Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 8

grass. He rolled into the impact, letting his momentum carry him right back to his feet. A low whistle sounded behind him. Turning, he found Johns grinning fiercely, a look of respect dawning slowly on his craggy face.
    The quarterback whistled again. "You keep bringing moves like that, Simpson, and you'll have Henderson's spot well before homecoming."
    Peter grinned back, the sharp baring of his teeth indicative of a hunger that had nothing to do with his stomach burning hotly through every part of his body. "Shut up and throw it again, Johns."
    ****
    "Hinata, where are we going?" Caroline adjusted the strap of her grey and white book bag on her shoulder, blowing an errant hank of hair out of her eyes. Hinata shook his head at her. He wasn't spilling the beans. Nope. He'd found out by accident, and he knew if he spilled, Caroline would talk him out of this escapade. He would find it far easier to beg forgiveness from his friend afterward than to attempt talking her into going along willingly with this harebrained scheme of his.
    Instead of answering with words, Hinata smiled sweetly at Caroline, pulling her into the cool back of the limousine. Caroline sighed audibly as the air conditioning currently keeping the interior of the vehicle at an even sixty-eight degrees with absolutely no humidity hit her face and eased its way into her lungs. She grunted. "Okay, Hinata. As long as you take me wherever we're going in this kind of comfort, I'm your girl."
    Hinata snorted. "No, you yearn to be my girl, but I have set my sights on another." Caroline stared at him for a moment, mouth agape, and then burst into a fit of giggles. Hinata waited with quiet dignity for her to regain her senses. Was this how his father felt when his mother went off on one of her… tangents of emotion?
    "Right, right. I forgot about you carrying a torch for Rachelle. Silly me." She smacked herself on the forehead and spoke the words in an overly loud voice, clearly projecting so they could be heard by his driver. Hinata rolled his eyes. "Caroline, Andre is on our side. It is not necessary to hold a fiction up for him."
    "Well, geez, Hinata. You could have let me know that before you let me make a fool of myself." Caroline flounced back into the corner, flipping her pony-tail over one shoulder. Hinata smiled indulgently at her. "Yes, but it amused me to see how you would react. Oh, don't be mad, Caroline. I brought you so that we could ride in the cool car together. I know how your asthma troubles you." Hinata patted his friend's hand. Caroline pulled her bottom lip in, nibbling delicately on the plump flesh. "So… where are we going?"
    Hinata hesitated.
    Caroline poked him hard in the side. "Hinata. Where. Are. We. Going?"
    A deep chuckle sounded from the front of the car. "You'd best fess up, Mr. Hinata. She's on to your wily ways."
    Hinata took his turn at flouncing and pouting. "I— we're just going to look at a dance studio."
    Caroline eyed him, one brow raised until it nearly touched her hairline.
    "Okay, fine, so it just happens to be the dance studio where Peter Jenkins is taking beginning ballet classes." The words ground out of Hinata's throat grudgingly, sounding like nothing so much as small pebbles dropped on glass.
    "Oh. My. God. Peter Jenkins is taking ballet?" Hinata nodded.
    Caroline gaped. Her mouth opened and closed several times, but no further words came out. Hinata gazed at her, slyly, out of the corner of his eyes. She spent several moments in silence before scooting over to smack him lightly in the arm. "Shut. Up. He is not."
    Hinata laughed, a full out belly laugh. "Yes he is. His coach sent him to take the class so he would be more graceful on the field."
    Caroline sputtered. "Really?" She crept closer to Hinata, watching him avidly as he gathered his thoughts together. A small frown crept across her brow. "How do you know what the football coach is saying to his players?"
    Hinata shrugged. "I have my sources." He couldn't very well tell Caroline that he'd been quietly making friends with the younger Simpson girl. Mitzy had warned him that her sister, and probably most of the girls from his posse, would be uncomfortable with the two groups mixing. Hinata shook off the dark, queasy feeling that thought brought to the pit of his stomach.
    Andre slowed the car, calling back through the window at the same time. "We're here Mr. Hinata. Will you require me to wait?"
    Hinata shook his head. The limo would be far too