Page 44 of Taming His Rockstar

Chapter 21

“Either you’ve been lying to us, or that’s not the same Jake you talk about. God, he’s even sexier in person.”

I turn away from watching Jake to face Ava. “It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?”

“What’s more ridiculous is that you think you can just bang him and say goodbye to him when you want to.”

“Are we talking about him?” Violet joins us at the kitchen window, and before I can even turn around, all six of us are standing at the window watching the men stand around the grill, doing whatever it is men did near grills that make them look ever sexier than they do in person.

Like Jane promised, it’s just a small party. I’m glad for that since I’m still not sure about Jake meeting my friends. So far, things are going great, and I realize that while I was so worried about making Jake comfortable, I forgot he’s a guy, and guys don’t approach these things the same way girls do. I mean, two minutes after I walked around introducing him to everyone, he and the rest of the guys abandoned us to fawn over Travis’s new grill.

“Next time we throw a party and you invite him, we have to make sure it’s a pool party,” Heather says.

“Back off,” I warn her with stern look.

She grins at me. “Hey, he’s yours in the bedroom, but you can’t stop me from looking. I’ll fight you for that right.”

“Am I the only one annoyed that those idiots have paid more attention to that thing than they have to us all afternoon?”

Heather’s husband is one of those idiots, and we smile. Mostly because she always vacillates between complaining about him paying her too much attention, which she loves, and him not paying her enough attention, which she pretends is a relief to her.

Jane pulls out the tray of buns, ready to take them out. “Maybe if you let him get one, he wouldn’t spend so much time admiring Travis’s.”

“Are you kidding? Let Joe have a grill? The man burned his hand while changing a light bulb.”

“I think we’re moving off topic here,” Phoebe calls everyone’s attention to order. “We were talking about Katie’s man.”

“He’s not my man,” I reply glibly but can’t hold back a grin.

Ava smirks at me. “After hearing the things you two do, I think he is your man. The question is, why you think he is not.”

I catch Jane’s eyes before I reply. “He is not my man. We just have sex.”

“Like a friends with benefits thing?” Violet asks.

I think about that. “I guess.”

“Only you guys got the order wrong. You started getting the benefits before you became friends.” Jane winks at me as she hands me a bag of buns. “Come on, let’s get there before those men start shoving meat in their mouth and washing it down with beer.”

Together, we carry the buns and condiments out to the backyard of Jane’s house. As soon as I walk out of the house, my eyes fall on Jake. He’s laughing at something Travis is saying, and again, I’m surprised by just how easily he has assimilated into the group. He must feel my eyes on him because he looks up and gives me a small smile before turning to flip over the steak on the grill. I feel my heart flutter in my chest. Not in an “I love him way”, because I don’t. No. It’s more in a “he is just way too sexy” kind of way. Ava stops behind me and leans in to whisper into my ear.

“You sure you guys are friends with benefits? Because that smile on your face screams more than just friends with benefits to me.”

I turn around and grin at her. “Yeah, it’s screaming friends with amazing benefits.”

Walking to the table, I drop the buns in my hand and grab a bottle of beer then walk to Jake.

“What does a girl have to do to get some meat around here?”

“You realize there are people around, right? I didn’t know you were into the whole public sex thing.”

My eyes widen as I realize what he twisted my words into. “Is there anything you guys can’t turn into a sexual innuendo?”

“I don’t think so,” he replies as he begins to slap a burger together for me. “Although, you talking about meat kind of made it easy.”

I look up to see Travis and Jane chuckling on the other end of the table. Jake hands me my burger on a plate, and I thank him.

“Hope you’re enjoying yourself?” I ask.

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