No Place Like Homecoming Read online

  I told him that I wasn’t nearly as obsessed with homecoming anymore, but he didn’t seem to believe me. But then again, he hadn’t believed that I was willing to skip school and even this dance to make the drive out east with him.

  I might have, too, if Aunt Lucy hadn’t threatened to skin me alive if I even thought about spending a night alone in a motel with Flynn.

  So, that plan had been abandoned, but only because my life was at stake. This whole interfering parental figure thing was new to me, but it wasn’t all bad. In fact, sometimes it was even kinda...nice.

  Like tonight, for example. She’d helped me get ready, and had gone nuts taking pictures, even though my date was MIA.

  But he’d be here. Callie and Willow were right. He said he’d be back in time for the dance, and he would be.

  That was the thing about my guy. He was there for me. He was there for everyone he loved.

  And yeah, he’d totally dropped the L-word when we were saying our goodbyes. Then he’d hopped into his car with a smirk—no doubt laughing at my stunned expression—and had set off to see his family before I could respond.

  But tonight I’d finally get my chance. The L-word wasn’t something I’d ever used before and I’d had no intention of dropping it casually in a phone chat while he was on the road. I drew in a deep breath to steel my nerves.

  It wasn’t every day that I bared my soul to a guy, but I could do this. If there was one thing Flynn was helping me understand these past few weeks it was that finding love didn’t have to be scary. Letting people in was worth the risk.

  I grinned up at the stage where Savannah was beaming. She looked like a queen up there, and I was happy for her. I didn’t even feel a pang of envy that she was homecoming queen and I hadn’t even been nominated.

  Look at me growing as a person.

  Between my new friends, my surprisingly stable home life with my aunt, and my boyfriend who loved me...I barely even recognized my life these days. But it was mine, and it wasn’t going anywhere.

  Neither was I.

  Callie nudged my arm. “Over there,” she hissed.

  I glanced over at the side door and—my heart stopped. When it started up again, it was on overdrive. Gah, my guy was so hot!

  He always looked hot to me, but standing there in his tux that I recognized from our first run-in and wearing that smile I adored...I’d never seen anything hotter in my life. He started toward me but I beat him to it, rushing toward him and throwing my arms around his neck as he held me tight.

  “Miss me?” he teased.

  I pulled back to look my fill and my answer came out on a sigh. “So much.”

  He dipped his head. “Good answer.”

  His lips were warm and firm when he kissed me, and the sensation that flooded me was so perfectly sweet. It was relief and excitement, comfort and excited anticipation.

  He deepened the kiss as I sank into him, my body melting against his as we showed each other just how much we’d hated being apart. “Sorry I was late.” He pulled back and that was when I realized he was holding a bouquet in one hand. “I wanted to surprise you.”

  Warmth flooded me from head to toe. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to Flynn’s thoughtfulness, and I really hoped I never took it for granted.

  The sound of applause had us turning to face the stage. Flynn wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. “So, what did I miss while I was gone?”

  “Oh, the usual,” I said, resting my head back against his shoulder. “A pinata disaster at the Hormel party, a couple parties at your house—”

  “Willow’s house,” he corrected with a laugh.

  “Yours too,” I said with a shrug.

  I felt his nod against the side of my head as he nuzzled my temple. “I suppose. It’s still weird, you know? Having my family be so far away.”

  I nodded too. “Yeah, I know.”

  We were both adjusting to this new reality, but we were doing it together, and that meant everything.

  “You missed a whole lot of that,” I said, laughing as I pointed to a dark corner where Callie was making out all hot and heavy with her boyfriend.

  Flynn laughed. “I’m glad to see she’s so happy. She deserves it.” We both spotted Willow walking hand in hand with her guy as they headed toward the dance floor where Savannah and the homecoming king were starting up the next dance. “They both do.”

  “And so do you,” I said.

  This was a lesson I was determined that he learn. He deserved happiness. And I meant to help him find it.

  I could feel his smile against my cheek as he tucked his head down to kiss my neck.

  “And what about you?” he asked. “Are you happy?”

  I gripped his forearms, pulling them even tighter around my waist. “I am now that you’re back.”

  “Sorry my only suit is my catering tux,” he said with a laugh.

  “I kinda like it.” I turned my head to kiss his cheek. “It reminds me of the first time we met.”

  “Mmm.” His laugh was low and rumbly in my ear. “How things have changed since then, huh?”

  I nodded, thinking of all we’d been through. We were both leaving our families behind and starting over, in a way. “Was it hard to say goodbye?” I tilted my head so I could see his expression.

  He looked grim as he nodded. “Yeah. But we’re already making plans to meet up halfway in a couple months, so...I’ll see them again soon. And in the meantime, I know they’re okay.” His grip tightened. “Thanks to you.”

  I rolled my eyes, spinning in his arms to face him once more. “It wasn’t me. It was you. You’re a great guy and people love you for it.”

  He leaned down to kiss me hard. “It was hard to say goodbye, but Isla...I couldn’t wait to get back to you.”

  I smiled up at him. “Good. It just wasn’t the same around here while you were gone.”

  He kissed me as I wrapped my arms around his neck, both of us swaying in time to the music that was blaring from the speakers nearby.

