Page 67 of Of Pranks and Passion

I smirked at Jayden. Gary knew me better than he thought. Which meant he could go away, and I could drag Gary back to our room.

“That was a test,” Jayden said with a grin. “One of many. Let’s go, little brother. Your favorite pizza restaurant is calling your name.”

Ugh. Jayden knew me too well.

GARY

I could feel the irritation coming off Easton. He wasn’t happy about what we were doing. I couldn’t figure out what bothered him most. That we were having dinner with his brother instead of his friends or that he had to talk about our fake relationship for a few hours. Or something else entirely. I didn’t know. He was hard to read lately. And a little distant. I tried not to take offense, this wasn’t an actual relationship, but it made me antsy. I buried myself in studying to keep him from figuring out that I was bothered by it, which was great for preparing for finals, but not great for fixing whatever was going on with him.

Easton’s brother brought us to a little hole in the wall pizza restaurant closer to downtown. It was small, and it looked likeit’d been around a while, but the decor was warm and inviting, and it smelled delicious. Definitely nothing like that restaurant Brienna had her party at. We were sat at a small booth in the corner, with me and Easton next to each other and Jayden on the other side. It felt a little like an interview, and I was nervous, despite knowing this wasn’t real. If Easton’s family didn’t like me, it didn’t really matter in the end. This wasn’t forever. He wanted us to go back to being friends.

Didn’t mean I didn’t want them to like me.

Once we received our menus and I’d hidden behind mine for a few minutes, Jayden finally spoke.

“So. Gary. Where did you meet my brother?”

Peeking over the menu, I hesitantly answered, “He’s in a few of my classes. Our majors have some overlaps in credit requirements, I guess.”

Jayden nodded, smiling encouragingly. “And when did you start dating?”

Uh… He knew this wasn’t real, right? I shot a questioning look at Easton, who looked bored already.

“I, uh… A few weeks after we met? We had a group project together, and we spent more time together doing that, and I guess things kind of went from there?” Sort of. We already finished the project when that guy first approached me in the library. I frowned. Something about that didn’t add up. Easton wasn’t supposed to meet me that afternoon. After weeks of knowing him, I knew Easton wouldn’t set foot in the library unless he absolutely had to. He thought it was boring. Yet he showed up exactly when I needed him to. What was he doing there?

“What?” Easton must’ve noticed me staring at him, because now he stared back, raising an eyebrow at me.

“Nothing…” My non-confrontational side said to let it go, but then I remembered I was trying to get past that. I was allowedto ask questions. I wasn’t going to get into trouble with Easton. “Why were you there that day in the library? Our project was done. We weren’t planning on meeting up again. Were we?”

To my surprise, Jayden snorted. I jerked to face him, and he looked like he was trying to mask his expression but was failing miserably.

“What’s so funny?”

He put his hands up in surrender, his shoulders shaking. “Nothing. I didn’t say anything.”

I turned back to Easton, shooting him a look that demanded an explanation.

He shrugged. “I was following you. You were interesting. I wanted to see what kind of person you were.”

“You mean you were stalking him,” Jayden teased.

Easton rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t stalking him. It wasn’t anything creepy. If he didn’t want to be followed, he should’ve gone somewhere private.”

That didn’t track but I wasn’t going to get in the middle of that. I was more focused on the fact that Easton was following me. It didn’t bother me, he was right that he never did anything creepy, but it made me wonder.

“What about me was interesting?”

Easton lifted a shoulder, his expression bland. He didn’t see it as a big enough deal to remember why he’d done it. Just that he followed me around and that gave him the opportunity to step in when I needed him.

“He wanted to know if you were trying to use him. He didn’t understand why someone would be nice to him for no good reason. You giving him notes without knowing him threw him off guard,” Jayden explained, shooting his brother an exasperated look. “I told you it was weird.”

It really wasn’t. It was just…Easton.

CHAPTER FORTY

GARY

The restof the dinner went pretty easily. Jayden decided he liked the truth about how we got together. Not the part about me getting harassed and Easton needing to step in to protect me, but he said sharing notes in class, being in a project together and getting together after that was a cute story, and it would satisfy his parents. He then covered the basics that Easton never bothered with, like the names of his family members and how many siblings they had. I’d never remember all the names of their spouses and the other family members that Jayden said would be important to remember, but Easton didn’t look worried.

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