Love Match Read online

“What’s that?” Maya asked when she saw the metal contraption Renee had set up. It held a computer tablet high enough to clear the signs, giving it a direct line of sight to the field.

  Renee walked Maya a few steps away from the tablet. “Cleo’s across-the-globe call the other day inspired me. I set up my own international video chat.”

  “You’ve decided this is the best way to introduce your family to Diego?”

  “Oh, God no! But I did introduce myself to his,” Renee said. “I snuck into his phone and got his cousin’s e-mail address. We messaged back and forth to set up a surprise for Diego and his family. I rented out a local restaurant in a nicer part of town down there. It’s a sports bar where they show soccer games from all over the world. I’m sending a live feed of the game so his family can watch him. They’ve never missed a single one of his games back home.”

  “Wow. You really do like this guy.”

  Renee looked back to the tablet, then leaned in to whisper to Maya. “I think I might do more than like him.”

  “You mean you might love him?”

  Renee slapped a hand over Maya’s mouth. “Don’t say it out loud!”

  Maya laughed while she batted Renee’s hand away. “Doesn’t matter if I say it or not. You’re the one who has to say it for it to mean anything.”

  “It’s way too soon.”

  “True,” Maya agreed. “But the heart does not keep to a clock.”

  “It doesn’t like being split in two either,” Renee said. “What’s the latest on the Reed boys?”

  Maya turned her attention to the field. “Oh, look, your boyfriend has the ball and is taking it toward the net.”

  “You can put off the conversation with me, Maya,” Renee said. “But you can’t put it off with Travis much longer.”

  Maya made her way to the golf course a few minutes before the soccer game ended. The results of the game were already a foregone conclusion. Diego and the rest of the Academy team were letting the actors win.

  It hadn’t been obvious to most of the people in the stands at first, but anyone who’d ever seen a game played by Academy students knew it without question. They made far too many mistakes and missed too many opportunities. As the game went on, the mistakes became bigger and harder to miss. The Academy team switched from playing to performing.

  It began with Diego doing a pratfall as he ran to the net. He tripped, fell, and tumbled past the goalie as the ball bounced off the post and back into the field of play. That inspired the rest of the team to one-up one another with more spectacular mistakes until even the actors laughed along. By the time Maya left the stands, the guests had outscored the Academy team by ten points.

  The golf course was much calmer. However, a foursome that included a pair of designers from some fashion reality contest were adding a level of drama to the game, if the texts Maya was receiving were to be believed.

  Maya hoped for a report when she caught up with Cleo at the ninth hole. A light lunch had been set out under tents there, since it was the midpoint of the game. Assorted members of the press were permitted to stage impromptu interviews there as well. Nails was not about to let any opportunity to promote his students—and his school—pass by.

  Cleo had just finished at the ninth hole with an impressive eagle, putting the ball into the hole at two strokes under par. She received a polite round of applause from the crowd and smiled as she shook hands with her teammates, another girl from their class and two women who hosted a popular antiques show on PBS.

  The fake smile dropped to an expression of extreme loathing as Cleo walked off the green and joined her friend. Dressed in Maya’s pink polo and khaki shorts with Renee’s baseball cap on top covering her buzz cut, Cleo was almost unrecognizable.

  “Kill me,” Cleo said by way of greeting. “Kill me now. Anything to end this torture.”

  Maya tried not to be too offended. “My clothes aren’t that bad.”

  “It’s not the clothes,” Cleo said. “It’s the company. Those are two of the most boring people on the planet. They don’t talk about anything but hundred-year-old chairs, and tapestries, and armoires—my God, the armoires! It never stops. How these people don’t put their audiences to sleep every night is beyond me.”

  “At least you won’t be showing up on the Wall with them,” Maya said over a loud outburst of cheers and laughter from the crowd watching the ninth hole.

