No Place Like Homecoming, Dallen, Maggie [beach read book .TXT] 📗

Callie said. Her soft sigh did something odd to my chest. It tightened and swelled at the same time.

What the—

What was that feeling?

“Dude.” Isla said the word like it was a statement in and of itself.

Maybe it was, because Callie seemed to know what it meant.

“I know,” she said with another sappy sigh.

This time the sigh made me angry. This was a sensation I knew well. To clarify, I wasn’t angry at her, just at whoever it was that had her sighing.

I didn’t know Callie well. We’d been going to the same small school since I’d transferred as a freshman so I knew her, but we didn’t hang out in the same crowd. The extent of my interactions with her up until I’d joined the Princess Troupe had been limited. Mainly just being in the same classes. I wasn’t sure we’d ever actually exchanged words until we’d started working together. However, that didn’t mean I wasn’t ready to kick someone’s butt for her.

 But, just like there were perks that came with being the biggest baddie on the football team, there were unspoken rules that went with it too. Like, I could be as loud and aggressive as I wanted on the field, but if I acted like that off the field, I’d just be a bully.

And I was not a bully. My mom raised me better than that.

Beating up some dude I didn’t know for making a girl sigh was a big no-no. I knew this, but it didn’t stop my hands from clenching into fists at my sides.

“Just go over there,” Isla insisted.

And then Savannah was joining us, but she at least acknowledged my existence. “What’s up, Beast?”

“Hey.”

The one word seemed to startle Callie and then she was grinning up at me as if I’d just won the state championship right then and there. All I’d done was say ‘hey.’

“The gloves don’t fit?” Savannah asked. I couldn’t tell if she was asking me or Callie but Callie answered on my behalf.

No, they didn’t fit. Like the rest of the outfit, the gloves had been made for someone of a normal size. Luckily the beast’s head fit, otherwise I’d just be walking around in an ugly purple jacket that was threatening to rip at the seams every time I moved a muscle.

Savannah nodded with pursed lips. She was Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty or something. I hadn’t been doing these gigs long enough to know the difference between the princesses.

I had a feeling Callie would be horrified if I told her that. Don’t ask me why, but she and Savannah took their roles very seriously. Even now, Savannah was pursing her lips and eyeing me from head to toe critically. “Luckily his size alone makes him a good fit for the part.”

Huh. Now even Savannah was talking about me in the third person like I wasn’t here. Savannah was one of the girls that hung out in my crowd, so I knew her better than Callie, and definitely better than the girl who’d only moved to town a few weeks ago. It wasn’t like we were close or anything, but we went to the same parties and sat at the same lunch table. We’d never hooked up, though. She had a stuck-up vibe about her, and a reputation for being kind of a diva. Rumor had it she thought she was too good to date a high school guy, or whatever. Which was fine by me. She was hot, but I’d never had a thing for her.

Isla turned to Savannah with arched brows. “Would you please tell Callie to go over there and talk to Roman?”

Roman. A surge of rage shot through me so quickly I almost didn’t catch the growl before it slipped out of my mouth.

I stared at Callie whose cheeks had turned pink.

She had a thing for Roman? I didn’t have to turn around to know he was one of the guys setting up the catering station on the far side of the lawn. He worked with Flynn at that restaurant on Main Street, and he’d graduated the year before.

The guy was bad news, that was pretty much all I knew about him. Always in trouble when he was at Lindale High. A player and a slacker and…

Apparently Callie here thought he was a rock star.

I glared down at Callie, but she’d gone back to ignoring my presence. An impressive feat since I towered over her and was about double the width of the girl.

“I don’t know what to say.” Callie was chewing on her lip and Isla braced her by her shoulders.

“Remember what we talked about. It’s all about perception.” Isla shrugged. “Act hot and he’ll think you’re hot.”

My glare should have burned a hole in the new girl’s head. Callie didn’t have to act anything. She was hot. No, she was better than hot. She was sweet and kind and sincere and yeah, also hot in a cute girl-next-door kind of way.

I turned my glare to Callie because she was nodding, like this made sense, and I wanted to ask her if she’d ever looked in a mirror.

“Come on,” Savannah said, already walking away in the direction of the catering station.

“Wait! I can’t.” Callie was still protesting as Isla moved her grip from Callie’s shoulders to her elbow and started steering her along in Savannah’s wake.

I found myself following too. I mean, why not? They didn’t seem to care that I’d just been part of their private conversation. And besides, Callie might need me around if Roman got ideas.

I couldn’t stop my growl this time, but none of the girls seemed to notice. Of course not. I was just the giant in a Beast costume walking two steps behind, a stuffed animal head tucked beneath my arm. Nothing to see here.

When the girls drew close, Flynn looked up first from where he was stocking a bin full of ice and sodas, and he grinned at the sight of his new girlfriend. “How do you make Snow