The Secret Life of a Dream Girl (Creative HeArts) Read Online Free Page B

those teachers—and most of the others—since I was five.”
    “Okay, I can see that being a little bit of a turnoff.”
    He snorts. “Just a little bit. Not to mention the fact that they’re old.”
    I don’t tell him that where I come from, age doesn’t matter nearly as much as what a person can do for you. The last thing he needs is to hear about some of the offers I’ve received through the years…
    “Okay, no boyfriend and not a teacher. So what’s the problem, then? Why don’t you just ask her out?”
    “After all that, that’s your big advice? That I should just ask her out? Thanks, but Jacen already told me that.”
    “Well, it’s good advice. I mean, what’s the worst thing that’d happen if you ask her out?”
    “She could say no.”
    “Okay, so she says no. Big deal.”
    Once again, he looks less than impressed with my intellect. “I don’t want her to say no.”
    “Well, obviously. But you’re never going to know unless you try. Besides, she’s not going to say no.”
    “You sound entirely too confident, considering you don’t even know who the girl is.”
    “I am confident. And it doesn’t matter who she is.”
    “Oh, yeah?” The music inside the tent gets really loud all of a sudden, making it nearly impossible for me to hear the rest of what he’s saying. So Keegan moves in even closer, so close that a deep breath on either of our parts would have my breasts brushing against his chest. Then he’s leaning, head down, so that his mouth is only a couple inches from my ear. And just like that, the zing is back, except this time it’s more like a bang than a zing—a mini explosion going off inside me before we’ve even touched. “Why’s that?”
    “Because.” My voice sounds a little strangled and I clear my throat, give a fake cough or two. Try to play it off like it’s the famous Austin allergies and not the fact that I’m suddenly, wildly attracted to a guy I have no business being attracted to. “You’re the total package. Brains, beauty, and ambition. What girl could possibly say no to that?”
    “A lot of them, actually.” He laughs, and it’s all rueful and self-deprecating and charming as hell. Not that I’m charmed. At all.
    “I don’t believe you. You just need to own it more, that’s all.”
    “Own it more? Really?” His eyes narrow considerably, and this time when he leans forward, his body actually does brush against mine. “So what you’re telling me is that if I asked you out right now, you’d say yes?”
    My mouth goes dry. My hands go damp. And my heart slams against my ribs once, twice, then starts racing the way it does when I run out on stage in front of sixty thousand people. Is he asking me out?
    Is Keegan Matthews actually asking me out?
    For a second, just a second, I let myself think about what that would be like. Just going on a regular date with a regular guy. Dinner at some little dive, maybe catching a film that doesn’t involve a red carpet. Walking through the SoCo shops holding hands…it’d be really nice. But then reality comes crashing down on me, because I haven’t been able to go shopping in years without being recognized. And the absolute last thing I can do is go on a regular date with a regular guy when “regular” is the one word that absolutely can’t be applied to me.
    I fumble around for a minute, trying to figure out what to say, when it hits me he’s just messing with me. Just trying another tactic to get the conversation off of him and his mystery girl.
    Relief swamps me. Thank God I don’t have to make up some really lame excuse as to why I can’t go out with him. I’m a great liar—I’ve had to be—but that doesn’t mean I want to lie to Keegan any more than I absolutely have to. Not when it feels like he might be the first new friend I actually make here at NextGen.
    Which is how I end up laughing instead of giving him any of the ridiculous excuses that swam through my head. “See how easy that