Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall in Love by Maryrose Wood

Author:Maryrose Wood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307433732
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2009-04-10T16:00:00+00:00

“Randall will do it,” I announce.

“RANDALL?” says Jess, eyebrows practically curving into question marks.

“Why not me?” says Jacob. “Or Matthew? I’m sure either one of us would behave like a perfect gentleman,” he adds, inclining his head respectfully toward Kat.

“Of course you would,” I say, refusing to contemplate Matthew being Kat’s fake boyfriend, even temporarily. “But Randall is the better choice.”

Now Jess gets it. “Because if Dmitri gives Kat any trouble,” she begins—

“Randall,” I finish, “will whup his lovesick Russian ass.”

No one can argue with this. But Kat is dubious that Randall will agree. I touch my cheek, which is starting to get a green tinge at the edges of the bruise. “He owes me a big favor,” I say. “I’m sure he’ll do it.”

Privately, what I’m thinking is this: if Randall feels about me even remotely the way I feel about Matthew, he’s bound to do anything I ask. Does that include pretending to be the boyfriend of one of my best friends? There’s one way to find out!

(This raises the question of whether I’m actually curious to know whether Randall DOES feel that way about me. A question we will skip for now. Because anyone who’s ever taken a test knows, if you don’t know the answer, skip it and come back to it latah!)

“But I don’t like to have people watch me practice,” protests Kat. “Except you, sometimes.”

“Then Randall’s your man,” I say. “You won’t even know he’s there. I mean that in a nice way,” I quickly add.

Kat looks wary. “Okay,” she says. “But there’s one more problem. Good accompanists are expensive, and I have to pay Dmitri. Now that my dad is out of the picture, I’ll have to come up with the money myself.” She doesn’t need to elaborate. We all know Kat doesn’t have cash to spare. Her violin lessons alone eat up half her dad’s modest pay.

“If this Dmitri dude loves you, he’d do it for free, wouldn’t he?” asks Jacob. “I mean, I would, for an excellent lady like yourself, were I the gentleman in question.”

“But we can’t EXPLOIT his feelings for Kat, that will only ENCOURAGE him!” argues Jess. “It’s absolutely necessary that Dmitri be paid. Kat has to keep this STRICTLY business.”

True to his word, Trip has stayed silent during this whole exchange. Now he speaks.

“Hey, peeps,” he says quietly. “I know I’m the inter-loping asshole who crashed your party. But I’d like to help.” He’s careful not to look directly at Kat. “Paying the lovesick Russian is something I can do. Problem solved. Okay?”

We all stare at Trip.

“Don’t you want to know how much?” asks Kat in a shaky voice.

“Nope,” he laughs. “Sorry to sound like such a spoiled trust-fundaholic and all, but the fact is, it really, truly doesn’t matter.”

“That was so cool, what Trip did, don’t you think?”

“Yup.”

“He’s sort of surprising when you get to know him, isn’t he?”

“Yup.”

I’m desperately trying to start a conversation with Matthew, who’s grown even more inscrutable than usual in recent days.

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