  “I’ve been waiting for you to get back so I could tell you something,” I said. Nerves had me gripping his shoulders harder than necessary.

  His brows drew down. “What is it?”

  I wet my lips and took a deep breath. “I love you, Flynn.”

  His smile was sudden and blinding before he crushed me to him and buried his head against my neck. “Isla, I love you so much. I didn’t even know I could feel this way.”

  I nodded against his shoulder. It was the best I could do. My throat refused to work to form words.

  “You make me feel like I’m understood,” he said softly. “You make me feel like I belong.”

  Tears still pricked the back of my eyes as I nodded, pulling back to look at him. “Yeah, I know the feeling. You make me feel like I finally have a place where I fit. A real home.”

  A wicked glint lit his eyes as his lips curved up in a smile. “Well, you know what they say…”

  “Oh no. Nope.” I shook my head. I knew what he was going to say before he even said it. He and my Princess Troupe friends would never let me live down my horrific stint as Dorothy. That party was going to haunt me for life. “No, Flynn. Do not say it—”

  He grinned as he cut me off with a quick kiss. “There’s no place like home.”

  Ready for more of the Princess Troupe? Be sure to check out Callie’s story next in Never Have I Ever Land.

  This Tinkerbell is finally in with the Lost Boys. Seriously, she's the new lead singer for their band. But the guitarist she's crushing on only sees her as a cute little mascot. And the guy who's crushing on her? She doesn't see him at all.

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  Never Have I Ever Land

  Chapter 1

  Maverick

  My football coach was always telling me to unleash my inner beast on the field.

  I stared down at the top of Beauty’s head as she gave the fur-covered glove another tug. She was trying to force it onto my hand to complete the Beast costume.

  Somehow I didn’t think this was the beast my coach was referring to.

  The thought made me laugh. But apparently Callie—the girl who was playing Beauty to my Beast at this kids’ party—took the sound to be a grunt of pain because she glanced up with a wince. “Sorry. Am I hurting you?”

  I laughed again at the thought of this little slip of nothing hurting me and her wince turned to a look of real concern as her eyes narrowed in thought. She bit her lips as she cast the ill-fitting furry gloves another look. “Maybe we can do without the gloves.”

  I gave a little grunt of agreement and she responded with a brilliant smile. Why? I didn’t know. Smiles seemed to be this girl’s default setting. It was weird.

  And nice.

  But also weird. Because unlike other girls I knew, the girls who hung out in my crowd, her smiles weren’t the slightest bit flirtatious. She just seemed happy. Like, all the time.

  As I’d said before—weird. And nice. And pretty in a ridiculously adorable kind of way. And sweet. And...currently losing all interest in me.

  Her hands lingered on the furry glove that wouldn’t quite fit over my large hands, but rather than teasing me about having such big hands, this girl ducked. She was using my body as a shield, peering around me at someone or something in the distance.

  “Callie, quit stalking and go over there and talk to the guy,” Isla said. The new girl was currently dressed up as Snow White with an ugly brown helmet that was supposed to be hair, and she was talking to my Beauty with an air of exasperation.

  Stalking? Who was Callie stalking?

  I stayed as still as possible.

  Honestly, I wasn’t used to being so blatantly ignored, but I wasn’t offended. I was a quiet guy, and while that normally didn’t stop me from being the center of attention at school, I’d discovered that nothing was normal when it came to this Princess Troupe.

  And yeah, I was officially part of the Princess Troupe. Football came first, obviously, but on the nights and weekends when I could help Mrs. Messner out and make a few bucks for spending money, I was one of their on-call princes.

  No one in his right mind would give me crap for being a ‘prince.’ It was one of the unspoken perks of being the biggest guy at school and a star of the football team. No one gave me crap for anything.

  Another perk? Girls noticed me. Not to sound like a cocky jerk or anything but it had always been this way, ever since junior high. I’d never had to flirt or charm or even talk, actually, because girls were just there. Friends too. Friends sort of just came with being on a team. But girls? They noticed me. They flirted with me.

  Normally.

  I stared down at Callie’s brown hair which was currently being held off her face with a big blue bow. She was looking between Isla and whoever it was she was supposedly stalking.

  “I can’t just talk to him,” she said, her voice all high with panic.

  Who? I wanted to ask. But I also didn’t really want to break the moment. Was it wrong to eavesdrop on a conversation when they were literally right there?

  I didn’t think so.

  I hoped not.

  “He’s not an actual rock star, you know that right?” Isla teased.

  Who wasn’t a rock star? I wanted to crane my neck to see who they were talking about, but again—they seemed to think I was an inanimate object. I wasn’t ready to startle them by revealing the fact that I wasn’t deaf or made of marble. So I stayed put.

  “He might as well be,” 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 White look freakin’ hot?” he asked as he came around the table to pull her into his arms. They were already making out as they stumbled back for some privacy behind a row of trees that lined the Harper family’s backyard.

  Roman finally took notice that he had two hot chicks standing in front of his table and he wiped his hands off to face them with a slow smile. “Ladies,” he said in a flirty tone that made me want to punch him.

  Savannah looked to Callie but when it became clear she was just going to stand there and blush, the tall blonde started up a conversation about Roman’s catering job and the people who were throwing this party—apparently, they were good tippers.