The Starter Boyfriend by Tina Ferraro Read Free Book Online Page A

night before gets in the way. What matters most to you?”
    That was a no-brainer: keeping my friends. And they’d definitely liked it when they thought I was sipping the beer. Still—
    “Think of it as compromising. Finding that middle ground. Like with teachers or parents to get them off your case.” He picked at some french fries. “And believe me, it’s not so different from what I’m doing right now with Saffron.”
    The mention of her name gave my gut a twist. “You’re together, then?”
    “It’s not that simple.” He rolled a loose muscled shoulder. “See, making the cut for the championship puts me into a whole new league. One that my folks cannot swing. My dad’s paying for my sister’s college tuition—and trying to save for mine—and my mom’s business is struggling. She just rented out the house and we moved to an apartment to try to save money.”
    His jaw tightened. “It’ll be near-impossible for me to get ahead in the circuit without corporate sponsorship. And for a while now, Saffron’s saying her dad’s company would probably back me if I ever needed it. Now I do.”
    “And she’s making herself part of the deal?”
    Not a huge surprise. Daddy Willis’s deep pockets seemed to know no limits. According to Saffron, he was already making sizeable donations to an art institute in Chicago with the best program in graphic arts, to make sure they accepted her after high school. Why not buy his darling daughter the boyfriend she wanted, too?
    When my eyes refocused on Adam, he was frowning.
    “What am I going to go do, Courtney? I need the backing. And it’s not like I have a girlfriend. Or, you know,” he said, his gaze shifting down to his burger, “feelings for someone else.”
    No joke. At least when it came to people at this table.
    “Saffron and I hung out last night,” he went on. “I asked her to Homecoming, adding the no-time-right-now-for-a-girlfriend line. It’s a date, not a relationship.”
    I scrunched my brow. “Which she’s thinking will change if her dad sponsors you and you can quit your after-school job.”
    He nodded quickly; I almost missed it. “We’ll see where it goes. For now, we’re just going to the dance. I’ll meet her dad. And I can be all about surfing again, working on my mental focus and developing a really aggressive approach to do my best in my heats.”
    His words were accentuated by sparkles in his eyes, which I admired, and even envied. He had his priorities straight, was so secure in his passion that he could make sacrifices and tough choices. And it wasn’t like Saffron would be suffering. She was getting a studly Homecoming date, and maybe more.
    I was no slouch in the priority department, either, was giving it my all to make St. Ansgar’s happen. But could I take it to where he was going, straddle personal relationship lines? I couldn’t answer that.
    Which slid me into one last question, something I couldn’t shake or resist asking. “Say my dad was to pony up the money to sponsor you,” I said, smiling and playful. “You’d go to the dance with me?”
    His face jerked up. “You? No way.”
    I think my heart stopped. Just stopped. Which wasn’t such a bad thing, considering I wanted to die.
    “Because the only way that would happen, would be because you made it part of the deal. And you’d never do that. That’s not,” he said, glancing down, “who we are.”
    I laughed—as good a response as any—and then he did, too. I thought about making some dorky joke about us having as much chemistry together as a broken test tube, then decided to play it safe and go back to my burger instead. And reminded myself to never again ask a question I didn’t really want to hear the answer to.
    Minutes later, we were back across the street, heading towards the shop. Since I now knew he was going to the dance, I went with my salesgirl best and tried to get him to rent one of our tuxes. What did I have to lose?
    “We’re offering a