Be with Me (Wait for You #2)(62)

“She called them,” Jase answered, throwing his arm over the back of the couch. Mom had cried. It had been a terrible, hard call. “And I texted her yesterday because she wasn’t in class. She didn’t call me.”

“So you lied and told me you were sick when you weren’t?” Cam demanded.

“I think you know the answer to that,” I said.

The look on his face would’ve sent most -people running and he turned it on Jase. “And you didn’t call me? Man, that’s f*cked up.”

“It’s not f*cked up,” I jumped in, holding the glass of tea tight. “He’s not required to tell you. I am. And I am telling you. I just didn’t want you to worry needlessly. You’ve got a lot on your plate right now. I wanted to be sure of what was wrong with my knee before I said anything.”

“Still,” Cam said, staring at Jase. “You should’ve told me.”

Jase held my brother’s gaze with his own steady one. “I could have, but she wanted to go to the doc first before she got anyone upset. I respected that decision.”

“I can understand that,” Avery said diplomatically, plopping into the moon chair. “Jase was being a good friend.”

“I was being a great friend,” replied Jase, and I almost choked on my tea when I felt his fingers tangle in my hair. From our positions, Avery and Cam couldn’t see what he was doing.

Cam only looked placated when Avery wrapped her arm around his knee. “How did it happen anyway?”

I sat the tea on the coffee table. “It was just an accident. I was standing up. Got hit in the hip with a bag and I tried to step out of the way and I came down on my knee wrong.”

Saying it like that sounded innocent enough. Even I could believe it when it was thrown out like that.

Cam smoothed his hand over his baseball cap, tugging the bill down. “Shit, Teresa . . .”

As I sat back, Jase’s fingers slipped under my hair and spread out. My eyes widened as he started to move his hand up and down.

“The doctor really thinks you won’t be able to dance anymore?” asked Avery. She rested her head against Cam’s leg, her eyes wide with sympathy.

Taking a breath that got stuck in my throat, I nodded and then told them what Dr. Morgan had explained. By the time I was done with the sad story, Avery was close to tears and Cam was kneeling beside her, his chin lowered and gaze fixed to the carpet. “So that’s . . . that’s it,” I said, wincing when I heard my voice catch. “I can’t dance anymore.”

Speaking the words cut with a swipe of a hot knife.

“I really am sorry,” she said.

I shifted my weight, wishing the coffee table was high enough to shove my leg under it. “Thanks.”

Twenty kinds of awkward silence descended in the room. This was probably the worst part of it all. No one knew what to say because there wasn’t anything to say.

Jase slid his hand off my back and leaned forward. “Anyone hungry? I’m starving and I’d do some terrible, nasty things for some Aussie cheese fries.”

Avery laughed. “Do we even want to know?”

He opened his mouth.

“No,” Cam answered immediately, standing straight. “You do not want to know what Jase has already probably done for cheese fries.”

“All I have to say is desperate hookers ain’t got nothing on me,” Jase said, and he winked when Avery flushed the color of the throw pillow I was leaning against.

I laughed. “Wow. That’s . . . well, that’s disgusting.”

His grin turned mischievous.

The muscles in my back eased as Cam glanced over at Avery. “What about you?” he asked, and I whispered a little prayer of thanks that the conversation had switched gears. “Want to go grab something to eat?”

She nodded as she tugged her coppery hair around her shoulder. “I’d love some fries. And ahi tuna.”

“Mmm,” I said, stomach rumbling.

“Then let’s go.” Cam took Avery’s hands and hauled her up. “Outback trip for the win.”

Jase was up and had my crutches by the time I stood. Our eyes met as he handed them over, and I felt my cheeks burn. I looked away quickly, catching Avery watching us closely. I forced a casual smile. She grinned back at me as we headed out to the landing.

I grabbed Jase’s arm, stopping him as Cam and Avery walked down the stairs, planning on bringing her car around to the front. I kept my voice low. “Maybe we should wait until he’s in a better mood.”

Jase nodded absently. “Was it an accident?”

“Huh?”

A muscle popped along his jaw. “Erik and the bag?”

I was confused to how we’d gotten back to that. Erik was the last person I wanted to think about. Not after breaking my bum leg news to Cam and the fact that the four of us were going out on our first double date . . . that the other two didn’t realize they were on. A stupid, silly grin loomed as my mind took a rapid detour back to the lake and our conversation.

We were together.

“Tess?” he queried quietly.

I shrugged as I gripped the handles on my crutches. “Probably.”

“Are you guys coming?” Cam’s voice floated up the stairwell. “Or is Jase doing some of those hooker acts of desperation for cheese fries?”