Stealing Harper

Now we were a little less than two weeks away from finishing our junior year and I couldn’t wait for the time off. Normally we go to California to see Candice’s family during the winter and summer breaks, but she was working at a cheer camp for elementary-aged girls this summer so we were getting an apartment that we pla

That is, if we ever got Candice to pass this damn final.

Before I could even ask my first question, Candice gasped loudly, “Oh my God, the pores on my nose are huge.”

Grabbing the pillow under me, I launched it at her and failed miserably at hitting anything, including her. At least it got her attention. Her mouth snapped shut, she turned to look at the pillow laying a few feet from her, then turned around with a huff to walk back to her desk.

Finally. “Okay, what is—”

“So are you ever going to go on a date with Blake?”

“Candice!”

“What?” She shot me an i

“This—you need—forget it.” I slammed the book shut and rolled off my bed, stretching quickly before going to drop the heavy book on my desk. “Forget it, we’ll just see if we can get our deposit on the apartment back. I swear to God, it’s like trying to study with a five-year-old.”

“You never answered my question.”

“What question?”

“Are you going to go on a date with Blake?”

I sighed and fell into the chair at my desk. “One, he’s your cousin. Two, he works for UT now, that’s just . . . kinda weird. Three, no.”

“It’s not like he’s your professor! He isn’t even a professor, period. And do you realize that if you marry him, we’ll actually be family?”

“Marry? Candice—wait . . . how do you even jump from me going on a date with him, to marrying him? I’m not going to marry your cousin, sorry. And I don’t care if he’s a professor or not, it doesn’t change the fact that he works for the school. Besides, he’s not even my type.”

“Not your type?” She deadpa

I had to agree with her on that. Blake West was tall, blond, blue-eyed and had a body like a god. One of these days he was going to show up on a Calvin Klein billboard. “I had a crush on him when we were thirteen. That was eight years ago.”

“But you’d had a crush on him for years. Years. You were devastated when he moved away.”

“And like I said, I was thirteen. I was ridiculous.”

Blake is five years older than Candice and me, but even so, all of my childhood memories included him. He was always at Candice’s house to hang out with her older brother, Eli, and we followed them everywhere. I’d viewed both Eli and Blake like awesome, older brothers until the day Blake saved my life.

Okay, that’s a little dramatic. He didn’t actually save my life.

I was nine at the time, we’d been playing on a rope swing and jumping into a little lake not far from our houses. When I’d gone to jump, my foot slipped into the foot hole and I ended up swinging back toward land headfirst, screaming the whole way. Blake had still been standing on the bank and caught me, swinging me into his arms before I could make the trip back toward the water.

In that moment, he became my hero, and I fell in love. Or, at least, my nine-year-old version of love. My infatuation for him grew over the next few years, but he never saw me as anything other than his “little cousin’s best friend”. I’m sure if I’d been older, that would have been a blow to my ego, but I just kept following him around like I’d always done. When he graduated from high school, he immediately joined the Air Force and moved away from me. I remember throwing a few “my life is over” fits to Candice, but then I got boobs and hips and the other boys my age started noticing me. And then it was something along the lines of, “Blake, who?”

He’s been out of the Air Force for four years now and had pretty much been off the grid until this last fall when he moved to Austin and started working at UT as a personal trainer. Candice had flipped out over having her cousin near her again. And I’d just straight flipped out. But then I saw him. He looked like freakin’ Adonis standing there in his god-like, too beautiful for his own good, glory. Every straight female in a mile radius seemed to flock to him, and he loved every second of it.

That is why I refused to go on a date with him.

“Rachel.” Candice snapped.

I turned my wide gaze to her.

“Did you even hear me?”

“Not unless we’re done talking about Blake.”

“We are if you’ve decided to say ‘yes’ to him.”

I rolled my eyes, “Why is it so important to you if I go on a date with him or not?”

“Because he’s been asking you out all year! He’s my cousin and you’re my best friend and I love you both and I want to see you two together.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure you and Blake are the only two who feel that way. I have absolutely no desire to date a guy that has women literally hanging on him all the time.” Stupid Air Force turning him into sex on a stick.

Suddenly she was sporting her signature pouty face. “Rach? How much do you love me?”

“Nope. No, I’m not going.”

“Are you saying you don’t love me?” I was already shaking my head to say no when she turned on the puppy eyes and continued, “So will you please do this for me? Pleeeeaaasse? I thought you were my best friend.”

I can’t even believe we’re doing this right now! “If I go on one date with him will you drop this forever?”

She squeaked and did a happy clap, “Thank you, I love you, you’re the best!”

“I didn’t say I would, I said if.”

“But I know you’ll go.”

“He works for the school!” I whined, going back to my original argument. Even though he wasn’t a professor at UT, he did work there as a personal trainer and helped out in the athletics department. Since I was majoring in Athletic Training and Candice in Kinesiology and Health Ed, we saw him almost daily in classroom type settings. That just—didn’t sit right with me.

“Rachel,” she sighed and twisted back around to face me. “Seriously that is getting old. He already checked it out and it’s a non-issue. Stop acting like you don’t want to date him.”

“I don’t! Who wants to date a man-whore?”

“He isn’t a—well . . . eh.” she made a face. “Well, yeah.”

“Exactly!” Blake was rumored to be screwing most of the females he trained as well as . . . well . . . he was rumored to be screwing pretty much any female he passed. Whether the rumors were true or not was up for debate. But seeing as he didn’t try to squash the rumors, and the horde of bimbos was never far from him; I was leaning toward them being true.

“You haven’t dated anyone since Daniel, you need to get back out there.”

“Yes I have. Candi, just because I’m not constantly seen with a guy like you are, doesn’t mean I don’t date.”

I had gotten kind of serious with Daniel at the begi

Asshole.

After him I’ve gone out with a few guys, but they didn’t last much longer than a date or two and an “I’ll call you later”. Not that there was anything wrong with those guys, I was just more interested in being done with school and Texas than getting my “MRS” degree or risking catching a disease.

I sighed to myself and headed toward our door.

“Are you going to find Blake?!” Candice was bouncing in her seat and her face was all lit up like a kid on Christmas morning.

“What—Candice, no. It’s after midnight! I’m just done talking about this. I’m going to wash my face so I can go to sleep. And I’m not go