Page 45 of Forever Your Touch

“It’s pretty late to do a live stream, but I thought you might want to playCupheadwith me.”

“Isn’t that the one the entire gaming community is lamenting because of how hard it is?” He hadn’t really watched many of the videos on the game. He’d been too immersed in catching up on his classes. Jo wasn’t kidding when she said the professors were trying to kill them this semester.

Jo rolled her eyes. “Idiots. Everything that is slightly hard is anotherDark Souls.”

“Hey, that game kicked my ass. It’s fucking hard.”

She came over and patted his shoulder like he was a little kid. “It’s okay if the harder games terrify you. We’ll find something else to play.”

“I never said I was afraid of it.”

“If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…” Jo let her voice trail off, and Mason’s eyes narrowed. She knew she’d wounded his pride. All guys thought they were badass gamers, when in truth, most of them sucked. She had no idea if Mason was any good or not. Given his brother was a game designer, she was betting on him being at least decent.

“Woman, shut the hell up with that nonsense and boot up the damn game.”

She laughed and motioned for him to pull up the other office chair while she got everything booted up. The new capture card Mason had given her was the bomb. She’d tested it out last night after he left. Meant she only got a couple hours’ sleep, but it was so worth it.

Jo had played this game on her channel before. Her subscribers loved the series, and she’d wanted to murder the developer. Truth be told, she got so much more satisfaction out of beating a level because itwashard and she’d earned the victory.

“Can I ask a question?”

“Shoot.” Jo pulled the game up, its 1930s look so charming, it had won her over despite her ill will toward its difficulty.

“You told me you were a cheerleader in high school, yeah?”

“I was.” Where was he going with this? “And a damn good one.”

“How did you not kill yourself?” His eyes twinkled with mischief.

“I am not that clumsy.” Well, she was, but that was beside the point.

He just looked at her, and she finally sighed. “I don’t know what it was about cheerleading, but I wasn’t that clumsy when I cheered. Maybe it was because of muscle memory or something, I don’t know, but I didn’t fall or cause anyone else to. Not much, anyway. Shocked the hell out of my family.”

“Me too.”

“Hey!” She smacked him in the arm.

“If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…”

He threw her words back at her. Damn him. She laughed; she couldn’t help it. “You are incorrigible.”

“I try.” He preened and batted his eyes.

It was good to see him smile. Mason had walked in here looking like he was ready to curl up in a ball and cry until there was nothing left. He had to be scared out of his mind if his father actually looked sick. Being able to distract him from that could at least start paying back everything he’d done for her.

“You ready to get your ass kicked in front of the camera?” she teased.

“You might get your ass kicked, but I am kicking this game’s ass.”

“Have you played before?”

“No, but I’ve seen the Let’s Plays. I’m confident I can do it since I know what’s coming and how to conquer the bosses.”

“Uh-huh. You keep believing that.” She patted his shoulder again, knowing how much it irritated him.

“Bring it.”

She made her expression as fierce as she could but lost it two seconds later. He wassogoing down.

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