Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Geek Charming

  Copyright

  Thank You!

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Books by Brynn Paulin

  Geek Charming

  Cherish Cove High

  By Brynn Paulin

  Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

  Powered by Your Imagination

  Geek Charming

  by

  Brynn Paulin

  Bronte:

  I have a secret.

  I have a huge crush on my brother’s best friend. I mean, frankly, I have zero chance with him. I have curves, not computer keys. So I’ll just be over here, pretending not to look and dying to touch.

  Problem is, we just got assigned to the same project. Shoot me now.

  Harrison:

  Shoot me now. I’m about to break the bro code. How am I going to get through this project without making Bronte mine?

  You’re right. I’m not.

  Copyright

  © 2021, Brynn Paulin

  Geek Charming

  Cover Art by Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

  Electronic Format ISBN: 978-1-62344-376-4

  Published by: Supernova Indie Publishing Services, LLC

  Warning: All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places or occurrences, is purely coincidental.

  Thank You!

  Thank you for your purchase of Geek Charming.

  I hope you enjoy the story and will consider leaving a review or telling a friend about the book.

  I love hearing from readers! To keep in touch and follow my news, please visit me on my website at www.brynnpaulin.com.

  Chapter One

  ~ Bronte ~

  “Liam’s going to New York with Fee’s family for spring break, right?”

  I glanced over at my brother, Ben. We were proverbial Irish twins…a term I wasn’t really fond of but people used to describe us often. We were in the same grade and barely nine months apart. I’d been conceived soon after he was born and then came into the world a little early. Lately, he liked to claim he was a year older than me since he’d turned nineteen the beginning of March and I wouldn’t be there until near the end of November. Funny how he still had to check in with me for everything.

  “Yes, they’re leaving Thursday night like us.”

  “I’m going to ask Dad if Harrison can come on our trip since Liam and their mom will be gone.”

  Harrison was Liam’s twin brother—his real twin brother. Their mother traveled for her job and was gone more than she was home. That left the boys on their own a lot.

  Still the thought of my dad agreeing sent dread through me. Harrison was a nice enough guy, I supposed. To other people. He was a pain in my rear.

  And I had a major crush on him. Something I couldn’t admit for various reasons. One, he was the brother of my best friend’s boyfriend. Two, he was my own brother’s best friend. Both things thrust me into the uncomfortable position of being around Harrison more often than not. In defense, I did all I could to bicker with Harrison just to get him to ignore me.

  Counterintuitive? Maybe. But it would be worse if he found out I liked him, and in turn, I made the four people I was around most often—Fee, Liam, Ben and Harrison himself—incredibly uncomfortable. It would mess up all the group’s dynamics, what that they were.

  And Ben, being the computer genius geek that he was, couldn’t afford for me to screw up his first good friendship. Neither Ben nor Harrison would strike you as proverbial tech nerds…until they opened their mouths. Then, I swear…sometimes, it’s like they’re spewing actual code. They’re both tall, leanly muscular and fit. They both have an affinity for jeans, gray thermals or tees and flannel shirts, but didn’t a lot of guys? Occasionally, Harrison would break out a slightly rumpled button-down, and I’d have to excuse myself to anywhere outside his vicinity so I didn’t drool on him.

  Let’s not even mention his black-rimmed Clark Kent glasses.

  Yeah, having Harrison along for spring break would be torture!

  “It’s kind of late notice, don’t you think?”

  “Nah. He’s not doing anything anyway. And we’ll have plenty of room.”

  Right…Just me, my brother and his best friend all together while my dad got engrossed in his work. That was the point of the trip. We’d spend almost ten days traveling from state park to state park, doing various activities offered at each one, while my dad, a travel writer, gathered enough material to keep him busy for months. We always took a few more trips in the summer. Last summer, he’d been in Florida almost the whole time, and Ben and I had traveled back and forth from here to there several times to visit him. Florida in the summer wasn’t exactly my dream vacation, but I’d gotten to explore the Keys, so that was cool.

  That was in pre-Harrison days. He and his brother were both new kids at Cherish Cove High for senior year. Poor guys. Though it seemed to be working out well for Liam. Fee was a catch, if I did say so as her life-long bestie.

  “I don’t know, Ben…”

  “Twin,” he chided, leveling a look at me after he parked the car in the school’s lot. Okay, so it wasn’t just other people who joked about our closeness. “For me, will you be nice about this? Not argue against it to Dad?”

  I sighed. “Fine.”

  “And you’ll be nice?”

  “Nice enough.”

  Of course, I would. He knew I would. Aside from Fee and my dad, Ben was probably the most important person in the world to me. And he’d always gone to bat for me, even punching out the first kid who’d called me Bronte-saurus. I even had my own theme music thanks to some brilliant boy who’d introduced the plodding drone.

