“Where’s Noah?” Maliki asks, standing next to me while I season the burgers on the grill in front of me.
We’re in my backyard, having a barbeque. It’s something I try to do a few times a month when the weather is nice. I invite everyone. We eat a shit-ton of food, play cornhole, and hang out. Our lives can be shitstorms sometimes, so it’s nice to catch up.
There’s nothing better than enjoying a beer with your friends and playing some yard games.
That sounds way more honky-tonk than it is, I swear.
“He’s with Jamie,” I say, flipping a burger.
Jamie and I have returned to our avoidance game since the Becca incident. I tried calling her on my way home to apologize, but she hit the fuck you button. She hasn’t FaceTimed us since, and it’s sucked. We started looking forward to her calls. She’d tell us hospital stories or embarrassing memories of me when I was a dumbass teenager, and Noah would burst into laughter. Sometimes, she’d even read him bedtime stories.
Shame hits me whenever I think about what happened.
I took that away from him.
“Oh, he’s with Jamie, huh?” Maliki says, covering his smirk with the neck of his beer when he takes a drink.
“Don’t give me that look.”
He situates his hat, drawing it further down his forehead, hiding his eyes. “What look?”
“How about we talk about your little girlfriend instead?” I grab my beer and suck it down.
“Nice subject change, jackass.”
I shrug. “I like her, and you seem happy.”
“We’re friends. She needed somewhere to stay. The end.”
“It’ll be a good story you tell your kids one day about how you met their mom because you were kicking her out of your bar.”
“Funny,” he grumbles, handing me a plate, and I start loading it with the cooked burgers.
Maliki brought his roommate, Sierra, with him. He and Sierra have been playing a cat-and-mouse game for years. It started when she kept sneaking into his bar, underage, and he kept kicking her out. When she turned twenty-one, they became friends, some shit happened in a relationship she was in, and now, she’s living with him. The way they look at each other and how his arm was wrapped around her shoulders in ownership as they strolled through my backyard scream that they’re more than friends.
Just as I’m about to tell him I’m offended that he’s lying to me, Georgia yells, “Hey, Jamie!”
Even though I’ve been expecting her to drop off Noah, adrenaline speeds through my chest at the sound of her name. I turn around at the same time Noah slams into me, nearly knocking me over. My brow arches as he waves something in the air.
“Jamie bought me an iPod!” he announces.
An iPod?
The hell?
Noah doesn’t need a damn iPod at his age.
Not wanting to rain on his parade, I shoot him a smile, and we head over to Jamie, who’s talking to Grace, Lola, and Sierra.
“An iPod?” I ask when I reach her. “You spoil him too much.”
Even though I know the true intentions of the iPod.
Jamie laughs; it is fake and fraudulent, and it pisses me off. “It’s for selfish reasons, so we can FaceTime.”
I frown—mine not fake. “You always FaceTime him on my phone. It’s never been a problem.”
She’s gone back to communicating through Georgia again as though we’re playing fucking telephone on the playground, which has resulted in dozens of questions from my nosy sister. I planned to bring up the FaceTime call Becca answered to Jamie today, but with all the attention on us, it isn’t the time.
It’ll have to wait until I can catch Jamie again when she’s not avoiding me.
Her face is blank when she replies, “You’re busy sometimes.”
I wince before checking myself, deciding to go a different angle with this. Maybe I can get her to stay and corner her later, make her talk to me.
“We have plenty of food.” I sweep my arm out to gesture to the table loaded with burgers, hot dogs, chips, and every other barbeque food you can think of. “Stay.”
Hang out.
Let me explain myself.
Don’t be pissed at me.
“Thanks for the offer, but I can’t.” She kneels and hugs Noah. “Make sure you call me, okay?”
Noah hugs her back and salutes her. “You got it!”
She kisses the top of his head and waves good-bye to everyone, not giving me one more glance.
“She is pissed at you,” Georgia sings when Jamie is out of earshot.
“She’s not pissed at me,” I say, imitating her high-pitched voice.
“Why’s she pissed at you?” Grace asks.
“She FaceTimed Cohen to talk to Noah the other day, and some chick answered, asking Jamie twenty-one questions about who she was.” Georgia rolls her eyes and glares at me. “That’s why she bought the iPod.”
I’m well aware.
“I need to stop telling you stuff,” I mutter before shaking my head, grabbing Noah, and throwing him over my shoulder.
Noah shrills in laughter, clasping his arms around my neck, and I take off, running across the yard.
I drop him to his feet when we reach Silas and Finn, who are playing cornhole. Noah shows off his iPod to Finn while I shove Silas’s shoulder.
“I can’t believe I was dumb enough to let you set me up on that date,” I hiss to him. “Jamie hates me now.”
“Oh, so that’s my fault, huh?” he asks.
“Damn straight.”
“Maybe it is my bad, but it’s your bad for not talking to her about it. Your bad for not telling her about the hard-on you have for her.”
I roll my eyes and shake my head before playing a round of cornhole with Noah and the guys, hoping it’ll take my mind off Jamie.