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This will have to do.
Ten minutes before six, my nerves have me wanting to crawl the walls, so instead of waiting for Jude to come get me, I walk over to his place and knock.
When he opens the door, he’s wearing only jeans, and his hair is still wet.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen him without a shirt, but apparently it’s the first time my grief-ridden brain decides to register the very obvious six-pack in front of me.
Oh.
“I, uh…” I turn around and point uselessly behind me. “I thought you were ready.”
“Almost.”
I hear him moving behind me and risk turning around just as he grabs a shirt from a nearby chair and pulls it over his head. It’s light green, and somehow it makes his eyes look even greener.
Why the hell am I noticing these things?
I shove the thought away.
“Showered the grump away?”
Jude raises a brow.
“Guess you can’t get rid of that, huh?”
He smirks, then sits to pull on his shoes before grabbing his keys.
“Ready?”
I take a deep breath.
“No.”
His smirk grows.
“Good enough.”
He walks out, and I follow him.
***
The drive to the main house barely takes a few minutes, which is definitely not enough time for me to talk myself out of this.
Jude parks behind a line of trucks and turns off the engine.
“That’s a lot of cars.”
“Big family.”
“I know you have a big family, Jude. I’ve heard about every single one of you at least a thousand times.”
He looks over at me. “Then why’re you nervous?”
I glare at him. “Because hearing about the Hawthornes and being thrown into the middle of them are two very different things.”
A loud burst of laughter comes from somewhere behind the house, followed by a man shouting something I can’t understand and a woman yelling back.
I point toward the sound. “See?”
