Page 31 of Finding Delaware

As if someone up above heard my plight, a small shoulder bumps into mine, and a familiar feminine body squeezes in between me and Matty.

“Hey, Taytortot.” Salem grins up at me, her gray eyes glowing against the reflection of the snow-covered windows.

Returning her grin, I feel myself relax in the presence of my second best friend. “Sally Mal. What’s shakin’, babe?”

She laughs, tossing her long red hair into a messy bun on the top of her head before leaning in and pressing a kiss to my throat. After weeks of no human contact, the feel of her lips on my skin has my dick perking up almost immediately, and I stifle a groan. With this one gesture, she’s telling me that she let Brad go, and now it’s my turn again. See what I mean about our relationship being easy? This girl just gets me.

Throwing an arm around her shoulders, I lean in, pressing my nose against her hair. She always smells fantastic, like lilacs or some shit, and it always calms me down. Salem is the only soul on the planet who knows about all the shit with my father, and only because she witnessed my near mental breakdown over it one night a few years ago. She saw the worst parts of me and stayed, which is more than I can say for some people.

Speaking of one of those people…

I feel his attention burning a hole in the side of my face, and I turn to meet Huck’s stare. A frown pulls at his lips, his gaze bouncing between Salem and me, some form of anger burning in his irises that I can feel from here. The sight gives my sick and twisted brain an idea.

Keeping my eyes locked on Huckslee, I turn Salem’s face and plant a kiss on her lips, cutting off whatever she’d been saying to Xed. She purrs, relaxing into me, her mouth parting to grant my tongue access. It’s slow and sultry, nothing like the desperate frenzy of kissing my stepbrother, and though her lips are as familiar to me as my own, the kiss lacks any real heat. But that’s okay because the way Huck’s jaw visibly tightens as he watches us tells me I’ve achieved my goal.

Turning back to Salem, I find her gazing at me with narrowed eyes, and I break the kiss with a grin. “What?”

“Who are we making jealous?” She looks around the cafeteria, searching for whoever I’d been staring at.

Debating for half a second, I decide to tell her the truth. “Huckslee.”

Her manicured brows rise as she snaps her eyes to Huck, who’s glaring at us from across the room, and she smiles broadly as she waves at him. “Not who I expected, but it’s hot, and I’m down for it.”

Fuck, this is why I love her. Salem is always down for anything.

“So what did Huck do to piss you off now?” She asks. Christian laughs when he catches the end of our whispered conversation.

“That’s what I asked, too.”

I frown at both of them. “Why does everyone think he did something to piss me off?”

He did. But they don’t need to know that.

Salem shrugs as she pulls my tray over, grabbing the fork out of my hand. “Doesn’t he always?”

Ain’t that the fucking truth.

Glancing back over at him, I find his attention no longer on us. He’s staring down at his phone, smiling as he types away, and it’s my turn to glare. Who the fuck is he talking to? Who has him smiling like that? Is it the Royce guy he was texting months ago? The thought makes my blood boil. I still haven’t been able to find whoever he is on social media, though maybe I should recruit Salem for the job. Girl could work for the FBI with her investigative skills, no joke.

Pulling out my phone, I type out a quick message.

Me: Who are you texting?

And then I sit back and wait. Only a few minutes pass before his head snaps up from his phone, and he briefly locks eyes with me.

It’s been months since we’ve even talked to each other in person. I sent him a few texts after the night on the track, which he ignored, so this is the first time in weeks that we’ve broken our weird stalemate. I even started staying late in the gym, lifting and performing drills Coach makes us do in the offseason to avoid awkward dinners with Aaron and Maisie. Since Huck is still on light duty for his arm, weights are out of the question, so I usually get the gym to myself late in the evening after everyone else goes home.

My phone vibrates, and I grin when I read his text.

Suckslee: Mind your fucking business.

I send him a pouty emoji, followed by a crying one. He reads it and doesn’t respond.

Me: No sexting at the lunch table, young man.

His responding text comes through immediately.

Suckslee: What makes you think I’m sexting?

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