How to Hook a Bookworm (11 page)

Sierra gives me a pointed look. “
See
. You do it too.”

“What?”

“Tell Adam everything.”

“It’s because he doesn’t ask so many questions.” I get to the end of my rebraided hair and knot it up before tapping my application. “Can I get back to this now?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

They start chatting about the biggest houses they’ve ever seen and try to get me to join in with inviting them over to Jay’s just to see the big ass fountain. I somewhat contribute to the conversation, but my mind is full. Partly on the job application, partly on Jay, partly on my mom and my trailer, but mostly—and even more bizarre—I’m thinking that Sierra’s right. I don’t hide anything from Adam.

Chapter 14

How can I get more butterflies from studying than from making out?

“Ugh…” Jay groans underneath me. My phone has been going off non-stop since I got here, and it’s putting a damper on our make-out. I’m almost out of minutes so I haven’t answered it, but I figure my friends would leave a message if it was important.

“Sorry,” I say, pulling it from my pocket and looking at the caller ID. My stomach leaps to my throat at the unrecognized number. “Oh!”

“You need to get that one?” he breathes. He sounds a little annoyed, but that could be because this is the first we’ve seen each other since we became “official” and my phone keeps going off. Or maybe it has nothing to do with that and everything to do with him looking a little strained against the zipper in his pants. I can’t imagine that being comfortable.

“Yeah, hang on.” I crawl off his lap and turn to talk to the wall. “Hello?”

“Is this beautiful Brea?” an older woman says, and my heart gives an extra
thwap!

“This is she.”

“Oh lovely. This is Aletha from Nut World. You remember me, dear?”

“Yeah. I mean yes. What’s up?” Gah… can I be any more unprofessional?

She lightly chuckles. “I was calling to offer you a part time position.”

“Really?” I shriek a little louder than I intended. But oh
snap
, yes! “When can I start?”

“Well, hold on a moment. I want to tell you the arrangement we’ve set up to take you on.”

“Oh…” My stomach gets a nasty weight dropped in it. “Okay.”

“We really can’t afford another employee, but our head squirrel offered to share the position if you’re willing. We’d need you every other Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.”

Share the position? “Wait…are you cutting Adam’s hours?”

“It was his suggestion, sweetie. Very nice boy, he is.”

The weight in my stomach triples. I feel Jay slide behind me, and he brushes my long messy braid to the side as his lips plant on my neck. It’s sweet. I should be appreciating that, but I’m reminded that I’m not alone right now, and I kinda want to be.

“Um,” I choke out. “Thank you, but I think I’m going to try to look other places. M-more hours and stuff.”

“All right.” She says it as if she expected my answer, but I try not to over-think it. “Let me know if you change your mind. The option is open.”

“Thank you, Aletha.”

“Have a good afternoon.”

I bring the phone down, pressing the end button and staring at it for a few seconds. Jay’s hands circle my waist.

“Everything okay?”

No. And the word is on the tip of my tongue, but his lips start patterning over my shoulder, and I let my answer fly into oblivion. I don’t say anything as I jam my phone in my pocket and swivel in his arms. He can kiss this away too.

My phone starts vibrating again about ten minutes later, and Jay’s shirt is on the floor and my lips are nearly numb. It’s me who growls this time, and I whip the cell out and push the off button. I chuck it to the side of the couch and go back to pressing against his bare upper body, appreciating whatever he does to make it feel so good under my fingers.

“Brea?” he breathes around my mouth, and I pull back a little, licking my chapped lips.

“Hmm?”

“Sorry, but my parents are gonna be here soon. You want to move upstairs?” His hand gently slides up my midriff, but I shake him off.

“No. I should probably… I gotta go.”

He cocks an eyebrow at me like “Really? You want to stop?” and I jump off his lap even though I’m not sure if that’s what I want to do.

He sighs and smiles at his shirt on the floor before picking it up. “All right.” His hand dives down his pants to fix himself, and I turn away because
whoa,
I don’t need to see that, and I hear him shake his keys when he’s fully dressed.

