Was this an invitation? There was a question mark, but it still felt more like one of his mandates. Hmm. Was I going to go? As if that were a real question. Of course I was. My curiosity would kill me if I didn’t. That being said, I thought it best to keep my guard up and be prepared for whatever was coming my way. Good or bad, happy or sad, hot or not, I was ready. I hoped.

Nick

20

“Holy shit!” Jackson startled me out of my nap on the workout bench.

I lurched upright, clutching my chest. “What the hell, man?”

Jackson was looming over me so I slid down the bench. A normal person would have grasped the subtle cue that I was putting some distance between us. Not Jackson. He sat down next to me.

“You slept with Annabelle, didn’t you?” he asked.

My eyes went wide. I had assumed that when he got back from driving Lexi home, he would think I’d gone to bed.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. I could feel my face get hot so I tried to cover it by looking pissed off. I was good at pissed off.

“Lupita said you didn’t sleep in your bed,” he said. “And look at you, you’re unconscious at nine o’clock in the morning. That, my brother, is a night well spent.”

Usually, I corrected him when he called me “brother,” but today I was straight up too exhausted to call him on it. Besides, while I’d never admit it to him, I kind of liked it. It gave me a feeling of belonging that had been sorely missing in my life.

“I’m not talking about this,” I said.

“Sure, I get it, a gentleman doesn’t talk about his lady.” He nodded in understanding but his grin was literally from ear to ear. The big idiot.

I felt myself return his smile. I just couldn’t stop it. That was definitely Annabelle’s fault.

“She’s not my lady.” I don’t know why I felt compelled to correct him, but there was a part of me that resisted staking a claim on her, because if I did, I was sure I’d lose her just like I’d lost everyone I’d ever considered my own.

His smile vanished. He raised one eyebrow at me and said, “A man waits a lifetime for a woman like Annabelle. For your own sake, do not fuck this up.”

“There’s nothing to fuck up,” I said. “I don’t do long term and Annabelle knows that.”

He stared at me for a moment and then shook his head, saying what he thought without actually saying it. In Jackson’s opinion, I was too stupid to live.