Page 48 of Unexpecting

″You’re nothing like her.”

We lay there quietly for a few minutes, J.B. staring at the ceiling and me staring at him. I wondered if he was counting the dots on each ceiling tile like I do. I resisted the urge to run my finger down his profile, from his forehead, up the slope of his nose, touching the softness of his lips, to the arrogant jut of his chin. I resisted, mainly because this was the most intimate I’d ever gotten with J.B., even counting the times we had sex.

J.B. suddenly rolled over and caught me staring at him. “What?” he asked.

″Nothing.” I could feel myself blushing.

″You’re staring at me like I’ve got two heads.”

″Just one. It’s a nice one, though.” I reached over and flicked his nose with my finger. J.B. didn’t smile. He just looked at me. “Now you’re looking at me all funny-like.”

He gave a strained smile and turned his head. “You know, Case, I—” J.B. stopped short as we heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

″Casey?” I heard Morgan’s voice.

″Um, down here!” Both J.B. and I leaped off the bed like we were guilty of something.

″Are you hiding?” Morgan called as she came down the stairs. I heard her stumble at the last step. The extra height of it always trips people. “Are you okay?” When she poked her head into my bedroom, she looked surprised at the sight of J.B. standing beside me. “Oh! I didn’t know you were down here.”

″Just rescuing the blender,” J.B. said quickly, grabbing it from the floor.

″Oh?” Morgan’s gaze swiveled from J.B. back to me, and then to Sebastian, still lying on the pillow taking it all in. Then she jerked her head toward the stairs, like she was trying to tell me something.

″Everything okay upstairs?” J.B. asked, noticing her gesture.

″Fine, but Casey, I found someone wandering around looking for you,” she said.

″Please, don’t let it be my mother or someone else she’s trying to set me up with!” I begged with my eyes closed.

″Much better than that,” Morgan assured me. “But maybe…”

″Come on down,” I called reluctantly. There were more footsteps and another stumble at the bottom. I should put up a sign or something. I sat back on the bed, expecting Cooper and a lecture about drinking all the margaritas.

″David!” I said in surprise as he stepped into the doorway of my apartment.

″You told me to stop by,” he said with a big grin. He looked good in a pair of khaki shorts and a dark green polo neck.

″That’s great!” It was mainly awkwardness that made me jump into his outstretched arms. “I’m so glad you came. You remember Morgan—obviously.” My laugh was a bit forced. “This is J.B., one of my roommates.” I was having difficulty looking at J.B. for some reason.

″Hey.” J.B. took David’s hand and they shook, but he was looking at me the whole time. “David, as in—David?”

″That’s me,” David said a little too heartily. “Hey—that your cat?” He went to Sebastian and started giving him a good scratch.

″Ah.” J.B. looked from me to David and there was not a lot of warmth in his eyes. “Well, I’ll get out of here. I’ll take the blender back up to Coop.”

″I’ll get out of here too,” Morgan chimed in. “But, Casey, look, about what your Mom said—”

″I’m fine,” I told her wearily.

″No, but that’s good. It’s about Derek.” I looked blank for a moment. “The brother. I know your Mom thought maybe…” she trailed off, glancing at David nervously. I wanted to say, don’t worry about giving away secrets, but I didn’t. “Look, he asked for my number.”

″Who, Derek? You’re kidding!” I laughed.

″I kind of gave it to him,” she told me in a small voice.

″What?”

″I thought he was cute,” she said defensively. “And he seemed nice.”

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