Page 108 of Finding Fate

25

Circle of Trust

“Dude, hurry up and throw me that towel. I hear them outside,” Jet said desperately to Tucker, who luckily had come over only minutes after Annie had left. He would never have managed to get the kitchen clean before his family got home otherwise. Fresh out of the shower, he and Annie hadn’t had time to clean up the physical evidence they had left before Izzy called to demand for her sister to come home.

“You owe me big, man,” Tucker said as he wiped a spot they’d missed with the damp towel covered in traces of whipped cream. “I came over to hang out, not to clean up after Jet and Annie time.”

Jet stopped what he was doing, and an impish grin spread across his face as he looked at his friend. “Dude…it was so worth the mess.”

Tucker shook his head, laughing to himself, and Jet turned to toss his towel into the washing machine located off the back of the kitchen. “My parents would freak if they knew what happened in here today.”

“I can imagine. I already know too much of what happened in here today. My mind doesn’t even want to fathom how y’all got whipped cream in some of those places.”

Jet held his hand out behind him. “Towel.” He needed to start the cycle. When his friend didn’t respond, Jet turned to find Tucker staring intently at the end of the counter. “Dude.”

Tucker raised a hand to point at the smear he was about to wipe clean. “Are those boob prints?”

Jet shrugged and looked away. “No. I don’t think so.”

Tucker looked harder, scrutinizing the imprinted, white smears. “They are; aren’t they?”

“No,” Jet lied again, though he distinctly remembered how that print got there, in a way he couldn’t wait to try again. But he denied it, knowing his friend would mercilessly tease Annie if his suspicions were confirmed.

Tucker grinned, recognizing the look on Jet’s face. “Whatever, man. I know those boobs. I’m dating the identical set, remember?”

Jet shot his best friend a look of warning. “You’d better not say anything.”

“Sure. Of course not,” Tucker replied, his grin promising just the opposite. He tossed Jet the towel. “You get to wipe it.”

Jet swiped the towel across the counter and tossed it into the wash to start the load. He shrugged. “You helped clean everything else…” he teased, hoping the implication would shut Tucker up.

“Alright, man, let’s stop. I don’t want to imagine you and Annie that way. Just seeing the mess gave me too much info to go on,” Tucker said, shaking his head vigorously to try to erase a rather disturbing image of two of his best friends that had popped unwillingly into his head. He shuddered. Annie was practically his sister.

“Hi, boys,” Helen greeted them not even a minute later from the doorway. “I thought I’d find you two in here.”

“Hi,” both guys replied.

“Jet, if you’re hungry, not that I have to ask, I picked up some fried chicken on the way home. Your sister and brother are taking it to the table. Tucker, you’re welcome to eat here, too, if you’d like.”

“Sweet. Thanks, Helen,” Tucker replied as the two of them darted out of the room to find the food.

When they finished eating, they said their goodbyes to Jet’s family, and headed next door to pick up the twins.

Tyler came bolting down the stairs as Bridgette let them in. “Oh, my God!” he cried. “You’re not going to believe it!”

“Chill out, Tyler!” Izzy called down after him as she came down the stairs dressed in loose, flowing, black leggings and a Bentonville Sharks spirit shirt Ms. Teiger insisted she’d wear to the games now that she couldn’t fit into her uniform.

“But it’s totally awesome!” he cried to the three in the living room.

“What is?” his mother asked.

“He saw Annie,” Izzy explained. “Jet, get ready to have your eyes pop out of your head. I do some amazing work.”

“Well, let’s see,” Bridgette said, the guys joining as she stood by Izzy near the stairs for her daughter’s descent.

“Annie!” Izzy called up the stairs when nothing happened.

“Do I have to?!” they heard her call back down.

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