Any Boy but You (North Pole, Minnesota) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Discover more of Entangled Teen Crush’s books… Pushing the Boundaries

  There’s Something About Nik

  Weddings, Crushes, and Other Dramas

  The Bad Boy Bargain

  Also by Julie Hammerle… The Sound of Us

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2017 by Julie Hammerle. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

  Entangled Publishing, LLC

  2614 South Timberline Road

  Suite 109

  Fort Collins, CO 80525

  Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

  Crush is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.

  Edited by Kate Brauning

  Cover design by Erin Dameron-Hill

  Cover art from iStock

  ISBN 978-1-63375-872-8

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  First Edition February 2017

  For John

  Chapter One

  “Prince’s skates are half-off, you know.”

  “Good for Prince’s,” Elena Chestnut said, counting to ten in her head as she struggled to conceal her annoyance. There was only one customer in Chestnut’s Sporting Goods—Craig, North Pole’s own…What? Goofball? Court jester? Pain in the butt? He’d been in the store for half an hour, quizzing Elena on prices and wondering about future sales. He’d already asked about the tennis rackets, skis, and ladies’ golf gloves. Now he was on ice skates.

  “It’s just, you know, the end of the season.” Craig frowned. “Maybe you should think about offering a deal on skates.”

  Elena’s irritation bubbled again. Craig was not merely the only customer in the store right now, he was the only customer she’d seen all day. Just buy something already. She took a deep breath and started planning a new running mix in her mind. She needed to add more Scissor Sisters. They always got her moving. “It’s not the end of the season, Craig,” she said, relaxing her shoulders. “It’s January. In Minnesota. We can expect a few more months of ice.”

  Ignoring her like he always did when Elena or anyone tried to talk sense to him, Craig, in his puffy jacket and mom jeans, crouched down and peered at the bottom shelf. “What is this? What is this?” He held up a small box for Elena to see. It was a two-pack of waterproof sunscreen—not exactly a big seller this time of year.

  “You going on a trip?” she asked. “To the tropics?”

  “It’s expired,” Craig said.

  Elena shrugged, suppressing an eye roll. “And?”

  “And it’s still on your shelves.”

  She let out a long, slow sigh, imagining herself slathering that expired sunscreen all over her arms and legs while lounging on a sandy beach somewhere far away from this guy in his late twenties who lived with his mom and had no apparent career prospects and therefore plenty of time to come into Elena’s family’s store and bug the crap out of her for hours on end. “What do you want me to do about it, Craig? Do you want the sunscreen for half off? You can have it for half off.” At least that would count as a sale.

  “I want you to care that it’s there, Elena.”

  “Motherfff…” she hissed under her breath and turned toward the window, toward the Craig-free street outside. North Pole townies shuffled past the dilapidated Christmas trees and sun-faded plastic Santas on Main Street with hunched shoulders and scowls like they were prepared to murder the next person who offered them a cup of eggnog. Now that it was January, everyone in town was flat-out done with Christmas. The tourists had gone home, and it was time for the North Pole residents to resume their regular lives.

  Elena spotted a line of about a dozen parka-clad people queuing up outside Prince’s Sporting Goods across the street. “What’s going on there?” Craig would know. Craig always knew.

  She was right.

  “Disgusting.” He sneered, stepping toward the window. “Fickle little lemmings.” He turned to face Elena again, about to launch into speech mode. “Do you see who’s over there right now? Frank from the hardware store.”

  “Frank’s there?” Elena squinted to see the line, searching for Frank, the owner of Santa’s Workshop.

  “He’s not the only defector. We Coopers, however, chose Chestnut’s Sporting Goods fifty years ago when the split happened, and we haven’t patronized Prince’s since.”

  “And we’re very grateful for that.” And we’d be even more grateful if you’d freaking buy something once in a while. Maybe Prince’s would consider trading someone for Craig. But no, that would never happen. The Princes would never agree to anything that might help Chestnut’s Sporting Goods.

  Craig tossed the box of expired sunscreen up and down in his hand like a softball. “And now, just because the new Mr. Prince is offering deals on skates all week and he’s having Stan Stashiuk in the store tomorrow for some big announcement and they’re serving delicious free coffee to all their customers—”

  Elena held up a hand to stop him. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second. How do you know the coffee’s delicious?”

  Craig dropped the sunscreen. “Uh…”

  “Craig?” Elena moved toward him.

  “Someone told me!” he shouted, backing toward the door, arms raised in surrender.

  “Who told you?” Elena’s hands were fists.

  “Dinesh.”

  “Dinesh?” Elena said. “He’s one of our best customers!”

  “It was definitely Dinesh.”

  Craig yanked the door open, but before he could leave, Elena said, “Hey, Craig?”

  He turned around. “Yeah?”

  “Thanks for stopping by.” She grinned. Craig was a pain, but he was her pain. And he had remained loyal to Chestnut’s for years.

