Page 13 of Second Chance for the Single Mom

7

Jordan

Bro, what theactualfuck?

It had been a hell of a day for me. One of those days that only a gallon of alcohol could erase. Now that my homeboy Lucas was back in town, he was my first phone call when I needed a friend. “Come on over whenever you get off work,” he’d told me when I texted him at lunch. “Shay might be here, too. We’ll get drunk and play Call of Duty. Just like the old days.”

The old days. Fuck yeah.

Ineededthat.

So I picked up a six-pack of beer and headed straight to his swanky-as-fuck new apartment on the river. He’d given me the code to the door so I could let myself in, just in case he was in the middle of a game.

But my best friend wasn’t playing Call of Duty.

“The party’s here!” I announced, before jerking to a stop. Lucas was shirtless on the couch, with a woman straddling his lap and Shay standing behind her. The three of them whipped their heads toward me, eyes wide like goddamn raccoons that had been caught rummaging through the trash.

“Fuck,” Lucas growled. “I forgot to text you.”

“I…” I blinked. The woman in his lap. Was that…

Oh my sweet Jesus fuck. ThatwasHaley Mercer. The girl who sat next to me in homeroom four straight years thanks to alphabetical seating. Lucas’s ex-girlfriend.

And apparently they were in the middle of reenacting the way they spent most of their relationship back then.

But with Shay joining in? That was new. I’d never known Lucas to be the kind of guy who shared things. Maybe he’d matured a bunch out in Detroit after all.

“Jordan?” she asked. “Jordan Mayfield?”

“Glad I’m memorable,” I said with a nervous smile. “I, uh, didn’t know you guys were doingthistonight. Sorry for interrupting. I’ll get the fuck out of here.”

Yet something in Haley’s hazel eyes stopped me in my tracks. Was that… curiosity? Excitement? She was thinking aboutsomething.

I wasn’t very good at keeping my mouth shut, but I made myself count to five. Just to see if she would voice whatever it was that was going on in her head.

I made it to four before she said, “Unless…” She swallowed. “Unless you want to stay.”

Holy goddamn Christ. My friends were having a Friday night threesome with a girl I hadn’t seen in the better part of a decade, and she was asking me tostay. I dug my fingernails into my palm until it hurt. Yep, I wasn’t dreaming.

I glanced at Lucas. He was waiting for my reaction, but I was waiting to see whathethought about it. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, he nodded.

Green fucking light.

And Haley was biting her lip, eyes wide as she studied me.

We had never really vibed back in school. She was my best friend’s girlfriend, which meant that most of the time both of us were competing for Lucas’s attention. But she was still every bit as gorgeous as she had been back then, and I wasn’t just thinking that because I had a great view of the round globes of her ass in a tight pair of jeans while she straddled Lucas on the couch.

And I was in the mood to misbehave.

The front door was still leaning against my arm, the spring in the frame trying to force it closed. I took one small step into the room, which felt like one giant leap for smut-kind. The door swung closed and latched with a definitive click.

“All right,” I said, putting down the six-pack and loosening my tie. “You don’t have to ask me twice.”

I guess this was another way to blow off steam after a shitty day.

And it beat thehellout of playing Call of Duty.

8

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