Wyld Girls Can Dare
Wyld Girls Can Dare
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How much trouble does it take to forget the boy you befriended isn’t who he seems?
More than Wylder can afford.
In the aftermath of the concert that revealed Logan and Luke Cook’s biggest secret, they've gone missing. Missing from Nashville, the Academy, and from Wylder’s life.
But they can’t hide from her or the media forever, and Wylder happens to be related to the one person who knows exactly what they’re going through. Their biggest rival, her brother, Beckett.
Yet, finding Logan might not be the most difficult item on Wylder’s to-do list. She also has to figure out how to keep him firmly in the friend-zone—and that’s one task easier said than done.
One ex-boyfriend/teacher.
One cranky rock star hated by the media.
And a boy who kisses as good as he sings.
These Cook boys are going to be the death of her.
Main Tropes
- Secret Rockstar
- Hate to Love
- Rebel Girl
Synopsis
Synopsis
How much trouble does it take to forget the boy you befriended isn’t who he seems?
More than Wylder can afford.
In the aftermath of the concert that revealed Logan and Luke Cook’s biggest secret, they've gone missing. Missing from Nashville, the Academy, and from Wylder’s life.
But they can’t hide from her or the media forever, and Wylder happens to be related to the one person who knows exactly what they’re going through. Their biggest rival, her brother, Beckett.
Yet, finding Logan might not be the most difficult item on Wylder’s to-do list. She also has to figure out how to keep him firmly in the friend-zone—and that’s one task easier said than done.
One ex-boyfriend/teacher.
One cranky rock star hated by the media.
And a boy who kisses as good as he sings.
These Cook boys are going to be the death of her.
Wyld Girls Can Dare is book five in the About That Girl series. It is NOT a standalone (Book 4 needs read first), but it is full of swoony goodness, budding romance, and lots of rocking out.
Excerpt
Excerpt
Hockey was a beautiful sport.
Okay, Wylder would amend that. Hockey players were beautiful, not the game itself. She still barely understood half of it, despite two friends being destined for professional hockey greatness. Kenny and Killian would one day take the NHL by storm. Her biggest fear was that they’d end up on different teams and she’d have to choose one when they played against each other.
Well, maybe it wasn’t her biggest fear. But it would suck. How was she supposed to choose between her favorite lovable douchy gay and her favorite lovable loner gay? One thing was for certain. The NHL would never be the same.
“Go Killian!” Diego jumped to his feet, waving his arms in the air.
“D.” Wylder yanked him down. “He just got scored on. Not the time to cheer for him.”
People around them glanced their way, and she knew what they looked like. Wylder wore blue wax in her hair in honor of the Defiance Academy Knights hockey team—in honor of Killian, goaltender extraordinaire.
And Diego… with his crooked glasses and cheering at the wrong moments obviously belonged more at a mathlete competition or coding convention than a hockey game. The rebel and the nerd. It was the start of an epic story. Just not a love story.
Red crept into Diego’s cheeks as he straightened his glasses. “The screen thing zoomed in on Killian. I thought that was good.”
“The screen thing is called a Jimbotron.” Wylder smiled. “I think it’s named after the guy who invented it. They’re a lot bigger in the NHL.” Most high schools didn’t even have them, but Defiance Academy wasn’t most high schools.
“Invented suspending a TV over the ice? Do you think they broke a lot of them before figuring out how to do it?”
She shrugged. “That’s a really good question, D.”
The crowd around them jumped to their feet with a collective cheer, and Wylder snapped her eyes back to the game. “What? What happened?” She jumped up.
“What are you doing?” Diego’s eyes widened.
“I don’t know, but everyone else is cheering, so I think we should too.”
“Good idea.” He joined her, and together they let out a howl that left them both laughing.
There was nothing quite like hanging out with Diego. He took Wylder’s mind off everything else. Her new notoriety at the school. The viral video she hadn’t wanted anyone to see.
A substitute teacher taking over Sebastian’s class.
A missing Logan.
It had been two weeks since their video hit YouTube, since they performed their epic song, and both Cook brothers had disappeared soon after. Wylder tried many times to get in touch with Logan. They’d become friends, she’d thought. But he didn’t respond to any of her text messages or phone calls.