  He waved. “Have a good one, Elena.” Then he hurried out of the store, but not before shouting, “Make sure you get those expired products off the shelf!”

  Elena’s hand went right to the deadbolt. She could flip it so easily—one little motion and she wouldn’t have to deal with Craig, or anyone else, for the rest of the day. Sighing, she let go of the lock and stepped away from the door. Her family needed the money, and Elena had to keep the store open for at least another three hours, even though Craig had probably been her last, best chance to sell anything at all today.

  She picked up the sunscreen and carried it over to the summer supply aisle. Craig was right. A lot of this stuff was old—really old. Elena started taking all the expired items off the shelves—bug spray, lip balm, first aid supplies—and put everything in a big cardboard box marked “50% off.” Then she went behind the counter and checked the clock.

  Well, that had wasted a full fifteen minutes.

  She grabbed a rag from the back room and started dusting everything in sight. Her parents did have a lot on their min
ds right now, but they had really let things go in the store. Or maybe it wasn’t that. Maybe they had grown used to the people they’d hired doing the grunt work—like scrubbing bathrooms and stocking shelves. Maybe since they’d laid off all the regular workers, they’d forgotten they’d have to do the day-to-day cleaning and maintenance themselves.

  Elena ran the rag across the tops of all the old photographs on the back wall behind the counter—pictures of her family going back three generations. Her grandfather, Marty Chestnut, had opened this store with his business partner, Robert Prince, back in 1962. Prince and Chestnut’s, it was called then. But five years later, the two men got into a huge fight over money and split the store. Prince’s moved across the street. Chestnut’s stayed where it was. Her grandfather had put up a sign that said “We reserve the right to refuse service to any Prince.” The town divided its loyalties between the two sporting goods stores, and both had managed to stay in business for more than fifty years.

  Though for how much longer? The line outside Prince’s had only grown in the past half hour, and Elena’s store was a deserted wasteland.

  She texted her best friend, Harper Anderson, and asked her to come by. The unflappably sunny Harper always provided a good distraction.

  “I’ll be right there,” Harper replied.

  Elena jumped on one of the floor-model treadmills facing the door, waiting for Harper, watching the queue outside Prince’s. As the endorphins kicked in, she bumped her speed up a few notches. Then the door across the street opened and out came the son of the new owner—Oliver Prince. He was a junior like Elena, and he’d started at North Pole High School at the beginning of the year, but he wasn’t around much. He didn’t play sports or go to parties or anything. He was kind of invisible, an enigma with thick auburn hair and deep brown eyes.

  As Oliver glanced at the line of people still waiting outside his family’s store, he ran his fingers through that wavy, copper hair and plopped a green knit cap atop his head. Admittedly, Elena had thought he was cute at first, just like everyone had, until she’d found out he was a Prince. That had immediately brought him down from a nine to about a six.

  The door opened behind Oliver and he spun around to hold it wide for his twin sister Regina—who had the same brown eyes and auburn hair, but behind glasses and with streaks of electric purple—and another girl, a short, buxom blonde Elena would recognize anywhere. Elena stumbled and nearly fell off the treadmill. Harper was hanging out with the Princes.

  Elena regrouped and bumped up her speed another notch as punishment for her naïve disbelief. Harper had gone on the big ski trip with the Princes and most of the rest of their class over Christmas break. Elena hadn’t been able to go because her parents couldn’t afford it and because she had to help out in the store. According to the bits and pieces she’d heard from friends and the pictures she’d seen online, Elena had missed quite the epic time. And Harper had been acting weird and distant ever since, perhaps because she’d made friends with Elena’s enemies and she didn’t know how to break the news.

  Harper, laughing, waved good-bye to the twins and skipped across the street. As she pulled open the door to Chestnut’s, Elena fidgeted with the treadmill controls, hiding the fact that she’d been watching the window. She only glanced up when she heard the door shut behind Harper. She pressed the stop button and jogged until the belt stopped completely.

  “Hey.” Panting hard, Elena jumped off the treadmill. She smiled big, crushing the “What the hell were you doing with them?” question. Harper had the right to hang out with whomever she wanted.

  Harper went right over to the sale stuff and started grabbing armfuls of expired sunscreen. She kept checking the window, glancing across the street to where the Princes were chatting animatedly in front of their store.

  “That stuff’s old,” Elena said.

  Again, Harper peered across the street. Clearly, she didn’t want to be here at Chestnut’s. She wanted to be across the street with the Princes and the delicious coffee and all the excitement. Not that Elena could blame her. All her parents’ store had to offer was half off expired stuff no one would be able to use until June anyway.

  Harper focused on Elena. “Spring break,” she said, grinning. “Maybe it’ll give me a better tan.”

  “Spring break?” Elena rang up her friend, trying to ignore Harper’s puppy dog eyes and frequent peeks over at Prince’s. “It’s January. We literally just had winter break.”

  Harper leaned across the counter. “We’re going to Florida. Captiva Island.”

