“Why the hell were you three out there?” he finally asks, still not looking at me.
“Um… Dustin saw you go in there, and your mother was looking for you for breakfast. They’re going into town… You were apparently taking too long… So… Yeah. I just tagged along. Dustin figured you were just on the phone and needed privacy or something.”
“Fucker,” he grumbles.
“Are you pissed that I saw or just your mother?”
“I don’t care that you saw,” he says on a sigh. “Fucking sick that my mom saw.”
He groans while scrubbing his face with his hands, and I can’t help it. I lose it.
When my laughter spills free, he turns to glare at me, but even he can’t hold it back for long. Pretty soon, we’re both in hysterics and wiping our eyes as we fall to the bed, laughing so hard it physically hurts.
He buries his face against my neck, laughing as he holds me to him, and my laughter slowly tapers off as I start running my fingers through his hair. If his mother hadn’t been there—or Dustin—that might have gone a little differently.
Instead of being a turn-on, it was… It was hilarious. That’s what it was.
We lie there for so long that I become convinced he’s fallen asleep on me. Until he finally speaks.
“Let me clean up. Then we’ll get some food. By now my mother is gone.”
Laughing lightly, I slowly get up, and he disappears to the bathroom to clean up. I hear the water running for a while before I hear the door open. I turn my head in time to see him just as he drops his shorts and starts to change right in front of me.
Sitting there awkwardly and waiting for him to finish, I pick imaginary lint of my shorts.
“Ready?” he asks.
Nodding, I stand and walk toward the door. I turn to see he has on a fresh shirt and shorts, and I work hard not to laugh at the pitiful look on his face.
When we get downstairs, Dustin’s laughter finds us immediately. Dad looks over to see us, and a taunting grin turns up.
“Jerking off in the shower is a much safer way to go,” Dad says, winking at Jax.
Jax mutters something under his breath as Dustin continues to roll out his laughter. Cody is missing from the fun. So is everyone else.
Jax practically drags me to the kitchen as my father’s laughter bubbles free alongside Dustin’s. I almost stumble to a halt when my eyes collide with Cody’s.
He’s looking at me over the top of his coffee cup, and Jax claps him on the shoulder as he lets go of my hand and walks around him to get coffee.
“Your parents and sister just left,” Cody tells him, never taking his eyes off me.
“I figured,” Jax grunts, not lifting his eyes to see the intense stare off between his friend and me.
“Don’t sweat it,” Cody says, breaking eye contact to turn and flash a smile at Jax. “Until you’ve had your ass kicked by a girl in front of your entire self-defense class—that you’re supposed to be teaching—you don’t understand the true meaning of humiliation.”
Jax starts laughing, and Cody smiles until his eyes meet mine. It’s like he’s showing me Jax is his friend, just in case I missed it.
Butt sniffer.
“You two staying in today or going out?” Cody asks.
You’d think that question was directed at me, considering his eyes are drilling holes through my head, but I know he’s talking to Jax.
“Staying in. Unless my parents come home. Then we’re going out.”
Cody snorts, and Jax rolls his eyes. I stand here like the third wheel, which seems to please Cody to no end.
“You not hungry?” Jax asks, looking up at me as he starts piling some of the leftover breakfast onto his plate.