I shuffled closer to Jett, testing, and wondered if he would play along.
He didn’t move, only stayed in place as I closed the gap enough that the toe of my shoes grazed his.
“Are you cold?” he asked under his breath. And then his hands were sliding up my arms, warm and strong and assuring.
Goosebumps spread over my skin at his touch. My heart must have had them too because suddenly it skipped a few beats. A crazy amount of tingly euphoria rushed through me from being so close to him. “A little,” I said, reveling in the feel of it.
“Come here.” Jett wrapped his arms around me and encouraged me even closer. Tentatively, I allowed my arms to wrap around him in return.
More euphoria. Lots of it.
I’d heard the term blurred lines in my life, but only in that moment did I understand what it meant. I wasn’t sure if I was getting closer to make TJ jealous, or because a part of me had never stopped liking Jett.
He was just so warm and tempting and yummy-smelling.
Suddenly his lip grazed my ear.
I stiffened as every inch of me keyed into the sensation of his hot breath tickling my skin. Another round of goosebumps raced up my arms.
“Now might be a good time to take me up on that dare,” he said into my ear.
Whoa.As if I hadn’t been picturing that very thing since he’d posed the dare in the first place. Of course I would never really kiss Jett while I was dating TJ, but the suggestion was toying with my head.
I lifted my chin, heart pounding its wild beat, and locked my gaze on Jett’s deep brown eyes.
Suddenly a voice sounded from the fuzzy-sounding speakers behind me. “Number eighty-six and eighty-seven, your orders are ready.”
Jett cleared his throat and straightened. “That’s me. Are you number eighty-seven?”
I stepped away from him, trying to shake off all the tingles from his touch, and reached into my back pocket for my receipt. A quick glance at the slip confirmed it. “Yeah.” I spun around, anxious to see if we’d been spotted by TJ. It took a moment to place them since they weren’t at the ordering counter anymore. They’d made their way over to the bench. TJ was looking in my direction, but I couldn’t be sure that he saw me. And what was this? Tasha was making herself comfortable on his lap.
Anger burned up the back of my shoulders as I followed Jett to the pickup counter. Tasha raked her hand through TJ’s hair next. The action had me so captured I ran right into Jett.
“Sorry,” I mumbled the word without taking my eyes off the sight. Blindly, I slapped my receipt down on the counter and felt around for the Styrofoam cup.
“I’ve already got it,” Jett said. “Let’s go.”
Tasha was moving in for a kiss. I couldn’t believe my eyes. She was actually moving in for a kiss! And…and TJ went for it!
“Harper,” Jett said under his breath. “Let’s go.”
I tore my eyes from the nasty sight and looked up at Jett. The clenched set of his jaw said he didn’t like what he’d seen any more than I did. With a shake in each hand, he nodded toward the lot.
“Yeah,” I managed. “We better go.” I sped ahead of him toward the truck, stopping only as I waited for Jett to catch up. He came around to the passenger side and lifted my shake toward me. I took it, noticing then that he had a white paper bag too. Must be our fries and tots.
“Thanks,” I said, taking it from him while he opened the door for me. I climbed in, knowing Jett had seen what I had, dreading the conversation that was sure to come. “I told ya you can’t change people.”Or“You’re stupid to waste your time with that jerk.”
Jett climbed in behind the wheel and set his shake in the cup holder. “Want to get out of here?” he asked.
A deep sense of sadness gripped hold of me as I nodded yes. I couldn’t figure out what was going on inside of me. It felt like I was accepting failure in one sense, or at least trying to, while dealing with a crapload of humiliation at the same time.
“I’m sorry,” Jett mumbled as he tore out of the lot and onto the road.
I clenched my eyes shut. “He’s mad that I’m seeing you,” I explained. And since I’d opened the door, I decided to keep going. “My little sister caught me and TJ kissing, and she told on me. So my mom said that if I wanted to keep seeing TJ, I’d have to date someone else in between.” I risked a glance over at Jett.
He gave me a quick nod, a handsome furrow pulling at that brooding brow of his.
“So I figured, since you and I were doing homework anyway, I could, you know, sort of count that asseeinganother guy in between.” My half-broken heart picked up its pace once more. I felt like a big liar, but technically I wasn’t, was I?