“You don’t have to take me home. I can call my brother.”
Or Jolie or Sierra or someone else who won’t ask me why I’m not going to my house.

“Don’t be stupid.” He smiles and shrugs his jacket on, but my heart has frozen in my chest, making it hard to breathe. I force air through my lungs, trying to shake the word from my head. It’s not like he meant that I’m stupid. I know that. It’s just a phrase. But it hurts in a way I’m not exactly prepared for.

He twines his fingers through mine and leads me out his front door. I’m fresh out of excuses, so I dig in my pocket for gum and jam it between my teeth. I snap it like crazy as I sit in the passenger seat of his BMW.

He gets his key in the ignition and pauses. Then he laughs at the dash. “Holy shit. I just realized I have no clue where you live.”

For good reason. I pop my gum and scratch the top of my knee, desperate for any excuse for him to
not
take me there.

“Uh…” Damn it, it’s going to piss him off, but… “I actually need to stop by the library.”

He raises an eyebrow, smile deflating. “Why?”

“Adam’s helping me with my Biology test tomorrow.” Not completely untrue. We were going to meet up at his house. What time is it? I hope I can catch him on the corner before he heads home.

“Do you want me to help?” His hand runs over the steering wheel. “I got a B in Biology.”

I try a reassuring smile. “I would, but I’m pretty sure you’ll distract me more than help me.”

He laughs. “Yeah, okay.” His fingers tighten over the keys, and he starts up the car.

Our drive is full of that awkward silence that I swear emanates from Jay himself. Or maybe it’s me. I’m not good around anyone really, but I thought after the way we’ve been all over each other we’d have
something
to talk about. But all that happens is Jay opens his mouth, then closes it without a word. And I just pop my gum and pray to the heavens that Adam is still at work.

Jay pulls to the side of the road, and my stomach sinks a bit when I don’t see a dancing squirrel on the corner. I quickly fumble over the seatbelt, and Jay leans over the console and sort of misses my mouth when he kisses me.

“Well, that didn’t work.” He laughs and grabs my cheeks to hold me steady. I shove my gum to the corner of my mouth, because his kiss is filled with tongue and heat, and he’s a great kisser, I’ll give him that. But I’m sort of counting down the seconds till he lets me out of the car. Which is so awful of me. So I force my impatience out of my mind and kiss him back.

We break away with a rush of air, and a small smile tilts his gorgeous and swollen lips. I let myself go girly and melt over the fact that they were just on mine. Maybe I’m developing multiple kissing personality disorder.

“We can hang out tomorrow?”

I nod, but then stop because I just remembered. “Oh… I can’t. Sierra’s having a slumber party.”

“Damn.” He plays with the tips of my fingers. “Saturday then?”

“Okay.”

“I’m gonna buy you more minutes for that thing.” He gestures to my pocket where my phone sits, and I know he’s trying to be nice, but it makes me feel like shit.

“Sorry,” I clip and hold back the dig I have about how not all of us can just ask Daddy for money. He has no idea that my father ditched us, that my mom is doing whatever the hell she’s doing… or
not
doing, or that my brother is the bread-winner at the moment.

But it’s not like I want him to know either.

I smile to make up for my short answer at him and grapple at the door handle. I watch him from the sidewalk as he drives away, and as soon as he’s around the corner, I dash across the street to Nut World.

Peggy and Mary are at the counter, and they both give me beaming smiles as the door clings with the large bell on the handle.

“I told you she’d come around,” Pegs says, smacking Mary on the arm, but getting her overly large boob instead. “Get her the new employee packet.”

“Wait!” I say before they get too far into their own conversation again and I’m suddenly selling cookies with their nuts. “I’m just here to see Adam.”

Mary smacks Peggy this time. “I told
you
.” She points over her shoulder. “Go on back. Our head squirrel is just clocking out.”

“Thank you.” I rush past them and into the back, passing Aletha singing in the kitchen. There’s a door on the right that says
EMPLOYEE BREAKROOM,
and I gently push it open a crack.

