“Good morning, lovebirds,” Josh bursts out when we walk into the kitchen.
“Don’t start,” Rex warns.
Josh holds up his hands. “Hey, I’m happy for you! I’ve waited a long time for this moment. I’m a proud mama bear here.”
“Waited for what moment?” I ask, diverting my attention into the kitchen.
He makes a sweeping gesture to Rex and me. “You two to bang.”
Rex shoves his shoulder when he passes him. “We didn’t bang.”
Josh scoffs. “All right. I’ve waited a long time for you to hook up.”
“Who says we hooked up?” Rex fires back.
“Your guilty-ass faces when I busted you in the living room.” Josh raises his brows.
“We were playing video games,” I explain, looking as guilty as he said we did last night.
What I’m wearing doesn’t help our argument—Rex’s tee, a pair of his sweats—and my hair resembles a rat’s nest.
Josh opens his mouth to reply, but everyone’s attention shoots to the tall blonde strolling into the kitchen, wearing a shirt that hits her knees.
She stands on her tiptoes and snags a mug from the cabinet before glancing at me, wearing an amused smile on her face. “You must be Carolina.”
“Yes?” I answer in confusion.
She points at Rex. “He’s in love with you.”
“Told you!” Josh shouts.
“Every convo we’ve had, he’s mentioned you.” She tips her mug my way. “We order pizza; he tells us your favorite is chicken and pepperoni. We watch a show; he informs us how many episodes he’s seen with you. Girl, I know enough about you that we could be best friends.” Her smile grows. “I’m Angelica.”
I offer a friendly wave. “I’m Carolina … although it seems you already know that.”
The fridge shuts, and Josh holds up a carton of eggs.
“Is the happy couple hungry this morning?” he says. “I’m making French toast!”
“I’ll never turn down French toast,” I reply.
Josh starts pulling out ingredients while Angelica grabs a pan. Rex squeezes between them in the narrow space, snatches two mugs, and makes our coffee—adding the perfect amount of sugar and almond milk.
“I’m waiting for Rex to tell me that French toast is your favorite,” Angelica jokes.
“Pancakes are her favorite,” Rex inputs. “Extra syrup. Add bananas if possible.”
He sets down a mug in front of me and winks, and my heart melts.
“I have an excellent idea,” Rex says when we finish unloading groceries in my sister’s kitchen. “You bake. I taste-test.” He tips his head toward Tricia’s kitchen table with a boyish smile beaming on his full lips. “I’ll sit here, watch the master do her work, and then make sure they’re scrumptious when finished.”
I deposit the bags into the recycling bin. “Nice try, but no. You’re the assistant baker today.” I tug two aprons from the drawer and toss him a pink one printed with yellow rubber duckies.
“Can’t blame a man for trying.” He ties the apron around him with amusement. “I like this look.”
After devouring Josh’s French toast and evading questions from him and Angelica, we cleaned up and went to the grocery store for the cookie ingredients. Rex offered his kitchen, but room is limited there. Tricia’s has more counter space and top-of-the-line appliances. We’ll also be left alone since she and the family went away for the weekend.
It’s been a while since I’ve baked this large of a batch. I’m a bit rusty and grateful Rex is helping.
“I will let you lick the bowl in reward for your help,” I offer, strolling around the kitchen while gathering all the needed supplies.
He gives me a satisfied smile. “I love when you let me lick things.”
The measuring cup slips out of my hand, crashing onto the floor, and I bend down to retrieve it. Normally, I’d roll my eyes and throw a dish towel at him—something along those lines—but his words hit a different spot. Not annoyance. Desire. He’s right. I do love it when he licks things, but I’m too shy to tell him that.
When I rise, I replace the cup in my hand with an oven mitt and slap him on the side of the head, wishing desire weren’t igniting through me. I’m supposed to be making cookies for my church fundraiser, and all I want to do is fall back onto my knees and taste-test him.
He exaggeratedly flinches with a satisfied smile on his face at flustering me.
“All right, what flavors are we baking up today, boss woman?” He scrubs his hands together.
I swoop my hand toward the ingredients. “Chocolate chip.”
He snatches the bag of chocolate chips. “I call those.”
“Oatmeal raisin.”
He gags. “You can’t do oatmeal raisin.”
“What? Why?”
“People who make oatmeal raisin cookies deserve to be in prison.” He stands taller. “Here us chocolate chip lovers are, minding our business and snagging a cookie, only to bite into it and discover it has wrinkled-ass grapes inside.” He flicks the box of raisins along the island with his fingers. “And people wonder why I have trust issues.”
“You have trust issues because you get too much in your head.” I drag the raisins back and hold them up. “You’re getting raisins. We need variety.”
He scans the ingredients. “What are our other options? Peanut butter? Snickerdoodles?”
“None. Everyone has confirmed what they’re bringing. I’m responsible for chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.”
“All right, but don’t let anyone think I helped you with that disgrace of a cookie. I’m making the chocolate chip, and I will give you the honors of eating the nasty raisin dough.”
“You’re too overdramatic.”
“I take my cookies very seriously, Lina. You know this.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I mutter.
