Page 68 of Heart Strain

“Extra-large,” Jameson says, and when I raise my eyebrows, adds, “I’m starving.”

“Anything else for you?”

“Nope. Thanks,” I say.

He takes the menus and walks a few steps away before another teenage boy stops him, and I hear Reilly say, “If you don’t take your boyfriend out of here, I’m going to murder you both.”

The other kid laughs. “We have to eat before we go back to your house.”

Reilly groans. “I’m never getting rid of either of you.”

The kid pats Reilly’s shoulder with a grin, then walks over to the purple blouse guy and pecks his lips. For some reason, their easy display of affection hits me square in the chest. When I was in high school, if I would’ve done that in public, I likely would’ve gotten my ass kicked. Seeing them openly together like that gives me a little hope.

“What’re you looking at?” Jameson asks, trying to look behind himself.

“Purple blouse kid has a boyfriend who just kissed him in public with purple blouse’s brother right there.”

“Um… okay, Mr. Nosy-Creepy-Old-Guy.”

I laugh. “No, it was just… I wasn’t expecting it. It wasn’t like that for me when I lived here before, you know? It’s… awesome.”

Jameson grabs one of my hands in both of his. “Holds?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad you came home.”

I smiled at him. “Me too, Foxy. Me too.”

Once our pizza comes, I decide to push all my weirdness of the day away and focus on my awesome boyfriend—is he my boyfriend now? We’ve been dating for weeks, but he’s never used the word before. “Are you my boyfriend?” Okay, so my brain really likes to blurt shit out to him. I’m not this much of a spaz around anyone else, I swear.

He coughs on his food a little, takes a drink, then asks, “Yes?”

I nod. “Okay, I was just checking.”

He laughs. “You’re blushing.”

“Am not.”

“It’s sexy.”

“Stop,” I laugh out. “There are children right behind you.”

He laughs and takes a bite of pizza, so I change the subject.

“How do you like working with Aiden?”

“It’s actually pretty great. I was worried since I’m used to working with my best friend, you know? But Aiden’s a great guy, and he’s nice to talk to on our down time.”

“That’s good. I like him a lot.”

“Me too. But I can’t wait for Drix to come back.”

“Yeah, yeah. My brother’s awesome, blah, blah.”

Chuckling, he grabs my hand again and says, “Not as awesome as you.” My eyebrows rise. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the guy, but… I’d rather take you home with me at night.”

My stomach does a somersault because for a moment there, I thought he was going to say that he loved me, too. Not knowing what to say to that, I glance down, squeeze his hand, and clear my throat. “I’m glad.” Okay, not the most eloquent of things, but that’s all I got. When he squeezes my hand again, I feel something squishy and look down with a cringe as I snatch my hand away. “Gross, Foxy! You got pizza sauce all over me.”

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