Free The Boyfriend Bet (Boyfriend Chronicles #2) by Chris Cannon Page B

spider.” He left the kitchen and came back with a piece of plain white paper and a blue, black, and red ink pen. He sketched what appeared to be a fairly accurate spider man mask and then cut it out with the kitchen shears.
    “Nice.”
    “Thanks, now how do we put it on the cake?”
    “People put plastic things on cakes as decorations all the time. I think it’s okay to put this on the cake. We could cover it with a thin layer of icing to make it blend in.”
    “Good idea.” He used the spatula to smear icing on the front and back of the paper before pressing it into the center of the spider web.
    Ms. Ida came around and nodded at our super hero cake. “Nicely done.”
    “Thanks.” I smiled at Grant. “I guess we’re not such a bad team, after all.”
    …
    Grant
    Zoe beamed at me, like everything was right in her world. And it might be, except for the fact that she was prone to drama and emotionally unstable. Even if I enjoyed spending time with her, she wasn’t the type of girl I needed in my life. I needed someone low maintenance. Someone on the datable girl spectrum somewhere between Lena with her controlling ways and Zoe with her constant emotional upheaval.
    I nodded like I’d heard what she said, but didn’t really agree. “So, I guess it’s time to clean the kitchen, again. That’s the problem with cooking. You might end up with something good to eat, but the mess afterward doesn’t seem worth it.”
    The happy expression slid from her face and she turned away from me. Walking over to the sink she filled it with hot water. “There’s not much to clean today.”
    Her tone was flat, like she’d gotten the message I wasn’t interested anymore, which was good. That would make everything easier. Aiden would see that I could have her back if I wanted her, so I’d win the bet, but I’d avoid the minefield of dating a girl who didn’t really fit into my life.
    …
    My mother was absent from the dinner table that night. My dad sat reading something on his tablet.
    “Where’s Mom?” I asked.
    “She had a meeting.”
    That cleared everything up. Still, this might give me the opportunity to get some answers to a few questions I’d been pondering. “How did you and Mom get together?”
    He set the tablet down. “Why do you ask?”
    “Well, I’m trying to figure out the kind of girl I want to date.”
    His gaze flicked to my mother’s empty seat. “I’m not sure I can help you there. Your mother and I started dating my senior year at Wilton.” He smiled like he was remembering something happy. “It was more her idea than mine. I was always lost in my books. More like your friend Aiden than you. Your outgoing personality definitely comes from your mother.”
    “So she just started following you around?”
    “No, but she seemed to be wherever I went, and if she saw me she’d come sit by me and talk to me. At first, I thought she just wanted help with her homework.”
    I laughed. “So you were clueless.”
    He shrugged. “I never thought someone as beautiful as her would be interested in a guy like me.”
    “How’d you end up together?”
    “One night, she told me that she wanted to go see a play and asked if I’d take her. I said yes. After that I did whatever she suggested and everything seemed to fall into place.”
    What happened between my mom and dad being happy way back then and ignoring each other at dinner now? Could I ask him?
    “I can see it on your face,” my dad said. “You’re wondering what went wrong.”
    “What happened?”
    “Your mother chose me because I followed her lead and then she expected me to become someone I wasn’t. I’m not the man who walks into a room and takes charge of a situation. I’m the guy who figures out the answers and happily turns them over to someone else to make the big announcement. I don’t need outside validation. I’m content to think big thoughts and solve puzzles, and that doesn’t give your mother the status she