I raise a bored eyebrow as I cross my arms over my chest. “That’s to say any of the college teams would even be interested in you.”
His cocky smirk is back. “You better believe it, baby,” he tells me. “They already are. If you’re smart, you’ll stick with me. I could take you on one hell of an adventure.”
“When will you get it?” I tell him, making sure to punctuate every last word so the small mind of this football player can keep up with the big kids. “I’m not interested.”
“We’ll see,” he says with a sparkle in his eye that puts a chill right through me.
I step in closer, letting him know I’m not intimidated by his act. I mean, I’ve faced off against Nate Ryder for the past five years. I can handle this bullshit with my hands tied behind my back. The circle surrounding us seems to step closer as well, desperate to know what the hell is going on. “I see through you,” I tell him, “You’re nothing but a shady prick and whatever it is that you’re up to, just know, it won’t work. You’ll go down no matter what bullshit you try to play.”
“Baby,” he says. “If you wanted me to go down, all you had to do was beg for it.”
“You fucking wish.”
His grin doesn’t leave his face for one tiny second. Not when he looks me up and down, not when he licks his lips, and not when he steps around me with a wink, making sure to move past me so closely that our bodies press together.
“Holy shit,” Brooke whispers as she steps in beside me.
My phone starts blowing up in my pocket and without a doubt, I know that Nate has just heard what’s been going on in here and I know that within the space of three seconds, he’ll be tearing down the hallway, barging his way through the crowd, not caring who gets in his way.
Not a damn thing will get in the way of Nate Ryder checking on his girl.
Chapter 14
Jesse opens the door of his home on Friday afternoon and the first thing we hear is the shrill laughter of our two moms ringing loudly through the house. “Huh?” Jesse grunts as he looks to me for some sort of explanation.
“Don’t look at me,” I tell him. “I’ve been with you guys all day.”
He grunts again in that annoying way teenage boys do and walks on into his home. I follow behind, searching out the noise to find mom and Trish sitting by the back window, watching the pool boy in action.
“Oh, there he goes again,” Trish says as they both tilt their heads to follow the pool boy’s ass as he bends low to scoop a leaf out of the pool, clearly having no clue that we’re here.
“I’ve got to get me one of these,” mom says in appreciation.
Jesse clears his throat and walks forward as he tosses his arm over my mother’s shoulder. “I’d be more than happy to volunteer for the position.”
“Jesse,” Trish scolds, horrified as my mother…. WHAT? Blushes? You’ve got to be kidding me. I mean, she legitimately blushed just now.
What the hell? I need some kind of warning when this shit is about to go down.
“Knock it off,” I tell him as he laughs and winks at my mother, making my stomach churn, and I’m sure, probably Trish’s as well. He removes his arm from mom’s shoulder and steps out of her personal bubble. “What’s going on?” I ask her. “I thought your girls’ night thing was later on.”
“It is,” she says proudly. “I ran into Trish at the Country Club and we decide to start early.”
“Ok…,” I say slowly. “And the pool boy?”
“Well,” Trish says with a shrug. “Why not take advantage of a free show? I mean,” she says, indicating outside. “Get a look at that tushie.”
“Huh,” I grunt as my eyes swivel out the back to the tushie in question. “I can get on board with this.”
Mom pats the space beside her and I happily take the seat. “Oh, Jesus,” Jesse chuckles. “You better hope Nate doesn’t get home to see you checking out the pool boy.”
Trish giggles and holds up her hand before clicking at Jesse. “Be a dear and fetch us a glass of wine.”
“What?” he shrieks like a teenage girl.
“You heard me, love,” she says. “Now, make it snappy. I didn’t give birth to you so you can sit around and look pretty.”
“For fuck’s sake,” he curses under his breath as he reluctantly turns on his heel and heads for the kitchen.
I turn towards my mom and give her ‘the look’. “What’s really going on? You never leave the Country Club before the sun goes down.”
“I know,” she says. “I didn’t want those bitches to find out that we’re all alone. They can be such hoity-toity cows about that stuff.”