Page 35 of Love, Just In

Half a beer in, Ross is telling Holly about the time Zac brought him to school with him for an entire day, and none of the teachers noticed that Ross wasn’t an actual student until the very last period. It still makes me cry with laughter. When my elbow accidentally grazes the soft plane of Zac’s forearm, my attention zeroes in on that one spot.

Zac’s eyes flash to mine just as my phone lights up with a text from Lindsay.

LINDSAY:Hey, stunner. Didn’t hear back from you after my message about the news report! I went to such trouble to watch that, lol.

What time are we meeting tonight?

I really can’t wait to see you. x

Holy shit, I completely forgot.

Zac’s gaze sweeps over the handset as I type out a reply that I should be home no later than five. I’d better go easy on the beers.

I spend the next ten minutes half-contributing to the casual conversation and half-reconsidering this date tonight. Even though Lindsay is a handsome, ambitious go-getter—exactly the sort of man I’ve been trying to attract—I can’t honestly say I’ve missed him this past week.

Zac’s warm hand covers my bare thigh beneath the table, and all the blood in the world rushes there. His palm disappears as fast as it arrived, and he’s looking right at me.

‘Ross just asked if you want to come to the wedding.’

My eyes widen at Ross. ‘Really?’

He rolls his eyes. ‘Of course, Jose. I would’ve invited you sooner had I known you’d be up here.’

‘I’d love to.’

I push away the thought that he wouldn’t have thought to invite me if I’d still been living in Sydney—only a two-hour drive from here. I guess my time apart from Zac has also affected my friendship with Ross.

The wedding is only six weeks away, and I make a mental note to buy a dress while I pepper Ross and Holly with questions about the ceremony and reception.

After we drain our beers, we agree to order lunch, and Zac slides me a menu. ‘Surprise swap?’ he asks under his breath, his eyes lit up.

I grin. ‘Hell, yes.’

I love this game. We used to play it at uni, ordering each other’s meals in secret back in our local pub in Bathurst. Sometimes my ideal lunch would come sailingout of the kitchen, and other times it would be something vile like broccoli and lentil soup that would launch one of Zac’s cute-laugh attacks. Shovelling the offending dish down my throat would be worth it just for that.

My fingertip traces the menu. He’d love any of the pizzas, but that feels a bit boring. I could also see him appreciating the peri-peri chicken, but I pause at the smoked mushroom burger. Zac isn’t allergic to mushrooms, but he despises them. I only know of him eating them once—when he started dating Tara, and she baked him mushroom pie before learning about his aversion. Because Zac’s a sweetheart, he ate half the pie, then threw up in our bathroom three hours later.

Mushroom burger it is, I decide and cackle internally.

I don’t want to make the poor boy ill, but I’m gunning to see the look on his face when the burger lands in front of him. It’s even worth me paying for a second meal afterwards—I’d never expect him to eat something he hates.

After Holly and I place our orders at the bar, Zac jumps up to join the queue with Ross, shooting me a glance from the line. He’d better not be ordering me the cauliflower salad,puke.

‘He looks at you a lot,’ Holly says, and my eyes snap to hers. She smiles coyly over her beer glass like she knows something I don’t.

‘What do you mean?’

She just tilts her head at me, and I make little rips in the beer-soaked coaster, my heart skipping. ‘We’re just friends.’

‘Only ever just friends?’

Jeez, first Lindsay, and now Holly?

I nod, guessing that Zac and I didn’t get this question nearly as much in the past—at least, not once school was over—because he was always with Tara.

‘He’s such a beautiful soul,’ Holly adds, her eyes warming.

My gaze drifts to where Zac’s saying something in Ross’s ear that’s making Ross shudder with laughter. Zac’s got his hand in his back pocket again, cupping the perfectly rounded curve of his—

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