Page 90 of Loving Lies (Granton University 3)

“Amen.” Samantha spoke up from her own cross-legged seat on the floor. “I never had the opportunity to speak to or meet the boy, but from listening to everyone talk about him, he came from a family who didn’t understand his differences and probably didn’t deal with him in a way that helped him emotionally. I’m not blaming his parents, per se, but his problems stemmed from way back. They didn’t start after he arrived on campus.”

Jonah glanced at Tess when she squeezed his knee. They shared a relieved smile until Bailey said, “Well, I blamed you. I pretty much blamed anyone and everyone I could. The world had gone to shit, and I was ready to start pointing fingers. And after Tess got mixed up with you, and you turned her world upside down, I was ready to aim a firing squad at you.”

“So, what changed your mind?” Tess asked, as if she were just learning this little tidbit about her friend as everyone else was. “Because I know you don’t still blame him, or you wouldn’t be sitting here right now, supporting my relationship with him.”

“You’re right. I wouldn’t. I think I stopped blaming him the moment I visited him at the hospital to majorly bitch him out, and he ended up bawling all over me.”

“I didn’t bawl.” Jonah scowled as he leaned against Tess and squeezed her knee right back. But if Bailey went on any longer, he was likely to strangle the girl tonight.

“Well, what about you, Aubrey?” Samantha asked, scooting toward the rocking chair he sat in to pat his thigh. “You’re being awfully quiet over here. What do you think about all this?”

“I think I totally love you guys,” he said, covering his eyes with his hands. “My family never talked about this stuff or opened up about their feelings. I just had to keep it all repressed down deep until I felt like I was going to explode. I’ve been asking myself for months and months why this all had to happen, why God had to take such a beautiful person like S-Sean. But sitting here with you people and listening to you talk makes me realize something beautiful can actually come from something ugly and awful.” Jonah glanced at Tess and had to think Aubrey was right. The most amazing thing in his life had indeed come from the worst thing.

Paige and Logan were the first to leave the birthday party, and Sam wasn’t far behind, kissing Jonah on the cheek and telling him she had two kids to get home to. Then Aubrey hugged him good night and disappeared down the hall. When only Bailey, Tess, and Jonah remained in the living room, Bailey shuffled her feet and reached into her back pocket and yanked out a small wrapped package.

“Here.” She shoved the gift at him, nearly stabbing him in the chest with it. “Happy birthday.” She didn’t look too happy about delivering her well-wishes, but he was coming to learn she liked to be moody and sarcastic.

“Wow. Um…thanks.” He took the box and slowly unwrapped it. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone but Sean had given him anything.

His chest hurt thinking of that, making him miss his bud all over again. But he flashed Tess’s best friend a grateful smile as he tore away the last of the wrapping paper. Then he looked down to find a flashlight in his grasp.

“It’s not a flashlight.” Bailey scowled as if she could read his mind. Yanking the item out of his hand, she turned it on.

It totally looked like a flashlight to

him when a bright yellow beam blared out one end. He arched his gift-giver a curious glance. “Okay,” he said. If she wanted him to call it a blue-horned pig, he would. But it still looked like a flashlight to him.

Bailey huffed and rolled her eyes. “Okay, but it’s not just a flashlight.” She pressed the button again and a piercing red light shot out above the flashlight’s ray. “It’s also a flashlight with a freaking laser beam on it!”

“Oh…cool.” Genuinely intrigued, Jonah yanked it out of her hand to play with it himself and aim it at objects around the room, after clicking the button to toggle between flashlight, laser beam, and both.

“I know, right?” For once in her life, Bailey looked excited. With a proud grin, she nodded. “I designed it myself.”

“Bailey’s an electrical engineering major,” Tess said, sounding like a bragging parent, which reminded him she’d told him this information before. “She’s always creating cool electronic doo-hickeys.”

“Whoa. You actually made this?”

When he glanced up, Bailey blushed—the first time he’d ever seen her do anything like that. “Well…” She cleared her throat and glanced toward the door. “It’s kind of my thing.”

“This is so boss.” He glanced back at the object in his hand and brushed his thumb over the plastic surface. “I love it. Thank you.”

She nodded and shuffled a step in reverse. “Yeah, well…this is about all the gratitude and nice crap I can handle, so I’m gonna jet.” Glancing at Tess, she winked. “Don’t do anything unless you can totally give me every detail about it tomorrow.”

And then she was gone. He blew out a breath and fiddled with the button on his new present, hoping Tess didn’t make him confess he how much he thought the loud-mouthed Bailey was okay after all.

But instead of needling, she clasped her hands together and grinned. “So…are you ready for part two of your present from me?”

Jonah instantly forgot about the flashlight-laser in his hand. “Part two? Jesus, Tess this is already more than enough. The whole supper, inviting everyone over, and a laser flashlight. Really, I don’t need—”

“Well, I think you’re going to like part two anyway.” Her grin was almost too bright, and her eyes were a little glassy as she lifted up onto her toes. Realizing she’d done that toe-lift thing before at the hospital when she’d been nervous, he blinked, wondering what would make her nervous. “Because you’re the first boyfriend I ever had, and—wait. It is okay to call you my boyfriend, right?”

He blinked. Had she really just asked that? “Yeah. Yes. My God, Tess. I hope so.” Because he’d been feeling pretty proprietary of her. She was his now, and he wasn’t sharing her with anyone.

Her bright grin returned. “Great. So…as your girlfriend, I want this birthday to be special. Better than special.”

Oh, Jesus. She wasn’t thinking to do what he was beginning to think she was going to do. Because the very idea—remote as it was—that she might possibly want to give him birthday sex thrilled, excited, and downright scared the shit out of him.

“But it’s already—”

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