By the time she’d gotten up the nerve to message Sebastian, a week had passed. He at least had the decency to text her back, but it was only two words.
He’s fine.
That was it, all she knew about what was happening with Logan. Well, that and the media speculation. Some of them had been quite brutal.
“Wylds.” Diego pointed to the Jimbotron. Jumbotron? One of those didn’t sound right. “I think we scored.”
Oh, that made sense. That was why everyone had stood up. Wylder never felt more like an idiot than when she was at a hockey game. She wasn’t a dumb girl, but every time her friends tried to explain more about the game to her, she heard that teacher from Charlie Brown. Wha, wha wha wha wha.
“Go Knights!” she yelled. “Come on, D. Cheer with me. Yeah, Will!” Will had just stepped onto the ice and turned his eyes to where she sat a few rows up. He gave her a goofy grin before joining his teammates to line up.
“Give me a K!”
“K,” Diego yelled.
“Give me an I.”
“I.”
“Give me a double L.”
“Double L.”
“Give me an E!”
“E.”
“Give me an R.”
Diego grinned. “R!”
“What’s that spell?”
“Killer!”
Wylder jumped from her seat. The game hadn’t resumed, so the rest of the crowd was mostly quiet as Diego joined her in chanting. “Killer. Killer. Killer.” Their section joined in until the neighboring one picked up the chant.
She had to face it. Killian was beloved by Knights fans, just as Kenny had been. He was their ticket to the NHL, to feeling like their guy made it, like their little town mattered.
Wylder got it. She felt the same way. Her friends were doing big things.
She dropped back into her seat with a grin. It wasn’t hard to picture the frown marring Killian’s face under his mask. He was stoic when it came to hockey, not wanting attention drawn to him.
Really, it was his fault for being friends with her.
Diego cackled beside her. “He probably hates us right now.”
“Nah.” She pinched his cheek. “Who could hate this adorable face?”
He brushed her away, his cheeks flaming. “You, on the other hand…”
“Easily hate-able.” She nodded.
His face sobered. “You’re kidding, right?”
She shrugged. It had been a joke, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true. Wylder knew she was an acquired taste. “Let’s just focus on the game.”
Diego gave her a pained look before wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Wylds, my boyfriend likes you. He’s like… I don’t want to say he’s a jerk, but he doesn’t really do the friends thing much. And yet, you’ll never be rid of us.”
Diego was possibly the sweetest boy Wylder had ever known. Most people never saw past his awkwardness to find that out. Yet, anything sentimental made her squirm. “Are you trying to tell me you’re in love with me?”
“What?” He shifted away. “Wylder…”
“Relax, D.” She sometimes forgot he didn’t understand jokes and sarcasm. “I won’t steal you from our whittle Killer.”
His mouth curved into a half-smile at the mention of Killian. Last year, it would have made her a little nauseous. Then she experienced a heart-pounding romance over the summer. Her feelings for Sebastian were gone now, but she’d never forget how that felt.
Her phone buzzed, and she pulled it free, unlocking the screen with a lame hope it would somehow be Logan.
When she saw her brother’s name, she sighed and put it away without reading the message.
Diego stared at her. “Not him?”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about.” She pretended to focus on the game.
“Wylds… has he been in contact at all?”
Her shoulders dropped. “No. Not a word.”
Wylder was no longer friendless as she’d once been, she wasn’t alone. Yet, no one had ever understood her like Logan. She hadn’t liked him at first, but she knew now it was only because he was so much like her. They’d been building a different kind of friendship, one where they held each other’s secrets and pushed each other to be better, to step out of their comfort zones. She’d never have performed for the school if it wasn’t for him. She wouldn’t have found her way back to music.
And now he was just gone, disappeared, as if he’d never been there at all.
Diego hesitated for a moment before speaking again. “Killian heard from him.”
“What?” She snapped her eyes to his.
“He’d texted him wanting to know if he was coming back since he left most of his stuff. All Logan said was that he didn’t know.”
She’d have loved even getting that simple response from him. Closing her eyes, she willed herself not to cry, not to feel abandoned.
Again.
Every time she let someone into her music, they left.