“I’ll be on sugar duty.” He snags the sugar jar.
I pluck it out of his hand. “I will be on sugar duty.” I set it on the other side of me on the counter, away from him, and waggle my finger in the air. “Remember last time I let you be on sugar duty?”
“Yes, they were heavenly.”
“No, they weren’t.”
His palm goes to his heart. “You sure know how to hurt a man’s baking ego.”
“You put way too much sugar in them. They tasted horrible.” I hand him the carton of eggs. “You’re on batter-mixing duty.”
“Well, if that isn’t damn boring,” he grumbles, opening the carton.
Four hours later, the house smells like a bakery, and the cookies are done.
I rub my hands together before turning around and washing them. “I need to shower and get ready.”
Rex nods, and I swallow back my laughter at the flour handprint on his face from me tapping his cheek earlier. He tried to wipe it away with the back of his arm, and I was such a good friend and held back from telling him he missed it.
“Same,” Rex says, throwing the last of our trash into the can. “Do you want me to pick you up or meet you there?”
“You can meet me there,” I reply.
“Cool. I’ll help load these into your car.”
He carries most of the containers, and we stack them into my back seat before he kisses me on the cheek and says good-bye. I rush upstairs to shower egg yolk and flour off myself and start undressing when my phone beeps with a text.
James: Have dinner with me.
The high I’ve been riding from hanging out with Rex is wiped away, and the thought of having dinner with James makes me gag. I debate on not answering him, but like always, I do.
Me: Busy with a fundraiser tonight.
James: Can I come?
This time, I nearly heave up the few cookies I taste-tested.
Me: No. My parents will be there.
James: That’s rude. Isn’t it time to introduce me to your family?
I want to introduce him to my family like I want McDonald’s to stop serving their fizzy Cokes.
Me: What do you want?
James: For you to stop hanging out with him. To stop fucking him.
Repulsion shakes through me. Him is Rex. I hate when James brings him into our mess.
Me: Stop. We’re just friends.
James: Better be.
I toss my phone onto my bathroom counter with tears pricking my eyes. I can’t ask Rex to make his Instagram private, or he’ll question me. If I ask him to block James, he’ll assume he’s messing with me. My mouth will stay shut, my secrets hidden, and I’ll keep dealing with James the best I can by pacifying him.
Eventually, he’ll get tired of me.
Hopefully.
I arrive at the church two hours early to set everything up.
The weather is on our side today, the sun shining bright with a slight breeze. The fundraiser is being held in the parking lot. My biggest goal during these events is to keep the kids entertained, so I made sure it was near the playground, I ordered a bounce house, and the elementary school principal agreed to attend dressed up as a clown.
Food and money have been donated, and from what I’ve seen on Facebook, the fundraiser should pull in a decent crowd, which is typical. Blue Beech citizens love their church, food, socializing … and gossiping.
The after-school program is a great cause. Years ago, my mother started it, and she runs it for free along with other volunteers. The church provides free childcare to children until parents can pick them up after work.
People are arriving, searching for seats while children run through the parking lot toward the bounce house.
“Hey,” Rex says at the same time his arms wrap around my waist from behind.
His arms don’t move as I turn around to face him.
“Hey.” A hint of shyness is in my tone, surprising me since I’m always myself around him.
Then again, we’ve also never hung out in public the day after his face was between my legs.
He looks as hot as ever today with his black shirt and knee-length ripped black shorts with frayed ends. His hair is messy, per usual, and I can’t stop myself from running a thumb over the stubble coating his jaw.
What happened last night exposed the attraction we’d hidden for too long. It’s freeing now that everything is out in the open, and pride swells through me over the thought that he trusts me enough to take this step together.
My shoulders slump.
What is this step?
A quick speed bump of us hooking up, and that’s all it’ll ever lead to?
Tonight, I’m asking him. We’ve always been open and honest in our relationship. Even when we were holding back from anything physical, we knew the feelings were there—that there was so much love that it’d take a heavy chain saw to break it.
Only inches separate us, and his hands trail down my waist before tugging at the hem of my green dress. “I like this.”
I peek up at him, biting the corner of my lip, wrapped in the zone of him. “Thank you.”
He nuzzles his face into my neck. “I wish I could take it off.”
That makes two of us.
I rub my thighs together, and he laughs when I push my body into him.
“Maybe later?”
The contagious grin on his face causes me to do the same when he pulls his head away, his hands still wrapped around my waist. “Are we having another sleepover tonight?”
Heat shoots up my neck. “If you want? Maybe we can play video games again?”
Excitement lines his features, and he chuckles before dragging me into his chest and pressing his lips to the top of my head. When he pulls back a bit, we stare at each other in hesitation, curious on our next move. Rex owns it by dipping his head down and pressing his lips against my mouth this time.
“I’d love another round of video games.”
“Carolina!”
I jump back at the sound of my father’s voice as he’s stalking in our direction.
Shoot!
We were so wrapped up in our own world that I not only forgot there were other volunteers and my father here, but I was also close to making out with Rex at my church.
My dad will have a field day with this one.
A lecture is coming as soon as we’re alone.