Page 58 of Pitcher Perfect

Austin:Ty made meatballs. And by “make,” I mean bought a bag of frozen ones and dumped a bottle of BBQ sauce over them

Caleb:sounds like a step up from his Kraft mac and cheese

Austin:yeah, except he forgot the “slow” part of slow cooker and started it ten minutes before the meeting. They’re still frozen.But Dom made his seven-layer dip and I can die happy. It’s soooo good

Caleb:think he’d share the recipe?

Austin:why, so you can steal it and make a million dollars because it’s that good?

Caleb: soI can make it for you sometime

Austin:oh. Well that’s uncomfortably nice

Caleb:lol I aim to make you uncomfortable with my niceness

Austin:well it’s working. Quick, say something mean

Caleb:you chop onions very unevenly

Austin:GASP

When I looked up, three sets of eyes were watching me.

“What?”

“How’s it going with Caleb and the chamber event? Did Mabel get the permit for him to park in front of the brewery?” Ethan asked.

I coated a tortilla chip in Dom’s dip and squirmed at their attention on me. “Uh, yeah. I think so. I’m sure he won’t mind if you want to double-check with him,” I said to Ethan.

“Hasn’t that come up in your pillow talk yet?” Ty grinned at me.

“Why don’t you just pop that into the conversation you’re having with him now?” Dom glanced at the phone in my hand.

Smirking bastards.

Pillow talk required spending the night, which I hadn’t done because it felt too serious. For the past couple of weeks since we’d first fooled around, we’d been hanging out and having fun. We’d even gotten off together a couple more times. No big deal. Not that we could even hang out that much with how busy we were with our businesses. Though, we sure as hell made up for it in texting volume. It was kind of nice to just get to know him.

Believing I could have that one night with Caleb then walk away had been naive. We could go slow and hang out without putting a label on it, feel each other out before the stakes were high and our hearts got involved—moreinvolved. I would rather have something unlabeled fizzle than officially break up. We could stay friends after we fizzled.After a breakup?Not likely.

“Our pillow talk is all about how tiny your dick is and how big your personality has to be to hide it,” I snarked back.

Ty let out a low whistle. “Someone’s sensitive. The sex must not be any good.”

Dom smirked but wisely remained silent. I didn’t take the bait.

The conversation shifted to teasing Ty about his latest conquest. I wondered if anyone would ever catch his interest for longer than a night. If that happened, I couldn’t wait to meet the man.

“Seems like he’d be a fun one to see again,” Ethan said after Ty wrapped his story.

Ty shook his head. “We had a great time, but nah. The people I have one-time fun with and I are perfectly happy with our arrangements. Exploring someone new is half the fun. A second time wouldn’t be better with anyone.”

I couldn’t understand that. I was usually too awkward and uncomfortable the first time toreallyenjoy myself—except with Caleb. Fuck, that had been scorching hot with how responsive he’d been and how wrecked he’d looked when he’d told me to fuck his face.Not the time for a boner, Hewitt.We’d been so comfortable together, I’d forgotten to be nervous about anything. For the first time, I’d followed my instincts.

It was hard to pay attention as we worked through the itinerary when I kept wanting to text Caleb, but I didn’t dare after their teasing.

“Oh, yeah. I have one more thing for the agenda,” Ty said once we’d finished talking about everything written on the whiteboard.

We all looked at him expectantly. He stretched his legs in front of him, then clasped his fingers behind his head. I knew that routine. He had something big. He’d pulled the same move when he’d told me he’d ended up getting into the same college as me.

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