Page 152 of Study Buddies

“Me either,” Jayden said. Then he looked at me. “Are you okay with this?”

I wasn’t entirely sure how to answer that. “If it’s what she wants.” I didn’t understand it, but I could at least see how she’d gotten closer to all three of us. And how maybe we all had different things to offer her.

“You know, if you say you have a problem with it, she’ll call it off,” Jayden said.

“I know.”

Silence fell again, and I kind of wished I had a beer or three to distract me from my thoughts. This wasn’t what I wanted for her… but what mattered was what she wanted. And if she wanted me to be a part of this, then I would.

But that was tonight’s concern. For right now, I wanted to talk about something else. So I brought up something that had recently occurred to me. “I’ve been thinking.” I directed my words to Kyle, but it was Jayden who answered.

“You’re always thinking.”

“Maybe we could build a deck out back. Nothing fancy, just a space for a table and chairs and a grill.”

Kyle cocked his head. As co-homeowner, it was his call as much as mine. “We could probably knock that out in a couple of days if we used Jay as slave labor.”

Jayden raised his beer to that. “It would be nice to grill out there.”

Kyle nodded, then looked at me. “Maybe you can find out what your mom puts in her barbecue sauce. That stuff is fucking amazing.”

I agreed with what he said, but at the same time, I was pretty shocked that he was saying something nice about my mom. Not that he hated her, but as he’d recently pointed out, becoming a blended family had been hard on both of us. And until very recently, I’d been too involved in my own pain to think much about his.

“Yeah, I can do that.” A small smile formed on my face. “Her barbecue sauceisthe best.”

42

TORI

The knockon the door was both exciting and terrifying. I was sitting at the desk in Lucas’s room, where I’d been for at least ten minutes, my mind racing. I wanted this so much, but wow, it was also a little scary. “Come in.”

Jayden opened the door, and the sight of him made my pulse speed up while my muscles relaxed. Which made no sense. But him being here meant that the date was starting—that was the part that made my heart rate increase. But just seeing him—his easy-going smile, his friendly face—those things allowed some of the tension to drain my body.

He looked good, too.Reallygood. The guys had let me use the upstairs bathroom to shower and shave and pamper myself, but judging from Jayden, they’d made good use of the one downstairs.

His pants were a very light tan, and his shirt was white, some kind of linen thing that was open at the throat. It was a summery look that worked on him and accentuated his tan skin. I wanted to run my hands over the soft fabric—and then over his smooth skin.

There was heat in his eyes as he stared back at me. I got to my feet, and he looked me over from head to toe and then back again—stopping at a few spots along the way. “You look fucking incredible.” His voice was a little hoarse. “Now I see why they wanted you to wear that.”

“You look good, too.”

He smiled faintly and gestured to me. “Yeah, but not like that.”

“No, you look hot.” I stepped closer and leaned in. “And you smell good, too.”

His Adam's apple bobbed in his throat, and his gaze went to my hair. “A bun?”

“Yeah, about that…” I took him by the hand and led him to the bathroom. Earlier, I’d texted him and asked him if he wanted my hair up or down for tonight. I figured he deserved to choose since he was the only one who hadn’t seen me in my dress. He’d chosen a ponytail, which to me had felt a little plain for how fancy the dress was.

Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, I pulled him next to me. “It may look like a bun, but it’s secretly a ponytail. Give me your hand.”

He grinned, watching us in the mirror. “You can have any body part you want.”

I guided his fingers up to my hair. “Feel that pin there? That’s the first one.” I slid his fingers over to the next. “And those are the other two. Any time that you’d like tonight, just pull those three pins and you’ll get that ponytail you like.”

“Pull the pin? You’re not a hand grenade.” He chuckled, but his eyes were glazed over, and I knew he liked the surprise I’d prepared for him. “Are you ready for our date?”

“Where are we going?”

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