  Unfortunately, neither the name nor the tune had died a glorious death in middle school. Jackass guys and a few mean girls still liked to stick it on me. Clever use of my name, huh? And yeah, I had curves for days. I liked them…except for when people made fun of me. Then I just wanted to crawl in a hole. Few people wouldn’t. I tried to be strong, but I had a grown-up figure and I wasn’t tiny like so many of the cheerleaders and popular girls in our small high school.

  Every day, I counted the hours until I’d make it to college. In Florida of all places. At least, it wouldn’t be summer. And I would no longer have to deal with the jerks here. Except I wouldn’t be alone. Their team had drafted Liam, so Fee was heading there, too. And so were Ben and Harrison. High school two-point-oh.

  Ben and I headed into school. His gang of tech-heads swept him away for some important task the moment we stepped inside. Immediately, I noticed Harrison wasn’t with them. Which meant he’d be…

  Yep, there he was. A few feet from my locker. Talking to a girl.

  I was supposed to dislike him and be annoyed by him—that was my front. But immediate jealousy slammed through me. He pointed and handed her a paper, then she walked away. When he looked up, his brown eyes lasered right into me.

  Trying to act unaffected, I walked that way. I had to go to my locker anyhow, right?

  “Bronte,” he murmured.

  “Harrison,” I replied. It was our standard greeting. Cordial, I guessed, Mostly, I liked the excuse to say his name. “Who was that?”

  Way to play it cool, Bronte. I almost rolled my eyes at myself. I was so freaking subtle.

  “Who?”

  “That girl.”

  He shrugged. “New girl. She looked lost. I know how that goes. I feel kinda sorry for her. She’s starting a new school just a couple months before graduation. At least, Liam and I had the whole year.”

  “I hope her credits aren’t screwed up,” I said. Sincerely, I couldn’t imagine something worse than repeating a year here.

  “Hmm…” He sounded distracted as I went to my locker. “Yeah.”

  When I turned back, his eyes shifted quickly to stare at the clock over my head. Was he staring at my ass? Nah. I glanced at the time. “See you later, I guess,” I said.

  My cool factor evaporated with him. As much as we bickered about stupid stuff, I couldn’t make myself be mean to him.

  “Yeah. See you in an hour.”

  Chapter Two

  ~ Harrison ~

  See you in an hour.

  How lame was I? The words still echoed in my ears an hour later as I walked into College Earth Science, a course I shared with Bronte. Actually, except for her first hour, when she had another science class and I had computer lab, my schedule was the same as hers. Something I loved but she despised. Ever since the first day when I’d found myself irrevocably drawn to her, only to hear some asshole make fun of her, I’d set myself up as her protector. As much as possible, wherever Bronte was during school hours, I was there, too.

  The seat beside her was empty. Probably because everyone considered it my desk by now. Someti
mes, it was okay to live in my brother’s shadow even though I generally hated it. Though he was a quarterback, we were about the same build and followed a similar fitness routine, me running on a treadmill rather then across a field. No one messed with him, and in turn, either because of his popularity or our similar make up, no one messed with me, either. Which probably shocked some people because I was considered kind of a nerd or a tech head. A smart kid who’d might be shoved into a locker. If I were smaller.

  “Bronte,” I said, as I dropped into my desk chair.

  “Harrison.” She was messing with her phone and didn’t look up from it and over at me. That was okay. I could wait patiently for the day she realized there was a future between us. A whole long future, during which I’d take care of her and never ever let her go.

  “What’re you doing?” I asked when she kept clicking, her brows drawn together.

  “Telling your future sister-in-law to mind her own business and to also stop with the TMI. Those two are so gross sometimes.”

  “So you’ve said. Many times.”

  “Whatever. And like I would know the answer to her question. It’s not like I’ve ever…” Her eyes rounded, and she trailed off as her face went tomato-red. “Never mind. I’m talking to Fee.”

  It’s not like she’d ever…what?

  I relaxed back in my seat as a small smile threatened to escape, but I didn’t want Bronte pissed at me or thinking I was laughing at her.

  But it wasn’t as if she’d ever…had sex? The idea that my gorgeous girl was a virgin made me happier than I could have imagined. I never thought I was a caveman, but apparently, I was. And apparently, the men in Cherish Cove were blind idiots. Bronte was a goddess. Fuck, it was why I was on her like glue all the time.

  Her stomach growled, pulling me from my thoughts. Reaching in my backpack, I pulled out a protein bar and held it toward her.

  “I’m fine,” she protested.

  “Bron, c’mon. Your stomach is talking.”

  She looked furtively around then took it and placed it in her lap where she opened it and broke off a little bite. And I wanted to murder half the school’s population. This was their fault. Bronte would never tell me, but I’d found out from Liam who’d found out from Fee, that my girl never ate at school because of little dickheads taunting her and making her too self conscious to eat. The first time I’d called her on it, she’d called me a jerk and shoved me hard enough to topple me out of my lunchroom chair.