  The designers Maya had been getting reports about were on the green behind Cleo’s foursome. Well, one of them was on the green. The other one, dressed in plaid capris and a matching jaunty golf hat, was up in a tree trying to knock loose her golf ball, totally playing it up for the crowd.

  “Those are the people I wish I’d been teamed with,” Cleo said.

  Maya cringed inwardly from guilt. She and her friends had promised to never keep secrets, but she was not planning to tell her roommate that those were the people Cleo had been teamed with. As Student Ambassador, Maya didn’t have the power to get Renee on the swim roster, but she could rearrange the celebrity pairings on the golf course. She did just that the morning after Cleo’s makeunder.

  Maya still didn’t agree with Cleo’s plan to change up her look, but she wanted to be supportive. Those designers had developed a reputation on their show for flamboyance. They did whatever it took for extra screen time, from crazy outfits to backstabbing behavior. It was too big a risk to pair them with Cleo. The antiques show hosts were safer. No way they’d give Grant Adams anything to write about.

  Seeing the designers on the course, Maya was glad she made the roster change to protect Cleo’s reputation. But she was extremely sorry for the incredible drop in the fun factor of Cleo’s afternoon. The designers were having a blast.

  “Quick,” Cleo said as she grabbed a glass of purple punch. “Tell me I look great.”

  Without hesitation, Maya said, “You look dreadful.”

  “Hey! I’m in your clothes.”

  “Yes. My clothes. You should be in your own. This is a stupid plan. I’m sorry I had anything to do with it.”

  “I have gotten more compliments on my game today than I’ve ever gotten before,” Cleo said. “Obviously I’m doing something right.”

  “But at what cost?” Maya asked.

  An older woman in khaki pants and a beige jacket over a green polo was very obviously eavesdropping on their conversation. “Can I help you?” Cleo asked.

  “I’m sorry,” the woman said. “I couldn’t help but overhear. If you don’t mind me saying so, I think it’s a vast improvement over your old look. I saw you in that garish monstrosity in Savannah.”

  “Garish monstrosity?” Cleo said. “You must read Grant Adams. He called it that too.”

  “I’ve been known to peruse the blog,” the woman admitted.

  “Well,” Maya said, “if you don’t mind, I have to ask … don’t you think he’s been a little rough on a teenage girl?”

  “I’m sure he’s just trying to make a point,” the woman said. “His advice is in her best interest. Your friend is quite proficient in the gentleman’s game.”

  “Don’t you think maybe it’s time to stop calling it a gentleman’s game?” Maya asked.

  “It’s just a figure of speech,” the woman replied. “Not everything needs to be politically correct twaddle nowadays.”

  “You sound a lot like Grant Adams.” Cleo’s eyes narrowed. “Like maybe you are Grant Adams.”

  Maya had to laugh. “Cleo, don’t be—” The deer-in-the-headlights look that flashed across the woman’s face stopped Maya in her tracks. Was this woman really the man who had been attacking Cleo for the past two weeks?

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the woman said.

  “I’ve been doing a lot of research on ‘Mr.’ Adams lately,” Cleo said. “The way you talk. The language you use. It’s just like him. So, either you’re a really devout follower, or …”

  The woman didn’t say anything, but she looked extremely uncomfortable.


  Maya was outraged. “Why would you do that?” she asked the woman. “Why would you say those things? Why do you pretend to be a guy while you do it?”

  The woman pointed at Cleo. “To protect her,” she finally said. “I understand your position, Cleo. You’re young. You have an amazing talent. And you think that will be enough to succeed. Not in this world, my dear.

  “I call it the gentleman’s game, because it still is a gentleman’s game,” the woman said. “There are rules that we must abide by if we want to excel. You will not get very far in this sport with preposterous hair and outlandish clothing.”

  “And if it means changing who I am, I should do that,” Cleo said.

  “It has worked for me,” the woman agreed.

  “Thank you,” Cleo said with a smile. “I appreciate the advice.”

  Cleo put down her drink and walked back to the ninth hole. The designer who hadn’t climbed into the tree was down on the ground, using her golf club like a pool cue to knock the ball into the hole.