Adam’s lounged out on a brown floral printed couch, squirrel-covered feet kicked up on one of the arms. He’s reading something called
The Insiders
, having a hard time at the moment turning the page with his furry hand. The squirrel head is sitting on the floor next to him, and when he finally gets the page turned, he absentmindedly pokes at the eyeballs on his costume with his free hand.

I hesitate a second before pushing the door all the way in. I just want to watch him read. His eyebrows furrow, raise, alternate, and sometimes he mouths the words. My phone won’t hold many pictures, which is a shame, so I mentally snap one so I can keep it with me for when he graduates.

I sneak into the room, and he drops the paperback, eyebrows rising under his glasses.

“Oh shoot, am I late?” he asks, struggling to sit up in his hefty costume.

“No,” I laugh as I help him up. The fur on his costume tickles my cheek as his face gets closer to mine. Something zaps through my stomach, and I feel my neck fill with blush. What the hell?

“Um…” My voice stutters. I quickly stand straight to distance myself. “I-I thought… you know, maybe we could do the library instead. If you can. I mean… it’s right across the street, so yeah.”

“My dad wants me home tonight, actually,” he says like I’m totally not a rambling fool. “You can use my laptop though.”

I sigh like it bugs me, when it really doesn’t, I’m just feeling this funky buzzed crap going through my toes, and I want it out.

He rolls his eyes and shoves his book in my hands. “Let me get out of this thing.”

Laughs rumble through my throat as he wiggles out of the bulky costume, knocking me in the face with the large furry tail. He’s got a light green T-shirt on underneath that kind of hugs his chest, and well… looks pretty freaking good on him.

“You should wear that more often,” I let my mouth fly.

“Oh yeah. Because being five foot six with red hair and glasses isn’t enough.” He smirks as he tosses the squirrel costume over his shoulder. “I’ll just put on this thing so I can sit at the cool table.”

I slap his paperback into his chest. “I was talking about that shirt, smartass.”

His forehead wrinkles like I’m some crazy loon, and I tug him out the door before my mouth goes off about how his jeans look good on him too. Because they do.

He lets me listen to my music on the way to his house. Jay never turns on his radio, I just realized. Or it’s on, but it’s on really low volume. Maybe that’s why it’s so freaking awkward around him when we’re not kissing.

Did I really just think that?

“You’re pissed at me, aren’t you?”

“Huh? What?”

Adam taps the steering wheel as he makes a right. “About the job.”

Holy brain fart. “I actually forgot about it already. But thanks for the reminder. I
am
pissed.”

“I still think you should take it.”

“I’m not taking your job, Adam.”

“It’s half a job.”

“You still need it.”

“You need it more.”

I cross my arms and twist in the seat to face him. “Knock. It. Off. I’ll find a job without taking yours. Stop pitying me.”

He snorts. “Fine. But it’s there if you ever need it.”

“I know.” I face forward again. “And thanks.”

His lips quirk a little at the corner as he nods. He pulls into his driveway a few seconds later, and I help him lug that bigass costume up to his room.

“Before we get into it… warning you now… my dad has a date tonight.”

“Okay…”

“She’s coming here for dinner.”

“Then why the heck does he want you home?”

His face runs red as he fires up his PC. “He wants me to officially meet her, I guess.”

I hold back a laugh. “I’m up for speed studying.”

His eyes connect with mine for a brief second, then he drops his head, keeping his hands on the keyboard. “Please don’t make me do this alone.”

“Are you roping me into dinner with your dad and his internet girlfriend?”

“We’re having omelets.”

“For dinner…”

“It’s the only thing my dad can make.”

Oh, I know. “Is he going to make the Brea special?”

“If we have food coloring. And bacon.”

I tap my chin and drag out my answer. Of course I’ll stay. He’d do the same for me. But it’s fun to tease him when I can.

He pulls his glasses off and bats his eyes like he always does when he asks for a favor. Thing is, I’d probably agree faster with the glasses on.