“Oh, Ev, stop. You’re making me blush.”
I know, I know. I was supposed to be flirting with him. I wasn’t supposed to be trying to wipe the cocky smile off hisface, but hey, it was my FT, and I’d do what I wanted to. Besides, he was just so … so …
“Great outfit, by the way. What? You didn’t have time to deface the belt buckle?” Jack took his eyes off the road just long enough to meet mine with a grin.
I could only hope that the sparkly buckle in question would give him the aneurysm and not me.
“It was a gift,” I said dryly.
“From the twins?” Jack asked.
I was a teensy bit surprised that he was observant enough to have figured out who won the Most Likely to Give Toby Hideously Girly Accessories competition.
Jack laughed at the look on my face. “Please,” he said. “This happens whenever anyone makes the Varsity Spirit Squad. The twins glitterfy them.”
The way he spoke about the squad and the way it worked was somewhat unsettling. It wasn’t that I expected the fact that I’d been majorly made over to go straight over everyone’s head; I just didn’t think that anyone would pinpoint the twins as the reason why, and I didn’t think anyone would remember enough about makeovers past to know that this was a pattern with them.
“They call it the God Squad for a reason,” Jack said. He shrugged and then glanced at me out of the side of his eyes. “You enjoying your high school divinity?”
“I call it the Bod Squad,” Noah said, eager to join in the conversation from the backseat.
“Understandable,” Jack replied, his tone gratingly solemn.
“The next one of you to call it anything,” I said, “is going toend up with a sparkly belt buckle jammed so far up your butt that you’ll be sneezing glitter for two weeks.”
As a threat, it wasn’t my best, but considering the fact that I was in a car with my oversexed younger brother, a guy who took a great deal of sadistic pleasure in rubbing me the wrong way, and a really obnoxiously sparkly belt, it wasn’t half bad.
“Glitter?” Jack stared at me for a moment, his facial expression changing in a way that I couldn’t quite read. Even if I hadn’t been looking back at him, I would have felt his gaze. It was that tangible.
Then Jack treated me to another shrug. As he turned onto April’s street, he shot Noah a conspiratorial look. “Is it me,” he said, “or is she somewhat obsessed with my butt?”
I turned around to face Noah, and for once, he wisely remained silent.
As Jack pulled through the giant, open wrought-iron gate and onto April’s absurdly long private drive, I took in both the incredible size of Château April and the way that Jack’s eyes followed my every move.
Even from inside the car, I could hear the music blaring from April’s house.
The private drive was lined with cars, and A-list teenagers spilled out, moving en masse toward the house. When Bayport High’s Varsity Spirit Squad partied, it turned into a who’s who of the high school world. The three of us got out and I wasn’t actually that surprised when I saw a handful of football players at the door, sorting out the riffraff. The guys didn’t so much as blink when they saw me, former Queen of Riffraff, climb up the front steps. Instead, they eyed my white pants appreciatively and greeted me with whistles.
“Toby,” Chip said. “Good to see you.”
I noticed that he didn’t make a physical move on me. Wise decision, Chip. I wondered how his shin was doing, but didn’t waste much time thinking about it. As Jack and I moved past the doorway, one of the football players leaned forward to stop Noah.
“Nice try, kid,” he said.
Before one of the others could recognize Noah as the guy who was forever chatting up their girlfriends, I stuck my hand back and grabbed him by the popped collar. “He’s with me,” I said.
Noah grinned wildly. “I’m with her,” he said, and when the football players grudgingly allowed him to pass, Noah couldn’t resist. “Keep up the good work,” he told them, reaching out and patting their lapels.
Jack choked back laughter, but I saw it in his eyes.
The smirk I could deal with.
Arrogance I could deal with.
Mr. Gorgeous finding my adorkable younger brother amusing? That one was a little bit harder.
Noah took off then, no doubt in a state of absolute ecstasy, and I was left alone with Jack.
