Page 93 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
“You see a football, I see a potato chip,” Logan replied, his hand toying with mine among the soft blankets. “Or maybe I’m just hungry.”
And my heart bumped harder every time the pad of his thumb slipped down to the delicate skin of my wrist. “You packed everythingbutsnacks.”
Logan had an adorable habit of not being able to sit still. His foot moved to a silent beat, like a tickingmetronome. His fingers traced small circles on my skin, each of his movements almost absentminded. “That one’s a banana sticking out of a martini glass.” Logan pointed off to the left.
Instead of following his finger, I peered over at him. “You’re so bad at this game.”
He gave me a lopsided grin. “No, I’m justcreative.”
“That’s one word for it.”
The wind brushed the clouds along, and we watched them, passing answers back and forth in a lazy way. There was something so comforting about the quiet way we spoke, reminding me of the nights we’d talk on the phone before bed. It was the same sort of quality, just in the daytime. Soft, sleepy,warm.
Logan shifted, and the length of his arm grazed mine. “I’m glad your dad let you borrow his truck,” I murmured, shifting a fraction of an inch closer. “This would’ve been decidedly less romantic in the back of your car.”
“I don’t know, it’s an old car. There might be some weird stains we could pick out in the fabric of the ceiling.”
I laughed again. I always laughed with him.
Yesterday, when I’d stopped by Expresso’s for an hour, they were so busy that I hadn’t had the chance to bring up his Babble debut. Now, I had the perfect opportunity, but I couldn’t get myself to bring the topic up.
It was all said and done, and Jade had already moved on from the topic entirely today at school. Telling him about our post would only worry him, and he’d said Wednesday he missed when life was easy. So if it meant keeping that to myself to keep the stress off his shoulders,I could do that.
“I decided something,” I told him, and I sat up in the truck bed. The breeze hadn’t been touching us since we’d been laying down, but as I leaned against the back of the cab, it stirred my hair in greeting. I pulled the blanket over my lap, because it was a little chilly in my cheer skirt. “I want to come to your friends’ bonfire tonight.”
Logan’s blue eyes widened. “You what?”
“I know you technically didn’t invite me, but Danielle did. So, as long as you don’t have some secret girlfriend there, I want to come.”
Logan started sitting up. “Madison?—”
But I pushed on his shoulders, forcing him back into the truck bed. “No, I still want to come if you’ve got a secret girlfriend,” I decided. “I want to come show her I’m willing to fight.”
“Secret girlfriend,” he scoffed, and then, in a fluid movement, he shifted so that he could rest his head on the blanket that covered my thigh. “I thought you had a friend thing.”
“I do, but I can leave that a little early.” I rested one of my hands on my other thigh, but with my left, I reached down to pick up Logan’s. He accepted it greedily, wrapping his fingers around mine. “I want to get to know you more, which means knowing your friends. Right?”
He didn’t agree right away, but watched me intently, as if searching for a hint of a lie.“Noah will be there,” he said finally, slowly.
“Noah,” I echoed, the glasses-wearing boy filling my mind’s eye. “I need to win him over.”
“It’ll be tough.”
“Becausehe hates me?”
“He doesn’t hate you.” Logan tucked our hands closer, almost protectively. “He just… doesn’t know you.”
“Then wouldn’t it be the perfect time?” I watched Logan’s expression, and the unease didn’t disappear. “Unless you’d rather me not meet your friends yet.”
“No, I—” He shook his head once. “Only if you want to.”
I scrunched my nose and leaned down, bringing our faces closer. “I want to.”
Logan’s eyes dropped from mine to my lips, as if he thought I’d lean even further to kiss him. The thought, and the sudden, clear visual in my mind, caused me to jerk back, nearly knocking my head on the truck’s back window. Blood rushed to my ears, and I was glad my hair was down to shield how red they must’ve been turning.
Logan cleared his throat. “How did you and Jade become friends?”
“We’ve been friends since elementary school.”
