“What game are you playing, Giles?”
“Game?” Surprise flashed in her eyes, her earlier confidence slipping away. “You think this is a game?”
“You’re telling me it isn’t?”
The air electrified around us, crackling with sexual tension. My dick felt it. Hell, my entire body felt it. And it wanted more.
More Felicity.
More of her smart mouth and witty retorts. Her slender hips and pouty lips.
I needed to get a fucking grip. Because I had enough to worry about without adding a girl to the mix. Especially my step-sister’s best friend.
“Go to hell, Jason.” She stormed off, her anger almost palpable as she disappeared into the hall.
Long after she’d gone, I was still standing there. Processing our interaction. My body’s strange response to her. She was pissed, that much was obvious—her attitude a front for her true feelings. Her closing line had been telling enough. She wanted me to stay the fuck away.
So why did all I hear was game on?
“Jason, can you come in here please?”
With a groan, I stalked down the hall and into the kitchen where I found my dad at the kitchen table, pouring over a stack of papers. “Yeah?”
“We’d like for you to join us for dinner today.”
“I’m good, but thanks.” No way did I want to sit around playing happy families with my old man, his new wife, and Hailee.
“Son,” Dad let out a heavy sigh. “We need to move past this.”
“I’m over it. I just don’t want to pretend I actually give a shit.”
“Jason,” he snapped, eyes sliding to Denise. “I know you’re hurting, but this is not the way.”
Me and my old man were most definitely not father and son goals. To the rest of Rixon, Dad liked to exude togetherness. A team. The local football hero and the son set to follow in his path. But I knew the truth. I knew what Kent Ford was really about. There was a time when I’d worshipped the ground he’d walked on. But that was before. When he and my mom were in love. When our family was enough.
“I’ll be in my room,” I said, swiping a banana from the fruit bowl and retreating into the hall. Almost colliding with Hailee as she flew off the stairs.
“Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t see you.”
“Yeah, okay,” I grumbled. It wasn’t like you could really miss me. Six one. Broad. Wearing my blue and white football jersey. “In a hurry?”
Hailee’s brows pinched. “You want to talk?”
“Forget it.” I waved her off.
“Jeez, I’m sorry. I just didn’t expect... what you were saying?” Her expression softened, and I found myself humoring her.
“I said are you in a hurry?”
“Felicity’s picking me up. We’re going to The Alley.”
Of course they were. I didn’t get the appeal. It was a dive place on the Rixon/Rixon East border. Too many East kids came around there for my liking.
“You think it’s a good idea to go there alone?”
“I won’t be alone. I’ll be with Flick. But it’s nice to know you care.” A hint of amusement played on Hailee’s lips.
Before I could correct her, Felicity’s horn blared outside. I knew because I’d been listening to the annoying-as-fuck sound for almost two years since she passed driver’s ed.