I started laughing, too. “It doesn’t really say that.” I went to grab it from her and she handed it over.
“It totally does!” she wheezed. “Seriously, who would take this seriously?”
“I don’t know…” Avery looked up from the magazine she’d been reading with a hopeful expression. “Some of this sounds reasonable. Like…” She pointed to something on the page before her. “Find common interests. And encourage him to talk about himself….” She dipped her head down again and it seemed like she was looking for more helpful hints.
Max rolled her eyes. “Well, yeah, but that’s just common sense. Everyone knows guys love to talk about themselves.”
Jax’s voice behind me gave me a start. “What are you ladies talking about?”
“Nothing!” I said it too loudly and threw the magazine that was in my hands back to Max, who arched her brows in surprise but said nothing.
None of them did.
I shouldn’t have been surprised, they were always like this around Jax.
Yes, he was attractive, and sure he was popular, but he was friends with me. It was hard to imagine that didn’t make him at least a little less intimidating. But, for whatever reason, this group of strong, independent young women seemingly agreed as a unit that they would become mute in Jax’s presence.
That was probably one of the reasons Jax always referred to them as ‘the girls.’ They weren’t exactly personable around him.
But their muteness worked in my favor right now because none of them would spill the beans on this ridiculous undertaking of mine. The whole ‘learning how to flirt’ thing might be seen as cute by Rose but I knew without a doubt that Jax would just find it pitiful.
“You ready to go home, dweeb?” Jax asked as he threw an arm around my shoulders.
“Yeah. See you guys.” I tossed that over my shoulder and saw Avery hold up her copy with a wide-eyed eager look. I’ll bring it to school on Monday, she mouthed.
I clamped my mouth shut and fought a laugh as I turned back around and let Jax lead me to his car.
I hadn’t learned to drive yet, and even if I had I couldn’t have afforded a car, so I was pretty much always running on Jax’s schedule. “Rose says you’re coming to the party tonight.” He grinned down at me. “Good for you, letting loose for once.”
I stuck my tongue out at him at the age-old joke.
Jax was convinced I was too straightlaced and ‘good,’ whatever that meant.
“Oh, hey,” he added as we reached his car. “Andrew wants to come along, too. That cool with you?”
I opened my mouth and closed it, oddly touched by the fact that Rose hadn’t told him why Andrew was going. I mean, it wasn’t that I didn’t trust Rose, but her first loyalty wasn’t to me. It occurred to me now that maybe I shouldn’t have asked her to keep a secret from her boyfriend...
Jax arched his brows at me as he started the car. I still hadn’t answered.
“Yeah, of course,” I said quickly. “That’s fine by me if Andrew wants to tag along.”
I was regretting those words hours later.
To be fair, I was regretting a lot of my life choices when eight o’clock rolled around and Jax had to drag me out of my house.
Not before my dad caught us, though.
“Whoa, look at you,” my dad said, using that weird dad voice that made me cringe.
My dad was the best. Really and truly the best. But he was still a dad and he had a tendency to do dad thing, like—
“Don’t let those boys get too close to this beauty,” he said as he nudged Jax’s elbow.
Jax grinned at my discomfort.
“Dad,” I whined as I tugged at the too-tight jeans that Rose had insisted I wear instead of my baggy ones. She’d also replaced my totally fine V-neck T-shirt I’d planned to wear with a tighter black shirt that had me clenching my belly muscles in case my pudge was showing.
And...the makeup.
Don’t forget the makeup. To be fair, she hadn’t gone crazy, but since I barely ever wore any makeup, I currently felt like a mime.
“You’re so beautiful, honey,” my dad said with a teary-eyed shake of his head.
Ah crap. I so didn’t have time for this.
“Isn’t she, though?” Rose came up from behind me and gave my shoulders a little squeeze. She actually sounded like she meant it. But then again, Rose was a trained actress.
We were late picking up Andrew, but this didn’t seem to faze anyone but me.
It didn’t even faze Andrew. But then again, nothing fazed this guy from what I could tell.
The car ride was uneventful, and basically a circle because we had to pick Andrew up in the nice neighborhood near school before circling back to the neighborhood that was on our side of town.
But the only truly awkward moment was when Andrew slid into the backseat beside me and looked at me. The interior car lights were on since the door was open and he looked at me.
I could not stress that enough. He didn’t just glance. He didn’t nod. He just looked straight at me and stared.
It took everything I had not to lift my arm and wipe the lipstick off on the back of my hand. I sat on my hands to keep from doing it.
Rose would have killed me if I destroyed her masterpiece—her words, obviously, not mine.
“Hi,” I said, a little too quietly. Part of me wondered if he heard.
But then he smiled, that familiar, mysterious, small smile of his that said everything we peons did was
