Page 45 of Taming His Rockstar

He nods. “Sure. Travis is cool. I guess it’s been a while since I’ve been at a barbeque party. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” I bite into my burger, and it’s so good I make a noise in my throat. When I look down, it’s to find Jake smiling at me. “What?”

“You really love your meat, don’t you?”

“Shut up.” I punch him playfully.

“Come on.” He grabs his beer and mine and leads us to one of the chairs.

“I can’t believe you somehow ended up getting Travis a better gift than me.” He got Travis a vintage Counting Crows record. I got Travis a bottle of fifty-year-old whiskey. Travis smiled and hugged me when I handed my gift to him. He screamed like a girl and did a weird dance when Jake gave him his gift. Even Jane’s engraved pocket watch was unable to beat Jake’s gift. Jane pulled me to the side and asked me if Jake was trying to destroy her marriage. “Jane’s says that the next time Travis gets her a bad gift for her birthday, she’s coming to you to make up for it.”

He smiles. “Just glad he liked it. Didn’t really know the guy, so I just had to work with the little I knew. Do your friends have a problem with me?”

The beer in my hand goes still, and I pull it out. “What?”

“Don’t look. But Heather keeps looking at me like the bodyguard of a mob boss, and Violet hasn’t stopped smiling at me since I greeted her at the door. As for Ava, she spent three minutes telling me how she knows how to clean up a crime scene so perfectly the cops wouldn’t find a single shred of evidence. It was like I was in a weird episode of The Sopranos.”

“Sorry.” I cringe inside as I imagine him having to deal with all of that. “They can be a little overprotective of me at times.”

“That’s a joke, right? Them thinking you need protection. You’re scarier than the whole lot of them. Except maybe Violet. I don’t trust the smiling ones.”

Him calling me scary is a strange compliment, mostly because I seem to like it. “Don’t mind Violet. I think she has a crush on you. And sorry about all the harassing. Normally, they reserve that for people I’m in a relationship with, but I’ve told them this is a just a friends with benefits deal.”

He gives me a strange look and for a while says nothing. “At least you admit we’re friends,” he finally says.

I frown, wondering what he means.

“You want another one?” He points at my plate.

I glance down at it, surprised to find it empty. I wolfed down that burger without even knowing.

“I guess. I don’t know if I should be eating so much meat.” I raise a hand before he can mention it. “And yeah, I heard it that time. And I don’t care.” I lean in toward him and give him a coy smile. “There is just something about your meat that makes me oh so . . . hungry,” I finish on a breathy whisper.

His eyes become hot on me. “Careful there, little kitty. There is only so much a man can take before he is forced to react.”

“Jake,” Travis calls him. “We picking teams for football. You want in?”

“Sure. Just gotta get Katie her meat first, and I’ll come over.”

“Great, you’re on my team.”

“Come on,” Joe, who is the other captain, grumbles.

Jake grins at me and then walks to grill to get me my burger. I watch him walk away and I begin to count the minutes to when I can get him all to myself. One hour. If we are not out of there in one hour, then I am dragging him to Jane’s bathroom.

---