Page 124 of Love Collided

“Why would you be so worried about telling us, Scout?” Fox asked, almost sounding hurt.

Tears welled in my eyes as I stared at the tattoo a little longer, trying to find the courage to face them all. I did turn, but the tears were nearly dripping down my cheek now.

“Because after everything with Jesse, I couldn’t mess up again with the wrong person and I knew you guys would jump down my throat if Ididpick the wrong guy. You guys never screwed up like that, so how could I possibly do it multiple times? Then what if I did mess up and ruin your friendship?”

“Scout, we didn’tnotscrew up relationships in our life. Just because you didn’t always know what happened, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” Fox said. “Then we all just got stupidly lucky. If your stupidly lucky story is with Chase, then we don’t care.We didn’t like Jesse because Jesse was a fucking asshole. If you chose another shitty guy, then yeah, of course, we wouldn’t like him. If we brought a girl around who was an ass to you, would you be nice about it? I mean fuck, we would be out with Jesse and he would be openly hitting on other girls. God, hitting him the other week was a dream come true after the number of times we all wanted to. The night we left him at the races, and you were mad about it, it’s because he got a girl’s number. Chase can be a dick, but we all can. I can’t tell you how it will work out for you, but you didn’t mess up. And Jesse wasn’t your fault, either. We’re older than you, so your mistakes might be a little more obvious to us, but that’s because we made mistakes. You were younger, which made it easier to hide them from you. No one here is expecting you to be perfect.”

I couldn’t even respond, instead heading across the room to hug him. He pulled me into a hard hug before I moved down the line, hugging each one of them, even forcing Kye into a hug.

“I look up to all of you. I just didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.”

“You’re not,” Fox said. “If you want to try out dating him, we are all good.”

“And good luck,” Kye said, shaking his head with a laugh. “I hear he’s about to be broke.”

“Yeah, I heard that, too. As long as the Hellcat stays, so do I,” I said, walking back to wrap my arms around his waist. He groaned, pulling me against his side.

“Don’t even remind me. I have to get a job? Ridiculous.”

“How about we all go out and grab some food,” Fox said, already grabbing his keys and pulling Ash along with him.

“And don’t worry, we’ll pay this time.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Chase said, staying back until they all walked out. “Well, one more thing is out of our way, Hellcat, just one more to go.”

“Which is?”

“Telling my dad might even show him my new tattoo and give him a heart attack.”

“Want to wait until tomorrow for all that?”

“Tomorrow,” he said, leaning down to kiss me once before we headed out with the crew.

THIRTY-FIVE

CHASE

If there wasany concern left for Scout that we couldn’t be together, it seemed to have disappeared last night.

We went out with the crew, and I could see how worried she was at first. In every lull of conversation, she tried to support my case that we could date, even if I didn't need it. Each one of the guys acted the same way as always towards me, and the girls were too busy telling Scout how happy they were to talk to me much. It wasn't until the end of dinner that she finally relaxed, her entire demeanor shifting until she was smiling and genuinely enjoying herself.

Now she was here at my condo, sprawled out on the bed talking to me while I went through my things, and packed. I knew as soon as I told my dad I wasn’t following in his footsteps that he would kick me out of here, so I figured getting a head start would help me.

“I love this bed. This is amazing,” she said, rolling over and burying herself in the pillows.

“If I bring it with me, could I stay at your place for a little while?” I tried to make a joke of it, but was suddenly worrying about where I would go next. I wouldn’t have a job after I told my dad, and I wouldn’t have money to rent anything fancy.

“A little presumptuous to think you’re going to move in with me,” she replied with a smirk.

“You could have said the same thing two months ago about sleeping together, but now you’re here on my bed looking like you want me again after only an hour.”

“I will admit that you do look very good right now.”

I smiled, letting the towel drop before coming down over her.

“Good enough to have sex with again?”

“Yes, definitely good enough for that.”

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