“Wait, what?” I paused. “Your mom said that?”
“Yup. She’s hilarious and has a distinct way of parenting. Her threats are often inappropriate and borderline worrisome, but Zaria and I know she means them.”
“What else has she said?” I asked. That was good shit.
“How about this…you promise to grab dinner with me tonight and I can tell you more.”
“Smooth.” I gazed at him, our eyes playing a dangerous game of who broke contact first. I lost, again. I seemed to be doing a lot of that around him lately. “The Sox play tonight. Come over. I’ll cook.”
“I’ll be there. I like watching you cook. It’s hot as hell.” His hazel eyes went dark, almost green now. “I’ll help you.”
I blushed from head to toe and walked away from him. “I guess I’ll see you later.”
“You’re running away now, but that’s okay. Later, I won’t let you.” He walked out of the coffee shop and took my breath with him. I took a second to calm my breathing and forced my brain to focus on the assignment. Apparently Zade had been holding back the sexiness, because hot damn, that intense stare was killer.
I headed back to the table to see Radcliffe looking pissed off. I hoped I hadn’t been away too long, but time did seem to stop when I was with Zade. “Man, did I take a while? I got to talking with someone. My bad.”
“Youknow Zade Willows?”
“Yeah. We’re friends.” My face heated up and I fought a smile. Radcliffe’s normal friendly expression transformed into one of disbelief. “My roommate and I hang out with a couple of the baseball guys quite a bit.”
“Hmm.” His tone became clipped and icy.
“Why the tone, Radcliffe?”
“I thought you were better than that.” He pulled another textbook out of his bag and huffed. “Look, I like you. You’re cool. But Zade—he’s known for playing girls like decks of cards. One of my good friends…let’s say he broke her apart. He’s not a good guy. Be careful, I guess that’s all I’m saying.”
“Thanks for the advice, Radcliffe, but I’ve known him longer than I’ve known you.” I put my walls up, not liking the way he spoke about Zade. “I think I’m a pretty good judge of character, unless you disagree?”
“Fair enough.” He tapped his pen on the table and his once friendly eyes narrowed. “Ready for the second part?”
“Sure, let’s go.” I swallowed down the doubt and threw myself into the assignment. Whatever the hell had happened was his issue, not mine.
Chapter Sixteen
Zade
I refused to be nervous. Nope. Not even one bit. There was no reason to be because it was just dinner. Callie and I were going to cook and watch baseball. Totally normal. It wasn’t a date. I fixed my hair in the bathroom and adjusted the shirt I wore.
“Holy. Fucking. Shit.” Zaria barged into the bathroom with wide eyes that matched mine. Eyes are like books to the soul or some shit like that, they say. Right now, I agreed, because hers were laughing at me. “You are all sorts of fucked up over her.”
“No, I’m not,” I retorted in a mature fashion. Zaria had beaten me in every single verbal spat we’d had since childhood. I stuck my tongue out at her to really finish the argument off.
“You’ve checked yourself out in the mirror at least ten times. Normally, I’d say you look around eight times, so this is big.”
“Fuck off. I do not check myself out in the mirror. Aaron does. Not me.”
“Um, sorry, bro. You are a tad narcissistic.” She held up her fingers to form a small space between her thumb and pointer.
“Well, you are a tad meddlesome pain in my ass.”
“That’s my job to be. Mom isn’t here and you’re one draft away from getting a big head. I’m here to make sure your ego doesn’t inflate to the size of your fan club.”
I laughed at that one. “Well said.”
“Thank you. But you must admit, you do take a lot of time with your appearance.”
“I like to dress nice. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.” I tucked my new shirt into my dark pants and shrugged. “Do I look okay?”
