Page 47 of Cougar

“Everyone keeps saying that,” she says before popping a strawberry into her mouth. To be honest, I thought she’d be happy about Alex.

“You don’t sound too thrilled about it.”

“I am. It just feels like there’s more to it, that’s all.” She shrugs. “I have this gut feeling that you guys are keeping something from me.” She raises her brows and purses her lips.

Jayla is as perceptive as they come. She’s always going on about her gut feelings, and the majority of the time, she’s right.

“You’re being ridiculous.” I wave her off dismissively. “Tell me about the Project Mayhem class.”

“There are ten of us split into two groups of five. Today we did mock auditions. Alex thought it’d be a good way to determine our strengths and weaknesses. He wants us to push ourselves out of our comfort zone to—” Her words are cut off by the ringing of the doorbell.

“Princess, that’s for you,” Bass calls out from somewhere in the house.

Jay shoots me a confused look and I mirror her expression—although I’m sure I know who it is—before following her to the door.

A man holding a clipboard is standing on the porch, Levi beside him. “Good afternoon. I’m Steve with Land Rover USA. I have a delivery here for Jayla King.”

Peering over his shoulder, her eyes go wide at the sight of the white Range Rover parked in the driveway. She lets out a high-pitched scream and leaps from the doorway, brushing past Steve and nearly knocking him to the ground as she rounds the front and climbs behind the wheel. Bass chuckles as he comes up from behind me and makes his way over to the passenger side.

I can’t help but laugh as Levi shakes his head, clearly amused.

“Sorry about that.” I hold out my hand and gesture for Steve to pass me the clipboard.

“No problem.” He nods stiffly. “It happens every time.”

* * *

Bass walks into the kitchen and leans against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest. “Princess has a date tonight,” he informs me.

I huff out a laugh.The hell she does.“With whom?”

“Zach.”

I raise my brows. “That was fast.”

“Princess has a boyfriend,” Bass informed us with a devilish grin.

Marcus wasn’t amused. “She’s five.” He scowled.

“She’ll argue that she’s almost six,” I joked and Marcus shot me a look. I laughed under my breath.

Jay had just come back from a two-week vacation at Disney in Orlando with my parents, my nephews, the Parkers, and their two grandsons. Marcus and I stayed home because Elizabeth didn’t want me around her kids.

“Zach or Logan?” I asked.

“Zach,” Bass answered.

Marcus turned his gaze to me. “No more family vacations with the Parkers.”

I laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous, Marcus. She’s five. She doesn’t even know what a boyfriend is.”

Bass barked out a laugh and added, “She said she’s gonna marry him.”

Marcus raised his brows at me.

“Two weeks ago, she wanted to marry Usher.” I shrugged. “Tomorrow it’ll probably be a Spice Girl.”

Elizabeth and I had always joked when we were teens that we’d be lifelong best friends like our mothers, and our kids would grow up together and get married.

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