I leaned over and kissed him on the crown of his head. “Then it’s a date.”
“Mind if I tag along?” Taylor asked. “I haven’t been to the movies in a while, and I don’t have class tomorrow.”
“Who says I want you to come along?” Jordan asked.
Taylor twisted and gave him a look. “Dude. We just spent the last hour tag-teaming Clara. If you can do that, you can share a movie experience.”
“Watch out. Jordan is a movie-talker,” I warned. “He likes to whisper during the entire thing.”
“No problem. I’m used to tuning Jordan out.”
Jordan reached over to playfully smack at Taylor.
Behind me, Derek shifted. “Can, uh, I come too?”
All three of us twisted to look at him. “Really, Chief?” Taylor asked.
Derek shrugged. “Sure. Why wouldn’t I want to go?”
“What about the baby?” I asked.
“I’ll find a babysitter. How much would your mother charge?”
I scoffed. “Are you kidding? She would payyoufor the privilege of watching him for an evening. She already treats Anthony like he’s my child.”
“He kind of is,” Derek pointed out. “Maybe not on paper, but in reality? You’ve spent just as much time with him as I have. Maybe even more.”
I grinned. Itdidfeel like he was my baby. A voice in the back of my head told me that was a bad idea, that I couldn’t get too attached to Anthony in case Derek and I broke up.
But I quickly shushed that voice. I was too happy to worry about such things right now. Sometimes, a girl had to live in thepresent.
Taylor looked up the movie on his phone. “There’s a showing at eight.”
“Eight’s kind of late,” Derek said. “Can we do something earlier?”
“Jesus,grandpa,” Taylor teased. “Want to make dinner reservations for three-thirty while we’re at it?”
“I am not above kicking you out of my house,” Derek replied.
“Sorry, sorry,” Taylor said. “I’ll behave. I like being here way more than my dorm.”
“There’s a six o’clock showing,” Jordan said. “It’s a dine-in theater, so we can get food delivered to our seats.”
“The food is never good at those places,” Derek said.
“I’m cool with anything!” I said. “I’ll eat anything.”
Jordan snickered. “Phrased another way: you’ll put anything in your mouth?”
I gave him a playful shove. “Just for that, you’re not putting anything inthismouth for a week.”
He twisted around and grinned at me. “What if I offer to putyourthings inmymouth?”
“I’m listening.”
Baby Anthony picked that moment to start crying. I quickly hopped out of bed and grabbed Derek’s bathrobe from the bathroom. It waswaytoo big for me, but I didn’t care because it was warm and soft.
“You guys decide on a show time while I take care of the baby.”