  Maya followed. “Cleo, where are you going?”

  “I have a few minutes between holes,” Cleo said. “I think it’s time for another change.”

  Chapter 18

  Maya was late for the beach volleyball match, but it didn’t matter. She had to see what those fashion contest designers did with Cleo. They’d taken her back behind the trees so she could have her big reveal when they were done, but it was taking forever. Both their foursomes were supposed to be onto the second half of the course. Maya was concerned that Nails would blame her for the delay in the schedule.

  Any thought for herself went out of Maya’s head when she saw Cleo come out of the trees. Her friend looked comfortable for the first time since she put on Maya’s outfit that morning. The old Cleo was back and better than ever. Maya’s borrowed clothing, however, was completely unrecognizable.

  Maya’s shorts were artistically cut to give the bland khakis a bit of an edge with tiger stripes down the sides, showing just the right amount of skin. The sleeves on the polo were completely gone, emphasizing the biceps that Cleo had developed from swinging clubs for a large chunk of her life. The pink shirt faded into a purple-stained design, courtesy of that awful punch. Maya didn’t want to think what that stuff did inside a person’s body. Renee’s baseball cap was gone completely, leaving Cleo’s short spiky hair free for all to gawk at.

  It was over the top, while still having nods to a classic look. Cleo had rarely looked better and Maya wondered why the designers hadn’t won their season of the show.

  Maya could barely contain herself as Cleo approached. “You look—”

  “I know!”

  “Wow.”

  They laughed at their sudden inability to create complex sentences. Cleo worked that outfit unlike anything their more fashionable friend, Renee, had ever worn.

  Once the excitement passed, Maya took it down to a serious tone. “Are you ready for this?”

  “Let Grant Adams come after me,” Cleo said. “I’m not letting her make her issues mine.”

  Maya wanted see the rest of the game, but she’d already stayed beyond her scheduled allotment of time. There was still an afternoon full of appearances to make before meeting up with Nicole and Primrose.

  Nails had done an impressive job creating a schedule that kept her and Travis on complete opposite sides of campus all day. There was no way the manipulative former football star could keep her from his son’s game, though.

  Maya breezed by the beach volleyball game, the swim meet, and a half-dozen track-and-field events before arriving at the football field at the start of halftime. She found Renee and Diego in the stands, holding hands and looking annoyingly adorable together. She was glad to see that things were working out between them, and happier that they remembered to save her a seat by the fifty yard line so she didn’t have to fight for some square inch of the bleachers. The stands were packed.

  With most of the other events wrapped up, the football field was the natural place for everyone to gather. It also boasted the second-largest celebrity draw of the day with the CW hotties.

  Along the sidelines on the other side of the field, the most popular actresses from the network cheered on their costars. Cheerleading was one of the few sports that hadn’t come to the Academy yet, so the “home” side of the field sat empty. Unfortunately for Maya, that meant there was nothing to drown out the conversations taking place around her.

  “Oh, yeah! It was totally my idea for Travis to go on The Hype,” Nicole said from her seat directly behind Renee, Diego, and Maya. “I suggested it to Tommy Z. He’s one of the producers.”

  It reminded Maya of the conversation she’d overheard back at the tournament when those strangers had been complimenting Maya by way of trashing Nicole. The main difference was that Maya was fairly certain she was meant to overhear this talk.

  “Nicole, that’s horrible! You suggested Travis for The Hype judging?”

  Maya didn’t recognize the second voice, but it didn’t matter. It was just some random person Nicole had picked so she wasn’t mumbling this information out loud by herself.

  “Of course not!” Nicole said as if she were insulted by the suggestion. It wasn’t the first time Maya had been impressed by her acting skills. “If I ever suspected that was going to happen, I would have told Travis to blow it off entirely. I should really call Tommy and give him hell for what he did to my friend.”

  “You’re such a thoughtful person, Nicole.”