The only person she could trust with it was herself.
“Hey, you’re Wylder Anderson!” a woman behind them called.
A few other people muttered as they recognized the name.
Wylder scooted down in her chair, wanting to disappear.
The woman wasn’t deterred. She slid from her row and walked down the few steps to reach the empty seat next to Wylder, dropping into it. She brushed white-blonde curls off her shoulders and smiled. “You are! Oh my gosh, I’ve watched that video of you on YouTube like a million times. I sent it to all my friends.”
“Glad I entertained you.”
Diego shot Wylder an alarmed look, but she only rolled her eyes. It wasn’t the first time she’d been recognized since then. Who would have thought the misfit troublemaker would receive celebrity status at their school?
The girl didn’t seem to notice Wylder’s rigid posture or stiff tone. “You sang with Logan Cook. He’s so hot. Are the rumors true? Is he really the voice behind Luke Cook?”
“No.” She crossed her arms. “Please go away.”
It was like she didn’t hear her. “That song was so amazing. Is it going to be on Spotify?”
“No. Please go away.”
“Are you and Logan dating? That would be so perfect. You’re so cute together.”
Wylder finally turned to her. “If you say the word so one more time, I’m going to punt your little valley girl butt across this stadium. Now, I’ve asked you nicely to leave me alone, even using the word please when I really just wanted to say something a lot less pleasant. I will not reveal all of Logan Cook’s secrets to an annoying stranger who can then go sell them to the media that is tearing him apart right now. So, can I go back to watching my friend play hockey now?”
Her mouth opened and closed like a fish before she shot to her feet and practically ran from Wylder’s presence.
Wylder sighed. “Was that mean?”
“Yes.” Diego wouldn’t lie to her. “But also kind of awesome. If Logan knew how you defended him, maybe he’d text you back.”
Diego didn’t get how much his words hurt her. Logan should want to talk to her because they’d become friends—she’d thought—because for a while, it had been the two of them against the world. And now, when he needed her most, all she could do was yell at Barbies who thought they deserved his truths.
A horn sounded, and the teams left the ice for intermission. No one else approached Wylder, and she wondered how many people heard everything she’d said.
Glancing back over her shoulder, she caught the woman whispering with her friends. She looked to be in college, maybe a Defiance University student. The academy had a better hockey team than the college, so it drew all sorts of people.
Guilt gnawed at her. Even when she’d pushed everyone away, Wylder never considered herself to be mean. Sarcastic, yes, but never cruel.
With a sigh, she stood and turned to look past the two rows separating them. “Hey.”
The woman looked up, her eyes now guarded. “What? Got something else to say?”
“Yeah, I just… I’m sorry. And…” Man, this hurt. “Thanks for liking my song.” A song Wylder hadn’t listened to since Logan left.
She needed to hit something. Her drums were preferable to this girl’s face.
The woman considered Wylder for a moment before nodding and returning her attention to her friends.
Wylder turned back around in her seat and blew out a breath.
Diego bumped her shoulder with his. “That was nice.”
“Who would have thought I, Wylder Anderson, had any nice in me?”
“Me.” He shrugged.
She stifled a smile, wondering how she managed to capture a friend like Diego, capture being the operative word, because she was never letting him go.
And still, he wasn’t Logan. Diego and Killian and Becks and others loved her. They called her talented and had faith she could do whatever she wanted.
But Logan… he didn’t only have faith, he pushed her just like she pushed him. They weren’t passive friends believing in each other and being proud but watching from the sidelines.
He’d stood up there with her, giving her strength, and reminding her she wasn’t ever in this alone.
“D.” She wiped her eyes. “I’m going to go.”
“But there’s still one more inning.”
“Period.” She did know that one. Diego did too, but he still slipped up. “I know, but I need to get out of here.”
“Want me to come?”
She loved him for offering. Putting a hand on his shoulder, she smiled. “No. Stay and watch Killer. I’ll be okay.”
Those words echoed in her mind as she climbed the steps to the main concourse and made her way through the double glass doors into the bright fall day.
I’ll be okay.
And she would.
Wylder was always okay.
But as tears stung her eyes, the knowledge wasn’t enough to make them disappear.