Free Shark Bait (The Grab Your Pole Series) by Jenn Cooksey Page B

you don’t actually land him exclusively, there’s still a really good chance he’ll wanna be friends, and that’s not such a bad thing. Tristan really is a good guy and he can be a powerful ally when it comes to other guys you might be interested in, that is, if things with him don’t work out like we’re hoping. That’s essentially how Melissa and Keith got together. She and Tristan went out a couple times at the beginning of our freshman year and didn’t hit it off, but because they’re friends, he was more than happy to influence Keith for her when she asked a while back. He’s a senior and not only quarterback for the football team, he’s the team captain and he’s almost as difficult to pin down as Tristan is. I’m not sure how Tristan did that either, but he’s responsible for a couple matches that probably wouldn’t have happened without his involvement.”
    Did I mention what an overflowing fountain of information she is? Holy cow! This girl knows everything ! And now that I’ve made a decision and I’m armed with a slew of information, I think it’s time to get down to brass tacks and figure out what the strategy is for this mission. “Okay. I’m sold. What do I do?”
    “Well, this is probably gonna be the hard part, I know I’d have difficulty with it…if you wanna hook him and truly reel him in for good, I suggest you do nothing. He’s gotta come to you…it won’t work any other way. Oh and you need to be prepared, there will be attempts to get away, because I’m sure he’s not gonna come quietly. He can be stubborn to a fault and sometimes even to his own downfall.”
    “His downfall?” Jeez, this guy sounds like he’s more complex than the Pythagorean theorem. (Blechk… math .)
    She laughed and then enlightened me on her meaning once more. “This is just an example, but it’s kinda funny… You probably don’t know this yet, but both Tristan and Jeff should actually be seniors this year. However, back in third grade Jeff came down with a really nasty case of chicken pox and had to miss almost half the year.”
    “You’re kidding? That’s crazy!” I guess I never thought about having to miss school because of illness. It was never an issue, we were already home.
    “Yeah, he was super sick. Here’s the really crazy part though, Jeff was gonna be held back because he couldn’t make up all that work in time, so, because he and Tristan didn’t wanna be separated, they came up with a plan that resulted in Tristan being held back too. The downfall came when Tristan missed out on a perfect attendance award he’d been competing for since he’d been in kindergarten,” Kate told me, shaking her head like she still couldn’t believe they’d done that.
    “Um… I don’t even know how to respond to that. It’s extreme, that’s for sure,” I said, stunned once again. I think maybe I’ve underestimated what a best friend actually does…
    “Yeah. You know the saying ‘blood is thicker than water?’ Well, not between these guys. That’s partly why Jeff will be key in this whole thing too. It’s imperative he does everything he’s capable of doing to influence Tristan, but we have to be ultra-careful that he doesn’t find out what we’re really up to. Since that’ll primarily be my job, it looks like I’m gonna be getting back together with the love of my life once again,” she said, revealing part of her master plan with a smile.
    “Okay, but if I’m not supposed to do anything, how am I gonna, you know...do this?” I mean, I really don’t understand the inner workings, the machinations if you will, of things like this so I need step-by-step instruction.
    “Well, we already know you have his attention…for now. You could say that he’s easily distracted so the trick will be keeping his attention and getting him to chase you. Which might actually be the easy part because it was really weird how he totally latched onto you the way he did this morning and I