  “We’re?” asked Elena, bagging up the sunscreen.

  Harper tapped Elena on the nose. “You and me, and my family, and maybe…some other people.”

  Elena guessed those “other people” included Oliver and Regina Prince. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to go,” she said. “My parents need me—”

  “They always need you,” Harper said. “What about what you need? You need a fantastic vacation somewhere exotic.”

  Elena cocked a dubious eyebrow. “Like Florida?” Though she had to admit, Florida sounded pretty good right now. She wouldn’t be up to her knees in slush there.

  “Exactly.” Harper grabbed a folder the Chestnuts kept next to the register, opened it, and started flipping through. “There’s probably a race or something you can do down there that weekend, if that makes it more enticing—”

  Elena snatched the folder back and shoved it into its usual spot. “Harper, I can’t go. I’m busy.”

  “You are not.” Harper waved her hand around the store. “This place is a ghost town. You dropped out of cross-country and track and field. You’re not even tutoring anybody right now.”

  Elena swallowed. “I’m the only employee my parents have right now.”

  “Employee? Ha. Employees get paid. Your mom and dad have themselves, too. Where are they now? They should be here working, and you should be out there with me, being an irresponsible teenager. You missed such a great time over winter break.” Harper’s gaze traveled over to Prince’s again. “I need you to be there for spring break. Promise me you’ll come.”

  Elena sighed and glanced around the empty store. Saving enough money for the winter ski trip had been a bust. At this rate—with the store doing horribly and with Elena not bringing in any money tutoring—there was no way she’d be able to afford spring break. She couldn’t tell Harper that, though. Harper’s family had loads of money. If Harper found out Elena didn’t have the funds, she’d pay for her trip in a minute. But friends and money didn’t mix. She glanced up at the picture of her grandfather, Marty Chestnut, with his ex-friend and partner, Robert Prince. Her own family was living proof of that.

  “I promise I’ll try,” Elena said finally.

  …

  “Oliver, stop worrying. You’ve done all you can at this point.” His mom tossed her phone into her purse.

  Oliver Prince balled and unballed his fists as he stared at the closed door to the Prince’s Sporting Goods office where his twin sister, Regina, was hopefully putting the finishing touches on their grand plan, which they’d reveal to the town tomorrow evening.

  He took a step toward the office. “I’m gonna check on her.”

  “Don’t you dare.” Oliver’s dad, Trip Prince, who had just locked the front door of the store for the night, held up a hand to stop him. “She’s in the zone.”

  Oliver sighed. His dad was out of his gourd. There was absolutely no chance that Regina was working her tail off behind that door right now, and not texting her friends or Snapchatting or whatever the hell else she did when Oliver needed her to get things done. While he had given up his own social life for the past six months, dedicating every free minute to working on this app for his dad, Regina had been out making friends and having a grand old time.

  “It has to work tomorrow,” Oliver said.

  “It will.” Oliver’s mom guided him gently onto the stool behind the checkout counter. “Your sister always gets the job done, doe
sn’t she? She always comes through in the end. She just goes about things differently than you do.”

  Oliver glowered. His mom had lawyered him, as she was wont to do. “Go back to Florida,” he teased.

  “Monday morning.” Her eyes twinkling, his mom patted his shoulder. “Thank goodness. I can’t take more than three days at a time in this frozen tundra.”

  Oliver’s dad frowned. “So, you’ll move here for good when the weather improves?”

  She turned her back on Trip and poured herself a cup of hot water at the beverage bar the Princes had installed after the holidays. “How are things going for you, Oliver? Are you getting out, making friends?” She dropped an English Breakfast teabag into the mug.

  “Yeah, I’m making friends,” said Oliver.

  His dad sauntered over to the coffee, poured himself a cup, and leaned against the beverage counter right next to his wife, who immediately shuffled a few steps to the side. “Oliver and Regina just went on a ski trip with a bunch of kids from school,” Trip said. “Didn’t you, Oliver?”

  Oliver nodded, but he did not add that he’d only gone on the trip because Regina had dragged him along, or that he’d spent most of the vacation in the lodge lobby working on the game he was developing for his dad’s store.

  His mom pursed her lips, which meant he was about to get lawyered again. Jenny Prince, Esq., could sense bullshit from a mile away. “What did you do on this trip?”

  “I hung out with people,” Oliver said.

  “Which people?” His mom folded her arms.

  Which people? That was a good question, one with an answer his mother would find very unsatisfying. He uttered the first name that came to him. “Danny,” he said. “Danny Garland.”

  “The coffee kid?” asked Mrs. Prince.

  Oliver nodded. “The coffee kid.” Danny’s mom owned Santabucks, the café in town. They supplied the coffee for Prince’s store, too. He was fine—kind of a jock, but fine.

  “And what did you and the coffee kid do together on this trip?” When his mom sipped her tea, she looked like the toughest investigator in the grittiest procedural show on all of television.