Slowly, Tessa and I shifted to stare at him. A sucker punch to the gut would have surprised me less.
“You don’twantit?” I asked again, slowly.
Jake folded his arms and leaned back against his door, enjoying the theatrics. “Nope.”
There was an undercurrent of mischief running in his eyes. I felt the pull but immediately had my guard up. He was up to something. Other than giving one of us his truck out of the kindness of his heart (not likely), I was coming up empty.
“Something wrong with a truck that’s been the Diesel Course truck of the year for four years in a row?” I asked, my voice sounding hoarse.
He grinned. “Yeah. My dad gave it to me. I’d rather take this thing out to a minefield and have it explode before driving it.”
“So…why did you bring it here?” Tessa asked, giving the snake a cautious poke with her stick.
At that question, Jake rubbed his hands together with glee. Too much glee. If glee were a candy, he had a sackful. “I want to see if I’m right about something.”
“What?” I crossed my arms in front of my body.
For the record, this was where my stomach began its mad descent into mayhem.
Jake held his hands up in between us. “There’s something here. Do you feel it?”
We stared at him, blinking.
I found my voice first. “Is that what that is? I feel it, too. Every time Tessa looks at me, it’s like she’s one fantasy away from yanking my shirt off.”
She glowered up at me. “And then you wake up.”
“That’s always the worst part.”
Jake went on, breaking into our rhythm of teasing jabs. “That’s what I mean. Logan should have no reason on this green earth to refuse Tessa. And Tessa, you’ve crushed on him your whole life.”
Tessa’s face colored with his statement, and I jumped in to put a stop to whatever was in Jake’s head.
“Listen, Jake. Tessa’s great, alright? But I’m not looking for anything like that. I like my life how it is. Lots of dates, lots offun, and no ball and chain around my neck. No offense, Tess.” There, that ought to do it.
Jake only smiled and looked at Tessa. “And you?”
She folded her arms across her chest. “First of all, that crush was when I was eight.” She waited a long moment for my coughing to subside. “It was short-lived. Kid stuff. I have no interest in dating a player—ever again.”
I was dismayed to see the spark in Jake’s eyes had been lit by our confessions, not dimmed in the slightest.
“Classic denial. Just as I thought.”
“Jake. What’s going on?” I asked, my eyes caressing his behemoth of a truck once again.
“I have a little bet in mind for the two of you—if you’re interested.”
I waited for him to continue, my body clenched tight. One never knew what would come out of his mouth. It had something to do with his new truck, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it would be.
“Spit it out,” I said.
Jake clasped his hands together, looking at us both with barely restrained glee. “I’ll bet you two my truck that you’ll fall in love with each other by the end of the summer.”
Gobsmacked silence stretched out between the three of us for the space of many seconds.
“What?” Tessa and I asked at the same time.
Jake grinned. “See? Already, you’re finishing each other’s sentences.”
