Page 115 of Knot That Serious

Beckett cleared his throat. “We were actually going to head home—”

“But we’d love to join you,” Jack interjected.

Beckett nodded, though the motion was tight. “Mhm, that. Yeah.”

“Great. We’ll see you there,” Raj said, a genuine smile on his face. He walked back to the car, and both Jack and Beckett’s gazes dropped to watch him go.

“We’re really doing this?” Beckett asked.

“Guess so. Do you think he’s playing us?”

“I… don’t know. It seems genuine, but god, what a big dick-move—to come over here and invite us to join them? After he knows we were—” Beckett shook his head, hands covering his face. “Oh, god, this is so embarrassing.”

“You’re flustered,” Jack realized, a silly kind of giddiness welling up in him.

Dropping his arms, Beckett turned on his heel and began leading Jack through the parking lot. “Am not.”

“Are too!” Jack said, voice rising in pitch with his amusement. “Well, now we have to go.”

“What?! Why?” Beckett asked.

“I wanna see how red you’ll turn,” Jack said with a laugh, waiting by the door as Beckett unlocked the car.

“You are the worst,” Beckett called before ducking inside the car. Jack was still chuckling as he slid into his own seat.

The car started with a purr and a jingle that seemed to accompany all modern vehicles.

“It’ll be too dark in there to see, anyway,” Beckett mumbled a moment later.

Jack laughed again as he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main road. He reached across the console and rested his hand on Beckett’s thigh.

“This will be fun, right?”

“I don’t know. Do you think he just wants to humiliate us?”

“I say we… go with the flow. We’ll figure it out when we get there?”

“Riiiight. Go with the flow. Sure, sure, sure.”

Beckett did not sound very sure at all, and Jack squeezed his knee. “Don’t worry, I’ll defend your honor if I have to, honey.”

“Thanks, sweetie,” Beckett drawled. “But I can protect my own.”

23. Invitations

Eli

Eli turned around in her seat as Raj walked away from Beckett and Jack.

“They were totally checking out your ass,” she told him as he pulled open the car door and slid inside.

Raj chuckled. “Did they look disappointed?”

“Of course not. I just can’t believe you did that,” she said, shaking her head. “We should’ve ignored them; they’re just idiots.”

“But they’re your idiots,” he said.

Something in her heated at the thought. “Yeah, yeah, I guess.”

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