  Outwardly, she seemed utterly confident. Fun, ballsy, so damn smart. But there were little tells that all was not well. She didn’t eat…unless I made her, which had been every day since I’d started hanging out with her because of my brother. She tried to take up as little space as possible. She seemed excruciatingly conscious of her clothes being just right, as if having her shirt hike up might flash a slice of skin for someone to mock. I hated the reason, but I didn’t mind other guys not seeing how sexy she was. Blind idiots.

  I had to keep myself from staring at her. I knew that would make her self conscious, too. But God, she was fucking pretty. I loved the way her red-blonde hair fell around her shoulders. And almost down to her shapely ass. I wanted to cup it in my hands and—

  “Harrison. You and Bronte will be paired together.”

  I looked at my teacher in shock, having missed whatever she’d said. “Okay.”

  I glanced over at Bronte.

  “Research project and presentation,” she said, smirking because she knew I’d been zoned out. She wouldn’t think it was so funny if she knew what I’d been considering.

  “Projects are due the Monday after spring break,” our instructor informed us as she handed out packets. “Your assigned topic is inside the envelopes along with all the report requirements. You can get with your partner for the rest of the hour to discuss when you will collab and get things done. I will want proof that both members of each team worked on these.”

  I pulled my desk closer to Bronte’s. “Hey, partner.”

  “Kill me now,” she muttered.

  “Rather not. So what are we writing about?” I nodded to the manila envelope in her hands. Subtly breathing deeply of her floral scent, I enjoyed the proximity.

  “Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” she gasped.

  Glancing down, I saw the problem and immediately started making plans. We were supposed to write about the Brontosaurus, it’s discovery and controversy, characteristics, life cycles, etc.

  The very creature that had been the bane of Bronte’s existence since middle school. I’d heard some asshole call her that name and had about gone ballistic. Her brother had filled me in on all that. Pretending as if I didn’t notice her lip trembling and her convulsive swallows, I took the information from her and put everything back inside the envelope. We were not doing this.

  “So when do you want to get together about the work?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe we can work together over Facetime? I’m leaving for a spring break trip with my family on Thursday morning. We probably shouldn’t try to squeeze everything into the couple days before vacation.”

  “Oh, yeah…Ben mentioned that.” It was going to be lonely around here for the next ten days. My mom was traveling. Liam was out of town as were my closest friends. I’d probably mess with strengthening my robot for Robot Wars.

  The bell rang, and we all stood to rush to third hour. “I’ll be there in a minute,” I told Bronte when I didn’t immediately fall in at her side to walk to our next class. Her brow furrowed, but she nodded.

  As soon as she cleared the doorway, I made a beeline for our teacher.

  “What’s up, Harrison?”

  “I don’t know if you know, but Bronte has been bullied since fifth grade. They call her Bronte-saurus among other things.” I held out the packet with our topic showing, and her lips parted in dismay.

  “I had no idea,” she murmured. She took the packet from me, and relief flooded me. When she pulled out a different envelope from her desk drawer, she peeked inside, nodded then handed it to me. “Thank you for bringing it to my attention.”

  “Thank you, Ms. Ensley.”

  She scribbled me a pass then I rushed out. After a few feet, I paused and glanced at the new topic. Holy crap! This was way better anyway!

  A few minutes, I dropped into my seat beside Bronte and dropped the packet on her desk with the topic showing.

  Her lips parted as she read: Pick three science fiction movies. How is science presented in each and explain which is the most plausible and why?

  She turned to stare at me and slowly smiled, her thanks clear on her face.

  Bonus points for Harrison.

  Chapter Three

  ~ Bronte ~

  If my crush wasn’t fatal before, it was now. Harrison Berkshire had gone and gotten our project changed. For me. He was just…

  My teeth sank into my bottom lip as I lay on my bed, my arms hugged around me while I stared at my ceiling and listened to an audio book. He was just amazing, and I couldn’t even do anything about it. I might go crazy before the end of the school year.

  A shadow fell across my doorway, and I sat up, pulling out my headphones as I looked over to see Ben knocking on my doorframe.

  “Hey,” he said. “Dad said Harrison can come on the trip, and Harrison said yes. Thought you’d want to know. Oh and one of Dad’s friends has a niece who just moved in with them. But they’re in the middle of a remodel to make her space livable. I guess it was unexpected. Anyway, she’s coming along, too.”

  “Lilah?” I asked.

  “I think that’s what Dad said. She’s a senior, too.”

  “Yeah, she’s in one of my classes, and I saw her talking to Harrison this morning.”

  Ben studied me for a moment. “That must have annoyed you.”

  “What?” I didn’t get what he meant by that? I didn’t care who talked to Harrison.

  “Bron, you’re easier to read than a Linux system.”

  “Probably. Because I’m sure no one in the history of the world has ever said that particular computer system is easy. Ever.”

  He shrugged, clearly unrepentant. “I know you like Harrison.”

  “Ben,” I warned.

  “Hey.” He threw his hands up. “I won’t tell him.”