Watching Ian with Paige has already made me feel like I’ve been demoted to second string. Now I’m practically benched for the season.
I wave at Ji with the nectarine in hand.
“I thought you were my Amazon package,” Ji says.
“Nope, just a fruit-delivery service.” I toss the nectarine to Ji, who catches it. “Will you give that to Paige?”
Just then, Paige pops her head out of the living room, wearing high-waisted jeans and a forest-green shirt that brings out the color of her eyes. Her hair’s curled, and I can tell she’s put in extra effort. She looks good.
“Jordan? What are you doing?” Paige asks.
Ji passes her the nectarine, and Paige lifts it to her nose. “Oh, thanks. I didn’t know it was missing.”
And now I feel like an idiot. I tuck my hands in my pockets and back down the last porch step. “Have a good night.”
Paige steps onto the porch barefoot. “You’re leaving?”
“Yeah, I’ve got some… stuff,” I mumble.
“Oh, come on, you can stay a little longer,” Paige says.
She looks at me with pleading eyes, like she’s asking me if I’ll leave my green beans to get an Oreo milkshake. And who can resist an Oreo milkshake?
“Okay.” I walk back up the steps, and Missy nearly barrels into me on her way out the door.
“Hey, Jordan. Bye, Jordan,” Missy says, shrugging on a pink blazer. “Late for a pageant meeting. Talk to y’all later.”
Classic Missy. She’s always running late to everything.
I chuckle and follow Ji and Paige inside. But once I enter the house, I realize I have two options—follow Ji back to wherever she was before she came to the door or join Paige and Ian as he gazes into her eyes and strums love ballads. And trust me, he will definitely be gazing. At the Fourth of July barbeque at Colton’s parents’ house, Colton invited Ian out of goodwill, and everyone seemed to get along with him fine considering the history. But for most of the night, I paid less attention to the way he conversed with everyone else and more attention to how he followed Paige around, looking at her with those smiling eyes, and wrapping his hand around her back, her arm, her shoulder. He’s like a human adhesive.
I can’t watch that again.
“Hey, Jordan.” Ian steps out from behind the living room wall that divides it from the kitchen.
“Hey, man.” I give him a nod, which he returns.
Ian and I may not be friends, but since our double date, we’ve found some common ground. And by common ground, I mean if I keep my distance from Paige and he doesn’t break her heart, then we won’t punch each other.
Considering he’s been exclusively with Paige almost every night this week, we have no reason to break into fisticuffs.
Ian turns to Paige. “Where can I find the bathroom?”
Paige leads Ian down the hallway to the half bathroom, and I follow Ji into the kitchen. Ji’s wearing tan heels, flowy business slacks, and a white blouse with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. She sits at the kitchen table that’s overflowing with fake flowers of varying sizes.
“Gala prep?” I ask, remembering the invitation to the Pine Lakes Gala fundraiser I received in the mail a few weeks ago. Jiand Mrs. Delgado are in charge of this year’s Gala, so I can only imagine the stress they are under since the event is just over three weeks away.
“Yes.” She lets out a long sigh. “I’m in the process of making forty centerpieces. No big deal.” Ji grabs a Styrofoam ball and a hot glue gun then dabs a bit of glue in the center of the sphere before placing a tiny white rosebud on top. By the looks of the two other rosebud-covered balls already on the table and the giant bags brimming with Styrofoam balls at her feet, I can understand the long sigh. That’s going to take her days.
“Do you have another glue gun?” I ask.
Ji looks up at me with hopeful eyes. “Yes.”
I sit on the chair next to her. “Can I get one of those Styrofoam balls?”
She plops one into my hand. “Thank you. But I’m telling you now, you’re going to regret you ever offered.”
“Offered what?” Paige walks into the kitchen and places her nectarine inside the fruit bowl.
