are you sure you want to go through with this, Derek?” The way she pouted as she rested against the doorframe, with her legs crossed and her arms folded—it was impossible to forget that she’d been a supermodel back in the day. It was like she’d posed so often in her lifetime that now she did it as a habit. 

Right now she looked like the picture of a disappointed mother. 

I just barely held back a sigh as I turned to face her, dropping the phone next to my luggage. “Mom, we’ve been over this a million times.”

Her lips pursed in an exaggerated pout. Portrait of maternal concern, that was how this photo would be captioned. It wasn’t that I thought my mother didn’t care; it was just that when it came to both of my parents, their concerns were usually more about them than about me.

Like right now. I had no doubt that my mom would miss me when I was gone. But she was more worried about what this would look like to others. How it would reflect on her and my dad.

See, here was the other thing about my mom. Aside from being a bigshot model? She was also royalty. Sorta. Kinda. Honestly, I’d even been to Sweden with my mom and met her whole crazy extended royal family, and I still wasn’t sure how she fit into the hierarchy. She was a cousin of a cousin of a cousin, as far as I could gather. 

What mattered was—this was a big deal to her.

And to my dad. Although my dad was not royalty. Not officially. But he was basically the American equivalent. Back in the day, he’d been a movie star—action films, mostly. Then he’d done what few have managed to do successfully, and he made the transition from Hollywood to politics. 

So yeah, for anyone keeping track at home—my family was basically the power trifecta. They had celebrity fame, political influence, and royal connections. They didn’t just know it. They were proud of it. The family’s name and reputation meant everything to them. 

Which meant they expected that it meant everything to me. If they’d ever ask me, I’d tell them, it meant nothing. It was just labels. It didn’t bring happiness. 

“Are you sure you want to stay with the Vargas family?” she asked. “We could find you another place to—”

“I’m sure, Mom.” Staying with Olivia and her family was a huge part of why I’d wanted to go. 

Okay, it was the biggest part. Was it true that I was hoping to train one-on-one with a respected football coach? Yes. I wasn’t about to go pro or anything, but I was still hoping to play at the college level, and I didn’t want to earn a spot on a team based on my name. I wanted to earn it because I was the best player I could be.

Was it also true that there were other coaches out there? Other districts that had a late start to the season this year and could give me some extra time on the field? Yeah. Definitely. 

But none of those other schools were near Olivia. This was my last shot to spend any real time with her. Odds of us going to the same college were slim to none since Olivia was determined to pursue a choreography career. 

Who knew where we’d both end up in the fall? But for the rest of senior year we could actually be in the same town. We’d be in the same house. 

I dipped my chin to hide that dopey smile I couldn’t seem to quit. If Mom saw it, she’d know. And once Mom got an idea in her head, I was done for. 

“But do you have to leave so soon?” she asked. Relief filled my chest. She hadn’t caught my reaction. “Christmas break isn’t even over.”

When I glanced back over, I saw it. A hint of genuine sadness that wasn’t part of her perfect-mom facade. 

I walked over to where she stood and hugged her. “I’ll be back before you know it,” I said.

She patted my back with a sigh, and when I leaned back, her sad smile even tugged at my heart strings. “I know you will,” she said. Her blue eyes got this glint of mischief that I was all too familiar with. “And when you come home to visit, I’ll make sure to invite Cambriea and her family for dinner.”

And there it was. My mom’s next move. If my game of choice was football, then my mother’s was chess. I pitied any fools who’d ever underestimated her in the past. She might have been a blonde bombshell, but she had more brains than me and my dad put together. 

My dad hadn’t exactly relished the idea of me moving in with Olivia’s family for the remainder of the school year, but he’d understood. Or at least, he could get behind the football training aspect of this plan. Sometimes I thought that maybe he cared about my football career more than I did. So, if it had just been up to him, I might have been able to go and train, and yeah, spend time with Olivia without the strings.

But once my mom had gotten involved in the discussion? Well, let’s just say the discussion had turned to negotiations that made the Middle East peace talks look easy.

I might have won the battle to go and stay with Olivia, but I definitely hadn’t walked away from the table without some compromises. The biggest one? Cambriea.

Turning back to my packing, I tried to ignore the topic all together. I mean, yes, I’d agreed to her terms, but I wasn’t exactly in the mood to dwell on that. Not when Olivia’s cute face was on my phone, and she was just as excited as I was for me to arrive. 

“You made a deal,” my mom said. Her tone had a warning edge. As if I’d try and renege.

“I know, I know.” I sighed, opening the bottom dresser drawer with more force than absolutely necessary. But honestly, it was the only outlet I had for this frustration. 

“I know you’re looking forward to seeing Olivia.” My mom’s voice was all slow and careful. She was going into diplomat mode. 

I froze in the middle of reaching for some track pants at the mention of Olivia’s name.

Like I’d said, my parents had always liked Olivia, but that didn’t mean they wanted us to get any closer than we were.

Not that we ever would. I snuck a glance over at my phone, the image of her ridiculous selfie still fresh in my mind. She was just a friend. My heart gave a kick in my chest as if to call me out for the lie.

