I pulled out the cards with the words on them and shuffled. I had purposely created over twenty cards so that I could hand one out without knowing what was on there, which made it easy to adapt to having one extra player.

“Alright, should we start?” I asked, taking a peek at my card. “Murder” was my word.

Great. I’m going to be trashed five minutes into this.

We slipped into book club mode, opening up the discussion on chapter ten, where we had last left off. I focused heavily on character, honing in on Gabrielle Munoz, the main character who orders the necklace and becomes the target of the twisted killer. The first murder had just occurred a couple of chapters back, and in this one, Gabrielle ends up ordering one of the morbid pieces of jewelry without realizing it was made of real human bones collected from the victim.

“That’s wild,” Tristan said, taking a sip of his wine. He picked off a fluff from his black T-shirt and flicked it in Yvette’s direction. “Did you make sure your necklace wasn’t sourced from a fucked-up murder?”

One, two, three, four. I picked up my wineglass and took a gulp.

“No, I forgot to ask the seller that question,” Yvette said dryly.

“When do you think she figures it out?” Eric asked.

Jess chuckled, swirling her glass of wine. “Probably not until the last chapter, duh.”

“What about the house?” Jake asked, drawing all eyes toward him. “The way it’s falling apart, how it’s described as ‘showing off its bones’ all the time. Do you think—”

“Bones!” Jess shouted, pointing at her girlfriend, who was glaring at her over the rim of the wineglass. “Tia’s word is bones.”

“Is it?” I asked, smiling.

She flipped over her card. “Bones” was written in bold letters across the center. She threw her locs over her shoulder and rolled her eyes. “Out of everyone here, you’re going to get your girlfriend out first?”

“Sorry, babe, I just can’t ever keep my eyes off you.”

Tia shook her head and smiled, accepting the apologetic kiss on the cheek from Jess. “Don’t worry,” Jess said, leaning back in her chair. “If I win, we’re splitting the gift card anyway.”

Underneath the table, just next to me, Jake’s knee brushed against mine. I froze, like a meek mouse turning a corner and spotting the salivating house cat. The conversation around me grew jumbled as I realized Jake wasn’t moving his leg away. I shot a glance at him, seeing nothing but a neutral expression set amongst those glittering blue orbs of his. I wondered if he felt it, too? The sudden burst of fireworks that lit up the inside of my chest, sparking through my nerves, settling between my thighs.

Of course he doesn’t feel it. He probably doesn’t even realize he’s touching me.