Misbehaving (Sea Breeze #6)(18)

“Yeah, she looks like Preston. Rock and Trisha couldn’t have kids, so they adopted Preston’s younger siblings when their momma died.”

I nodded again, feeling guilty for not admitting I already knew all this. It was strange that Jess hadn’t been at the wedding. I would have remembered her. She was hard to miss.

“Have you met Amanda? Marcus’s sister?” Jess asked as we reached the bleachers.

Here it was. My time to lie or tell the truth and explain.

“He was her friend at Marcus’s weddin’,” Daisy May informed her for me. I was surprised the kid remembered me.

Jess stopped walking and looked up at me. “You were at Marcus Hardy’s wedding?”

This was not where I wanted to discuss this.

“Yeah,” I replied, not able to lie to her.

She frowned. “I wasn’t even invited to their wedding. How did you get an invite?”

I glanced up at the people in the stands and saw Amanda watching us. Preston wasn’t there, but I knew he was here at the game. “I, uh . . .” Glancing back down at Jess, I forced a smile. “I was Amanda’s date.”

Jess’s eyes went wide. “What? And you walked away from that without Preston Drake beating the shit outta you?”

She didn’t seem mad. Maybe she liked Amanda. They couldn’t be friends . . . could they? The two of them couldn’t be any more opposite.

“Yeah, he wasn’t a fan, but it all ended well. For everyone,” I replied.

“Come see Manda,” Daisy May said, tugging on Jess’s hand. Jess glanced down at the girl, then back at me.

“Sadie fixed y’all up, didn’t she?”

I just nodded. No need to tell her I had been the one to pursue Amanda. I’d had Sadie help me, but it had been my idea.

Jess laughed and shook her head, then turned to walk up the steps.

What was so funny? I didn’t get a chance to ask before Jess’s ass in those jeans caught my attention and completely distracted me. I followed her up the stairs, and she led us straight to Amanda.

“Hey, I’m so glad you’re here. I haven’t seen you in weeks.” Amanda’s voice distracted me from being fascinated by Jess’s body in those jeans, and I jerked my gaze up to see Amanda standing up, smiling at Jess. She was shorter than Jess and thinner. Jess had curves that went on for miles. Amanda had the girl-next-door look.

“Drake’s got you all wrapped up. Wouldn’t be surprised if his possessive crazy ass wasn’t keeping you as far away from me as possible,” Jess drawled.

“Got that damn right,” Preston said as he stepped over the seat in front of us and went directly to Amanda’s side as if she needed guarding from someone.

Amanda slapped his chest. “Stop it. Jess is my friend and you know that.”

Really? Interesting.

Preston scowled and pulled Amanda closer to him before shifting his scowl to me. Then slowly, understanding lit his eyes as he glanced between the two of us. A smirk touched his lips. “So that shit was true? Dewayne said the two of you showed up together at Live Bay. I didn’t believe him,” Preston said, looking more than amused.

“Shut up, Drake,” Jess snapped, sitting down beside Amanda and then glancing up at me. “I’d introduce you, but seeing as how you dated his woman, Jason, I assume y’all have met.”

“They didn’t f**king date,” Preston growled.

Amanda turned to whisper something to him, and I looked away. Let her deal with his insane ass.

“Ignore him,” Jess said. “He goes apeshit whenever he thinks someone unworthy gets near her. Irony in its best form.”

I couldn’t have agreed more. I leaned down to her ear and asked, “How is it that you two are friends?”

Jess leaned back and cocked an eyebrow at me like she was offended. A slow smile finally took its place. “Because Amanda Hardy is hard to resist, even for females. She’s always been good to me, from the time we were kids. And then, of course, there was the time she wanted to get Preston’s attention and decided getting trashed and dancing at bars was the way to do it. So she of course came to see me for guidance.”

What? That didn’t sound like the Amanda I knew. Jess threw her head back and laughed. “If you could see the disbelief on your face,” she said, grinning.

“She really did that?”

Jess nodded. “Yep. But remember, I like Amanda. So I made sure her bad-girl performance was monitored and she was safe. Besides, it didn’t take long for her to figure out that that wasn’t the life she wanted to lead. After that, we really became friends.”

I knew that Jess didn’t tell me this to impress me. She shrugged and turned her attention back to the game. But I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She really was special and she didn’t have a clue.

Chapter Seven

JESS

Amanda was the type of girl I could see Jason with. She made more sense. She was the kind he would have made it work with. She would have brought him back to Sea Breeze over and over again.

I wasn’t.

I was the fling. I spent most of the game cheering Rock’s boy Brent on and pushing these thoughts to the back of my mind. Amanda was the only one of the elite Sea Breeze crowd who gave me a chance. The rest of them stuck their noses in the air and treated me like . . . a stripper’s daughter.