Page 56 of Light My Fire

That surprises me. It doesn’t sound super sexual given his casual tone, but it’s still a shift in his attitude. He seems way more relaxed today. Luke must be feeling much more comfortable around Brooke now that her virgin status is history. I can’t say I love that either, but clearly Brooke is enjoying herself.

She poses with a snowball for him. “Why, thank you.”

Jackson has accumulated three snowballs during Brooke’s exchange with Luke. He tosses one up in the air and catches it. “I haveverybig hands,” he says. “You know what they say about that, sweetheart?”

Brooke’s eyes widen.

I stop shoveling, afraid the metal scraping on the concrete steps will drown out her response. Is she thinking about Jackson’s dick size?

“It means you have big balls,” Luke says dryly.

“Snow balls or actual balls?” Brooke asks, head swiveling between the two of them.

That makes Luke laugh out loud. Jackson glares at him and throws a snowball at him but Luke easily dodges it.

Luke eyes Brooke. “I mean, he’s flirting with you. You know that, right?”

She nods.

“Just checking.”

Luke tromps over to me and holds out his hand. “Give me the shovel. Go have fun.”

“I’m good.”

Luke’s eyebrows raise. “You don’t sound like it.”

I hit the walkway with the shovel and scoop up a load of wet snow. “Your hearing is off.”

He stares at me and then just nods. “Okay. Got it.”

My gut feels twisted and I’m annoyed by it.

Brooke is now laughing and running away from Jackson, who is pelting her with snowballs. She stumbles and falls in the snow and Jackson falls down beside her, reaching for her. She shrieks and rolls away.

“No, no,” he protests. “Truce. I swear. I’m not trying to trick you.”

They’re both on their backs.

“Promise?” she asks, turning her head to eye him. She looks poised to roll away if necessary.

He touches the tip of her nose in a tender way. “Promise.”

Her attention is fixed on him, and that gives my gut another twist. I want her to pay attention tome. Which is selfish and something I need to get under control. This is about Brooke, not me, just like last night was.

Brooke starts swinging her arms and legs out in the snow. “Snow angel contest! Luke, judge me and Jackson on whose is better.”

“Sure. It’s all about the clean exit,” Luke says. He shoots me one last look and steps down into the yard again.

Jackson is pretending like he’s going to mess up her lines by swinging his legs really wide.

“Cheater!”

Their grins are wide, their breath visible puffs, rising as they laugh and jostle together.

Luke holds his hand out to Brooke. “Here, angel.”

She takes his hand and lets him haul her to her feet so she can cleanly jump out of her snow angel without messing it up. She smiles up at Luke but he doesn’t return one. The smile on her face falters a little.

---