This was it? Haley wondered as she took in the laidback party and couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Something must have shown on her face because a few seconds later, Brad leaned in and asked, “Were you expecting Animal House?”
“No!” she said quickly, a little too quickly. She had been expecting something along those lines. She definitely hadn’t pictured any of this.
This she could definitely handle.
He chuckled. “Come on out back with me so that I can introduce you to my wife,” Brad said, smiling. “I promise we won’t bite.”
For the first time since she’d walked over here, Haley felt herself relax and realized that she might be able to handle this after all.
“Who’s the hottie kicking Mitch’s ass?”
Without looking up as he loaded his plate with more pizza, Jason said, “Amy.” At least, he hoped it was Amy. Her clingy behavior was becoming annoying and he hadn’t missed the bitch act she’d put on for Haley or the dirty looks she’d been sending his little neighbor all night. He knew that he should have sent Amy away when he saw her walking up his driveway earlier.
“No, the cute little thing with glasses.”
Frowning, Jason looked up and followed Pete’s gaze towards the couch where Haley was sitting next to Mitch, playing a game on Xbox.
“She’s my neighbor,” Jason said, not liking the look on Pete’s face one bit.
“Is she here with anyone?” Pete asked, never taking his eyes off Haley.
“No.”
“Good,” Pete said, grinning as he looked back over his shoulder. “I won’t even bother asking to use your room since we can just head over to her place.”
Jason sighed heavily. It seemed that he was going to have to save Haley from two douchebags today.
Frowning, Pete looked back at him. “What was that about?”
“What?” Jason asked innocently.
“That little sigh you just did,” Pete said, gesturing lazily towards him.
“Nothing,” Jason said with a shrug, returning his attention to piling more food on his plate, “I just didn’t think you were into that, that’s all.”
“Into what?” Pete demanded, sounding a little unsure. Considering the man’s reputation, there probably wasn’t much that he wasn’t into, which was why Jason decided that he wouldn’t do for his shy little neighbor. It had taken him five years to get Haley to climb out of her shell and he wasn’t about to let this jackass send her back there for good.
“Just forget I said anything,” Jason said, grabbing a cold soda from one of the coolers on the floor.
“But-”
“I don’t want to get involved in this,” Jason said, cutting him off. He moved to step past Pete only to pause. “Just...just make sure that she takes her medication and you should be safe. I mean fine,” Jason quickly amended as he walked away before he burst into laughter at his friend’s horrified expression.
Damn, that felt good. He should have done that years ago when he’d spotted the first asshole sniffing around Haley. Did this make him her wingman? Jason wondered as he walked over to the couch and shoved Mitch off so that he could sit down next to his new little project. That was fine with him, Jason decided, because by the time he was done with her, she’d be living a much more entertaining and asshole-free life.
Chapter 4
Haley took a deep breath and said, “I’m gay.”
“You’re gay?” the obnoxious guy standing behind her who’d been bugging the hell out of her for the past ten minutes repeated. “Are you sure?”
She bit back a laugh. The guy looked upset. She hated pulling out the gay card, mostly because she wasn’t gay, but sometimes she didn’t have a choice. If he’d been nice when he’d been hitting on her, she would have politely declined, but no, he had to be a complete asshole the entire time.
He actually used the old line, “That dress looks great on you, but it will look even better crumpled up on my bedroom floor in the morning.” Yeah, it was truly sad, especially since they were in a coffee shop and it was barely half-past seven in the morning. Between dirty comments, overcrowding her, and openly staring down at her breasts, she was starting to get a little irritated. Plus, his B.O. was really turning her stomach. If she didn’t need a caffeine fix so badly, she’d leave, but she did and couldn’t or she was pretty sure she’d die.
Jason and some of the guys came over last night to watch the game. Since it went into extra innings and she was a dedicated fan, she’d stayed up until two in the morning. Of course, she had to stay up to watch the post-game wrap-up after the game ended. With barely four hours of sleep, here she was practically getting mauled by the poster boy for deodorant.
After three weeks, it was still funny how she’d gone from being completely intimidated by Jason to thinking of him as an oversized teddy bear. Jason could still be a pain in the ass, but a really nice pain in the ass. He still “borrowed” things from her classroom, but now he left her amusing notes that had her laughing until she was crying and scaring the hell out of her students.
