How to Lose a Bet and End Up Winning (ON HOLD)

Chapter 9

Nathan

Why did I have to do this again? Oh that's right, instead of narrowing down our criteria and finding Owen only 4 dates, we had to bicker amongst ourselves until we caved and agreed to go on dates of our own in exchange for picking one each for him.

Wow, we're idiots sometimes.

The dates that Kota, Victor, and Silas had been on so far were awful. They had each come back letting us know that Mr. B was out for revenge. Victor even mentioned that for a split second he'd thought Mr. B had conspired with his mother on his date selection. Gabe had been insanely jealous of Silas's date, and wanted his own technicolor dreamcoat to dress up. North wanted Kota's biker chick.

I could only imagine what I was in for today. I had picked a waterpark, hoping that if we spent enough time on the slides and in the pools, there wouldn't be any time to actually talk to my date. After putting on my red swim trunks and matching t shirt, I headed to the bathroom and ran a hand through my hair one more time. As I looked over my reflection, I noticed that my arms were stretching the material of the t shirt.

Gabe's going to want to go shopping again. Maybe I can convince him to take along more of our brothers for the trip. That way it's not just me.

As I exited my house, I sighed, resigned to the fact that I would spend a Saturday at the mall and wondered again if I should go change my shirt.

No. This is as non-athletic as I get.

I wasn't sure why I wanted to impress a date that I knew was going to be bad. Mr. B—Owen, damnit—was out for revenge. Doc convinced us all that Owen needed to get out and we stupidly listened. Then we compounded that mistake with letting Gabriel set up his profile.

Morons, the lot of us.

Regardless, I wanted to impress this girl. I wanted to have the one date that went well. I wanted this to be the start of something new for me. Something good. My brothers were my family, but there's just something about a woman that makes a man want to impress her.

I sound like a caveman. 'You woman. Me man. Man impress woman.'

I pulled into a parking space at the waterpark and thanked my lucky stars that the lot wasn't at capacity yet. I made my way over towards the entrance where the dolphin fountain was. Waiting next to it was a girl dressed in light blue. She was wearing sandals, but the rest of her looked ready to hit the slopes rather than the waterpark.

Maybe she had on her swimsuit underneath her pants and long sleeve shirt? How has she not died of heat exhaustion yet?

I gave her a big grin as I approached and extended my hand to shake hers. " 'MyFriendSignedMeUpForThis?' " I inquired politely.

"Yes. You must be 'RedRashScratcher.' " I heard her response and saw her lips continue to move, but I didn't hear another word she said.

I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, OWEN BLACKBOURNE.

NO. That's not punishment enough.

I'M GOING TO LET THE DOC TORTURE YOU AND THEN KILL YOU.

She was still talking, and I was still standing there, staring off into space, my hand extended towards her, but she made no move to take it.

I can't blame her, she's probably thinks she'll catch the rash.

Finally she seemed to notice that I wasn't paying attention. "Are you ok?" she asked, and her voice was hoarse, the strength of it wasn't much more than a whisper.