Cricket stood and pulled Tess in for a hug. “See? He’s squishy.”
Tess’s mouth dropped open. “That’swhat you consider ‘squishy’?”
“Well, he’s not as ooey gooey as Hatch, but, yeah,” Cricket said.
I bust out laughing then, as did Cullen, while Hatch merely let out a grunt and then, “Jesus, Cricket.”
“What? You are?” she said. “Well, other than the whole Jase thing.”
“We are not going there, little sister,” Hatch warned.
“We’ll see,” she sassed.
“Are we ordering pizza?” Hatch asked.
“I’m cooking,” I said.
Cullen rose to his feet. “You are?”
“Yeah. If you want to invite your woman, she’s welcome.” I grinned. “Let Cade know Navy’s also welcome… if she’s speaking to him.”
Cullen smirked. “Sounds good.”
“How awesome would it be if I could invite Jase,” Cricket mused sarcastically. “Oh, but I can’t, because someone ruined my life!”
“Jesus, here we go,” Hatch lamented. “Drop it.”
“No, I will not drop it.” She turned to me. “You can find him.”
“What?” I shook my head. “Cricket—”
“You have the ability with your job to actually find him.”
“I swear to Christ, Christina, drop it,” Hatch warned.
“No, it’s your fault he’s gone.”
“Welcome to the family, beautiful,” I said to Tess as Cricket and Hatch continued to argue about her long-lost love and how it was all his fault.
Now I just had to figure out how to get out of ‘looking’ for the man because the truth of the matter was, I knew exactly where Jase ‘Minus’ Vincent was, and he needed to stay gone.
Tess
“SHOULD I BE nervous?” Cameron asked as we pulled into my family neighborhood.
“Absolutely,” I said.
He laughed.
“No, seriously,” I stressed. “Daddy’s a high-ranking admiral. Mom’s the principal at a private Catholic school. There’s no swearing, no nutsack slapping, that sort of thing. My siblings are nothing like your siblings. We don’t tease each other. At least, not in front of the parentals.”
He linked his fingers with mine. “Got it. Code switching activated.”
“You don’t have to code switch, Bugs. Be you. Just be less like Cade.”
“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.” Cameron laughed. “I’ll chew with my mouthclosed and do my best not to give anyone a communicable disease.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Oh my god, did he do that?”
