Free Falling for the Wrong Guy by Sara Hantz

Boom.” Knowing most of the athletes on the teams, she figured they’d all be up for the experiment, since if they proved caffeine improved their performance, they could just down a few Cokes to gain an edge at game time. “I’ll ask the girls and you ask the boys.”
    “Can you—? You’ll have to ask the hockey teams.” Drew’s voice flattened, and he slouched back in his chair again.
    “Why?” Ruby frowned, wondering what had caused his abrupt behavior shift. Then it hit her: Blake played field hockey. The boys’ team wouldn’t agree to anything if Drew asked them, and the girls might say no in solidarity, too. “Sure. Not a problem.” She brought her pen to her mouth and chewed on the cap, a slightly gross habit she’d had since junior high. “We could always find volunteers from another school,” she suggested as an alternative.
    “No. It would make it much harder to coordinate,” Drew replied.
    “Okay, I’ll do all the asking. You can do the spreadsheets,” she reassured him. The tension in his shoulders seemed to lessen, at least a little, at the thought of not having to interact with other humans. “How do we decide who’s going to be in which group?”
    “Once we have the names, we’ll divide them up by gender. Five male hockey players, five female hockey players, five male golfers, five female golfers. We’ll assign them a number so the results will remain anonymous. And only the two of us should know the number for each person.”
    Ruby felt mesmerized watching Drew talk. It was like the more he got involved in what he was saying the less conscious he seemed of his body and the more relaxed he seemed. His sweatshirt hood had fallen away from his neck, and he didn’t even seem to notice.
    “Why does that matter? What about Brad, Ricky, and Jess?” She knew the answer, really. She was just enjoying watching him.
    “To stop anyone finding out whether they are on caffeine or not.”
    “Aren’t you the scientific one?” Ruby teased.
    “Yeah, this is real hard-core science.” Drew laughed.
    “You’re good at it,” she added, winking at him. It hit her that he wasn’t the only one loosening up. She wasn’t freaking out constantly over the thought of saying the wrong thing. She couldn’t have wished for it to be any better.
    “Hmmm. If you say so.” Drew ducked his head and grew overly absorbed in his notes, but she noticed he was smiling.
    “Looks like we have it sorted out,” she said. “Now what? There’s no point in going back to school yet. Why don’t we go for a walk in the park and then get some food somewhere?” Oh God. It almost seemed like a date.
    “Let’s go back to my place,” he suggested. Which felt even more date-like. “My parents won’t be there, so we’ll have it to ourselves. We’ll stop at the supermarket on the way and get something to eat.”
    Not a date. Of course he would feel much better not being outside where people could see him, she realized. Even though she knew there were a hundred reasons for them not to be alone together, she went along with it. “As long as you don’t expect me to cook anything. Making a sandwich is still my limit.” Drew probably didn’t remember how Blake used to tease her about being hopeless in the kitchen. Unlike him. Blake loved cooking, and he was always making meals and baking cakes. Ruby knew that with college looming, she should really learn to make something other than sandwiches and ramen noodles, just so she could look after herself when she no longer had her brother and her mother to rely on. But her mom had never minded that she didn’t cook—just said that Ruby would get the hang of it when she had to. And, of course, she made sure that Ruby always did her share of cleaning up after.
    “No, I remember that time you tried to make chocolate chip cookies. I think hockey pucks would have been more edible.” Drew’s lips curled up into a gorgeous, heart-stopping smile. “Don’t worry. I got