Lily smiled and tossed up her hands. “How can you hate someone so much but love what they gave you with all your heart?”
Jenna shrugged. “Honey, I am the wrong person to answer that. All I know is that you love Alex. As long as he knows that, the rest will come and you can deal with it when it does.”
“I just want the best for him, you know? Colt’s the only man he really looks up to.”
Now Jenna had to nod because Colt was amazing with Alex. She had no doubt that he’d be a wonderful father someday, too. Like she said, the McCades did everything fiercely.
Lily stuffed two sandwiches and a bag of crackers in the pack, then zipped it up.
“I’m going to drop Alex off, but I’ll see you tonight, right?”
“About that…”
Lily slammed her hand down the counter. “Don’t you dare try to weasel your way out of this, Jenna-Jayne Justice!”
“It’s just a bonfire.”
“It’s all of us, getting together. Penny is so excited, and with Colt back in town it’ll be all of us in the same place for once. Remember how we use to sneak out there and see what they were doing?”
“Yeah, I do. We were sixteen and they were seniors.” Jenna shuddered. “That image of Huck making out with Dolly Page on the back of his daddy’s truck still haunts me.”
Lily gave a look like she just tasted something bad. “Oh yeah, that was gross. Dolly Page, her bad dye job, and braces will be nowhere near our guys tonight.”
Our guys? Jenna kind of liked the sound of that.
“And don’t try to pretend you have something better to do, either.”
Jenna snapped her mouth shut. She wanted to see her friends. They were more like her family. But being next to Colt after what they’d shared? It was a bad idea.
Jenna found herself thinking about Colt more and more. Every single time she saw him around town, she had the overwhelming urge to run up and kiss him. She had thought that distance was good and public was safe. She was starting to worry that she may be wrong. Because even with people around, her blood still heated and her skin zinged with tingles, silently begging for Colt’s touch.
The only thing worse was how badly she w
anted to go tonight.
Jenna envisioned him with his worn jeans and baseball cap looking all sexy with two-day scruff and laughing by a fire.
“Wait…” Lily’s blond brow furrowed. “Did something happen? With Colt? Is that why you’re trying to get out of going?”
“What?” Jenna said, trying to keep the shock out of her voice. “I…no. I mean, I invited him to yoga last week to help with his injury and breathing.” Which was true, Jenna just left out the part about how she slept with him before that.
Lily just examined her face and suddenly Jenna felt the urge to squirm under the scrutiny.
“I didn’t want to say anything, but Colt was asking about you last week.”
Jenna’s entire body flushed hot. “He was?”
Lily nodded. “He said it was just a friendly inquisition, but I know my brother.”
Jenna leaned in a little and fiddled with her earlobe, trying to look casual but feeling everything but. “What did he say?”
“He was just hinting around about taking you out.”
Jenna folded her lips because for some reason, a smile was trying really hard to split them. “Like a date?”
Lily glanced at Jenna. “I don’t know. I shut down his idea before it got that far.”
It took everything Jenna had not to ask why. She knew that Lily loved them both and wasn’t trying to keep them apart. For goodness’ sake, she didn’t even know they had been “together.” But Lily protected those she loved, and Jenna knew that Lily was trying to do just that.