Okay, fine. So maybe I had a little crush on my best friend. It had always been there, and it probably always would be. I knew better than to think it was reciprocated.

But maybe it could be.

I shut down the thought before it could grow into something more dangerous...like hope. 

“Olivia is a sweet girl,” my mother continued, still in that tentative tone she used when she knew that she was walking on eggshells. It sent my spidey senses into overdrive.  

I tensed as I waited for the ‘but’ that was sure to follow.

“But she has her own future to pursue,” she said. So tactful, my mom. Such a nice way of saying she’s not good enough for our family because hers isn’t rich and powerful. Or royal, for that matter. “And you have Cambriea,” she finished.

I flinched as I slammed the drawer shut. There it was. That was the reason I couldn’t let myself hope that this visit with Olivia would make her see me as something more than a friend. Because part of this bargain I’d struck meant that after graduation I’d come back home and take on my role as Cambriea’s boyfriend.

I’d known Cambriea almost as long as I’d known Olivia, but we weren’t friends. I didn’t hate the girl we just...didn’t click. We had nothing in common except for the fact that our parents were close and that they’d always wanted us to be together.

It was understood that once we finally started officially dating, our relationship would take its course. That was how my mom phrased it. See? She really should have been a diplomat. 

I turned back to face her. “You do know that arranged marriages aren’t a thing anymore, right? At least not here in America.”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be melodramatic, dear. No one is forcing you into marriage.”

I arched my brows in disbelief. 

She pursed her lips and planted her hands on her hips. “You’re too young to understand this now, Derek, but true partnerships shouldn’t be made on something as flimsy as a childhood crush.”

“It’s not a—” 

“Your friendship with Olivia is all well and good, but you know as well as I do that there’s no future for you. Her mother was our housekeeper, Derek.” 

I cringed at the snobbery that she always denied but that was always there just beneath the surface.

“And?” I shot back.

She tilted her head to the side and gave me that ‘don’t be an idiot’ expression she did so well.

My dad walked into the room. “Don’t give your mother a hard time,” my dad said. “You know she only wants the best for you.” He’d saved her from having to spell out that a housekeeper’s daughter wasn’t good enough for this family. 

I blew out a loud exhale. “Yeah, I know.”

What was the point in arguing? I’d be leaving in the morning and the deal had been struck. All I could do now was try and enjoy the time I had with Olivia as much as I could before I had to come back to reality.

“You know, it’s not your friendship with Olivia that concerns me,” my dad said. He scratched the five o’clock shadow on his jaw. “I know you’ll come to your senses once you spend some more time with her and her family.”

I glared down at the contents of my luggage but held my tongue. I wasn’t about to get into another argument. There was no point. He was convinced that I only kept in touch with Olivia out of some sort of rebellious streak. All part of that ‘sowing my wild oats’ he kept mentioning. I didn’t even know what the phrase really meant, but it sounded disgusting. 

“What I’m worried about is everyone else,” my dad said.

I turned to see my mother nodding beside him. 

“This new school won’t be like any that you’ve gone to before,” he continued. He was using his official speech voice, which was a sure sign he’d planned this out. His farewell speech, complete with dire warnings that would no doubt end with a ‘god speed’ or maybe a ‘good night and God bless.’ 

“That’s the point, Dad,” I said. It was hard to keep the sarcasm from my tone, so I didn’t really try. 

He ignored that. “These kids you’ll be going to school with don’t have experience with fame. They could harass you or—”

“Dad, I’m not a little kid anymore. I can handle myself.” That was an understatement. I’d been a bit of a late bloomer, so as late as freshman year I’d still been a short, scrawny little kid. But puberty hit in a big way. Like...big. At six feet, I was taller than my dad and I outweighed him by a solid fifty pounds. All muscle, thanks to football and off-season weight training.

“It’s not the bullies that are the problem,” he said. His knowing tone made my stomach twist. But I wasn’t about to let on that I was a little nervous.

Just a little.

Not about Olivia and her family, just the whole new school thing. I had no idea how much these people would know about me or what they would expect. 

My mother nodded again. “He’s right, Derek. You’re leaving the safety of your peers.”

My peers. I let out a little huff of laughter at that. By saying my peers, she meant fellow offspring of celebrities and politicians. I might have had that in common with my current classmates, but that was the extent of it. I’d never once thought of them as ‘my peers.’

My dad clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Just be smart. Keep your eyes open, and trust no one.” His brows drew down in a grim expression. “Like it or not, with the family you have, there’s always going to be people looking for a handout or a leg up.”

I opened my mouth to protest again, but the words wouldn’t come out.

There was some truth to what he was saying. But what my dad didn’t seem to understand was that this wouldn’t be something new for me. That was already my life. The kids at my prep school were always friendly. The girls always flirted, and the guys invited me to their parties. I’d never once felt like it was because they liked me, but only what they thought they could get by being close to me.

So instead of arguing, I nodded. “Yeah. I get it.”

My dad’s grim expression morphed into a smile. “I knew you would. You’re a smart kid.” He gave my shoulder another pat. “Now, good night...and God bless.”

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