I laughed and pulled my arm back. “Alright, let’s see yours then.”
Jacob led me to the end of the hall, then pushed the door open. His bedroom was bright, uncluttered, and very well kept. Aside from a small laundry pile that smelled like grass clippings, everything was clean, too. Even the bed was made.
“Looks like you win,” I smiled.
> “Oh yeah?” he said, raising an eyebrow. “And what do I win?”
I considered his bed for a moment and shrugged. “I guess that depends on what time your roommates get home.”
His handsome eyes lit up, but not for long. Before we could do anything else the silence was split by the sound of the front door opening, followed by voices and laughter.
“Raincheck,” I winked at him, twirling the Blow-pop in my mouth.
So far Jacob had taken me to run a bunch of errands, including stocking up on some groceries for the house. We’d stopped at his place for a specific reason though, and for once it had nothing to do with sex.
“Ah,” he said, after rummaging around for a bit. I watched as he pulled a giant, bible-looking book out from under a stack of others. “Here we go.”
I checked out the book as he tucked it under one big arm. “Calculus?”
“Yeah.” For some reason he turned a little red. “Since I’m usually at your place, I figured I might as well keep this there.”
I blinked at him with all new admiration. I knew he was going to school for criminal justice, I just never understood the extent of it.
“You’re working your own business full time, going to school full time, and you’re also taking Calculus?”
“And between all that I’m helping Tate rebuild your car,” Jacob smiled proudly. “Not to mention helping Cole refinish the floors in your downstairs apartment.”
He was right about all of it, of course. In the past two weeks since our little four-way rendezvous, my house had been a whirlwind of activities, both work-related and leisure. I’d loved every second of coming home to the chaos too, because for the first time in years my house was full. The rooms and hallways echoed with the sounds of work, or talking, or laughter. My virtually unused kitchen was filled with the wonderful scents of whoever happened to be cooking that night.
The whole thing had been incredible, inside and out. And when it came to the bedroom…
“Don’t forget I’ve been trimming your lawn too,” he said, slipping his arms around me. “Now that you mention it, I really have been kicking ass.”
… when it came to the bedroom, I was a happy, happy girl.
Now that’s the understatement of the century.
Overall it had been a wild couple of weeks. Tate had been busier than ever at the garage, and Cole had been working ten-hour days to get the basement move-in ready. Even so, the four of us found time to hang out. There wasn’t a night where I wasn’t sprawled out in my living room with one or more of the guys. Usually relaxing with a few drinks, some good food, and a whole lot of mind-erasing, life-altering sex.
“You ready to roll?”
It launched me into a daydream, every time I just thought about it. And I thought about it a lot.
“Yeah,” I said, snapping out of it. “Let’s go.”
Just then, Jacob’s roommates entered the hallway. They eyed the two of us over as we emerged from the bedroom, giving us a couple of smug ‘we know what you were doing’ looks. Jacob rolled his eyes at them — probably for my benefit. But I wasn’t beyond a little fun.
“Best study break ever,” I winked, pretending to fan myself as we passed them.
Thirty-Four
SERENA
“So I’m gonna be out of town for a couple days,” Tate said. He picked up his fork and skewered another piece of fried calamari. “Finally convinced the stubborn old man to see an eye doctor.”
“You’re uncle’s a mule for sure” remarked Cole. “But why out of town?”
“The doc’s an AMD specialist. The best on this side of the country, apparently.”