  Blech. Maya wondered if she’d sounded like that when she was under Nicole’s spell. She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but she probably had.

  “I better get going,” Nicole said. “I’ve got some things to arrange before the tennis match.”

  Maya refused to glance Nicole’s way as she heard the metallic footsteps move past her and down the bleachers.

  “And … scene!” Renee said once Nicole was safely out of earshot.

  “Oh good,” Maya said. “I wasn’t the only one to suspect that performance was for our benefit.”

  Renee shook her head. “Nicole’s been dropping hints about it all week. Just another reason I tried to avoid her.”

  “What’s the point?” Maya asked. “None of it even matters.”

  “The only important thing is that that show affected Travis’s game,” Diego said. “Unless all this talk I heard about him being a star player really was because of his dad.”

  “No. He’s good,” Renee said. “He’s just not good today.”

  Maya was afraid to ask. “How bad is it?”

  Renee and Diego shared a look. They both obviously wanted the other one to answer the question. Finally, Diego gave in. “At first, I thought he was messing around like we did in the soccer game—throwing way off target, stumbling backward and tripping over his own feet. But I don’t think any of that was on purpose.”

  “They’ve been chanting ‘Hype’ all through the first half,” Renee added. “The crappy D-list comedian the school got to be the game announcer started it up. Travis’s game got worse the more they yelled … and the worse his game got, the more they shouted it.”

  Maya glanced to the scoreboard. There were still a few minutes left of halftime. Since this wasn’t a serious game, the guys stayed on the field during the break. The CW actors were on their side of the field posing for pictures with the fans.

  “I should talk to him,” Maya said.

  “That’s the last thing you should do,” Diego said.

  “Nails will kill you,” Renee added.

  “I’ve done what Nails wanted all week long,” Maya reminded them. “I stayed away. It didn’t make any difference.”

  Maya got up before Renee could talk her out of it. She used to have a calming presence on Jake. Maybe that would work with Travis as well. Even if it didn’t, she couldn’t just sit there and watch Travis fall apart through the second half without trying something.

  Maya was thankful that the CW girls were putting
on some kind of halftime show. Most of the people in the stands were watching their performance instead of Maya walking to the sideline. She got there in time to catch the tail end of the coach’s inspirational speech to his players. Nails had decided to lead the Academy guys for this exhibition match.

  “I know this isn’t a real game,” Nails said. “But are we going to let those pretty-boy actors make us look like amateurs?”

  “No!” the guys yelled in response.

  “Darn right we aren’t,” Nails said. “We are warriors. That is our battlefield. Are we going to let them take it from us?”

  “No!” the team shouted again.

  “Back when I was playing, we had a little ritual in the locker room during halftime,” Nails said. “That’s when the coach would name his own MVP for the game. Someone to lead the team out for the second half. Well, I’m going to do that now.”

  Maya hung back and listened, imagining all the ways what Nails was about to say could go wrong.

  “I know this is going to seem biased,” Nails said. “But I don’t care. We all know who the leader on that field has been in the first half and I’m not afraid to say it just because he’s my son.” Nails’s hand came down on Jake’s shoulder. “Jake, continue to do me proud.”

  The only person who looked more surprised than Jake was Travis. They were both speechless as Nails led the team in a final chant before breaking the group to get ready for the second half.

  Nails saw Maya before his sons did. He glared at her, but didn’t say anything in front of the guys. That was good, because she was even more concerned about Travis when she saw him standing alone staring out at the field.

  “Hey,” Maya said as she reached him.

  Travis grunted in return.

  They stood together in silence. After a week of avoiding each other, Maya found they had nothing to say. It didn’t help that the halftime show had ended and it felt like everyone in the stands was watching them. At first, Maya thought it was just her imagination, but the number of cell phone cameras trained on them proved she had a right to be paranoid.

  Maya didn’t want to start with the obvious, but the staring into space was already beyond awkward. “How’s the game going?”