Page 90 of Their Wicked Ways

Jett shook his head.

I bit back my relief. This conversation needed to happen, but only if we were all sober.

“I’m sorry.” Jett examined the seam in his jeans intently.

“Why are you sorry?” Ez prompted gently.

“I didn’t keep your secret.” Jett looked up at us. “I told Nick because I was going crazy and needed to talk to someone and?—”

“It’s okay,” Ez said, beating me to it. “It wasn’t fair of us to put keeping our secret on top of everything you were dealing with. I’m glad you talked to him.”

“You are?”

“Yes,” I said to be sure he knew we meant it.

Jett toyed with the links in his watch, running his finger over each one before moving on to the next. “I don’t really understand what’s going on, but I think I have feelings for you too?” He looked away and focused on the wall. “I mean, I know I do. But I don’t know what they are. I like you, and I like being your friend. But I like the other stuff too.” His cheeks flushed an adorable shade of pink.

“The other stuff?” Ez asked, a hint of a smile on his lips.

Jett shifted his gaze from the wall and shot Ez a flat look. “You’re really going to make me say it?”

“Yup.” His smirk-smile was back in full force.

Jett rolled his eyes and looked up at the ceiling theatrically. “You’re annoying.”

“You like it,” I quipped.

“Maybe.” His smirk matched Ez’s. “The other stuff like the dates and sex.” His neck and ears went red with a blush, but he didn’t look away.

“What do you want?” I asked.

He bit his lip and shrugged.

Right. He’d never dated anyone, especially not a couple he worked with. This had to be even more confusing for him than it was for us.

“Do you want to date us?” Ez asked. “Or do you want to just be friends?”

He chewed on his lip, worrying it between his teeth.

“Or we could just do a casual thing,” I suggested, my heart sinking. I didn’t want that, and neither did Ez.

“Casual?” he asked, then went right back to chewing on his lip.

“Something in between friends and dating.”

“Like a friends-with-benefits thing?”

“Something like that,” Ez said, his tone a bit evasive. “But not quite.”

“What else is there?” Jett asked.

“A casual relationship. I can’t do the friends-with-benefits thing,” I said, not caring that I was putting all my cards on the table. “There are too many feelings involved. Pretending they’re not there will only lead to all of us getting hurt.”

“How would casual work?” Jett looked between us. “How would that be different from dating?”

“I guess it’s more semantics than anything,” I said. “Casual dating would basically be us seeing each other. We’d go out on dates and hang out, but without commitment. Dating would mean you were our boyfriend.”

His breath caught, and his eyes rounded in shock. “Boyfriend?” he squeaked.

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