Page 53 of The Draft

“Madison.”

Well, that didn’t work.

He turned his knees, so we were face-to-face and glared at me, waiting for an explanation. I scratched my hand across my neck, trying to figure out the best way to frame this thing with Madison that would ensure he didn’t say anything to Cade before I had the chance to. “Yeah, about Madison.”

“Did you know?”

“Know what?”

“Oh, god. How do I say this?” He scraped a hand across his face and then through his hair. He looked like he’d walked through a bush backward, but clearly whatever he needed to tell me was really causing him some turmoil, so I should try to treat it with seriousness.

“Just say it.” I closed my eyes, waiting for the words,are you sleeping with Madisonto come out of his mouth, knowing that I could deny that since technically we weren’t sleeping together. Not anymore, anyway.

“I think I accidentally asked Madison out.”

I popped open my eyes and stared at his guilt-ridden face. Biting back a laugh, I asked, “What?”

“Madison. I think she likes me, and I accidentally led her on with the jokey date comment.”

Don’t laugh.

He thought Madison was into him? Holding back my smirk was hard, and I crossed my brows, feigning concern because I had absolutely no idea where that came from. “Oh, really? What makes you think that?”

“She was flirting with me all day.”

“Yeah, but she flirts with everyone. You know her. I wouldn’t get yourself worked up over it.” I slapped him on the shoulder, thinking that would slap some sense into him, but he looked just as worried as when Madison walked out. “What makes you think she’s into you?”

He shuffled in his seat uncomfortably. “Well, you know when I saw you guys today?” I nodded. “She gave me an extra-long hug.”

“Okay,” I drawled out, remembering the raised brows he gave me while he was hugging her, but to be honest, I was too pissed off that she was touching him to really care. “Is that the extent of your evidence? An extra-long hug? Because I’ve got to be honest, I’m probably guilty of giving you those at some point, too. And as cute as I think you are, I don’t have a crush on you.”

“No. It wasn’t just that.” He took a breath in and pointed at the table. “Just now, after I made the joke about taking her as my date to the party, she, she, she played footsie with me under the table.”

I completely froze because what the fuck did he just say? Madison playing footsie with Alex? That made no sense. Sure, she liked to say a few suggestive things every now and again, but play footsie? No. That wasn’t like her, especially since she’d just been playing footsie with me. Unless…no. Surely, she couldn’t have. But what if she’d gotten the wrong leg?

“Are you sure?”

“Sorry, Dash. Are you trying to get me to believe that you somehow managed to shrink your size fuckteen feet into a pair of cute teal Converses, so you could dig your foot into my dick from beside me? Because I find that hard to believe.”

Double fuck.

“She rubbed your dick?”

He swallowed, closed his eyes, and nodded like he was admitting he had committed a murder. “She did, but I didn’t do anything to encourage it. In fact, I just froze until she realized she was late for something.”

“Oh.” I was speechless, which didn’t happen often.

“Yeah, oh. What the hell do I do? Should I tell Cade? Shit, he’s going to kill me. The dude loves to fight, he just needs an excuse.”

I needed to think fast. “Why would you need to? Nothing happened, justa little innocent flirting.”

“Because when Henry cheated on her, he got a broken nose. Imagine if it came out that I asked her out and then let her rub my dick under the table.”

I sat up with a tense jaw. He was right about being worried, but he was worried about the wrong person. It was me that was angry because Madison had no right stroking anyone’s dick but mine.

Shit. Did I just think that? I had a serious problem on my hands.

“First, I was the one that gave Henry that broken nose. Cade had nothing to do with it. Remember that. Second, you didn’t touch her or kiss her or anything. It was all a joke. What are you going to tell Cade? You think she brushed her shoe against your dick? Do you know how weird that sounds?”

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