Page 59 of Zero Chance

Hope was present too, sitting on the table next to the chair where her brother was seated.

“Hey!There’s the man of the hour,” she called with a big smile, lifting her fisted hand as if to cheer me on.

I stalled in the doorway, sending her a suspicious squint.

Hope’s history with the group was long and complicated.We’d started out hating her because she was meaner than a rabid dog who’d been cornered by animal control and she’d bullied Alec mercilessly.But she and Alec had made up and decided to become siblings of the year or some shit.Except Hope still thought it was great fun to torment her brother’s friends with jokes onlyshethought were funny.

I used to avoid contact with her at all costs until about four months ago when Parker decided to go and fall in love with her, making her an even more regular staple in the crew.

Admittedly, she’d gotten better since then.She at leasttriedto be nice and had actually helped me score a couple of chicks one night, which I always appreciated.But she was still Hope, and that smile would probably always put me on edge, fearing which prank she was going to pull next.

“Alec was just telling us about your big night,” Oaklynn added from the opposite side of the table, where she sat in a chair with her feet on the seat so her knees could bend up toward her chest as she held a mug of some steaming brew between both hands.

When she lifted her eyebrows knowingly, I swerved my attention to my best friend.“Dude,” I warned him with a severe scowl.“I told you that shit in confidence.”

Alec’s smile died flat, his eyes flared, and he immediately gushed, “Oh fuck, man.I’m sorry.I didn’t know?—”

Losing my composure, I stopped him there with a snort and shake of the head before a full laugh burst out.But damn, he was so gullible.

“Seriously?”I chuckled, holding onto my gut and shaking my head as I slapped the side of his arm.“I can’t believe you actually bought that.So lame.”Starting for the Keurig machine to make myself a steaming cup full of whatever was on hand—hopefully, Oaklynn hadn’t used up all her cappuccino pods yet—I opened a cabinet and pulled down my usual cup.“What has he told you so far?”I asked the others, turning back to them.“Because he probably skimped on all the best details.”

Instead of answering, however, the table full of people merely gaped at me before Oaklynn demanded, “What the hell is wrong with your back?”

“What?What do you mean?”I twisted, trying to look over my shoulder, but I had no success in seeing what they were talking about.“What is it?A bug?”

I started to brush myself down, still spinning in a circle in an attempt to see my own spine.

“Is that…?”Hope popped from the table, squinting as she came forward to grab my shoulder and still me.“Scratch marks,” she finally decided before brushing a finger low on the right side of my back, just inches above the waistband of my jeans.

I straightened away from her touch, hissing at the slight sting it brought, only to try to twist and see the marks for myself.

My fingers drifted over them so I could feel the abraded skin.“Huh,” I murmured.“Must’ve gotten those last night when Mystery Girl was going down on me.Hey, did Younger tell you about how she?—”

“Yes,” Xander, Hope, and Oaklynn yelled together.

“He told us,” Hope assured as she grabbed my shoulder and manually turned me again before examining my love marks more thoroughly.“Damn,” she added with an impressed murmur.“She got you good.Here.Sit.I’m going to put some antiseptic on this so it doesn’t get infected.”

Always happy to be fussed over, I shrugged and carried my still empty mug to the table where I dropped down into the chair next to Xander, who was blushing as she gaped at me from wide eyes while pinching a hand around her mouth as if she needed to manually hold it closed to keep from saying something.

Sending her a wink, I asked, “Jealous?”

She snorted and dropped her hand.“I just can’t—I can’t even—” Her hand fluttered over her chest, patting it a few times as she searched for words.

So I tipped my face over toward Oaklynn.“She’s totally jealous.”

Oaklynn sent me a dry blink.“She doesn’t look jealous to me.”

I shrugged, disagreeing.“Well, I think she does.”

Returning to the table with a mini first aid kit she’d found in one of the cabinet drawers, Hope opened it on the table and commanded me to sit forward.I did, arching from the cold ointment she applied as I plopped my elbows on the table.But her touch was gentle and kind, so I managed to relax and enjoy the pampering as she smoothed the salve over my cuts, which thankfully grew warmer with her application.

Alec smirked and shook his head.Xander went back to pressing a hand to her mouth as if she couldn’t believe this was happening, her face still flaming red.

And Oaklynn furrowed her brow into a scowl.“I can’t believe you hooked up with someone inmygazebo.”

“And you thought her name was, what, Makayla?”Hope snorted with a laugh.“That is hilarious that you seriously thought she was someone else the entire time.”

“But my gazebo,” Oaklynn cut in as she poked a finger into the center of her own chest.“That was supposed to be my birthday present from Damien.”

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