Slow Play (The Rules #3)(37)

“Good. Then you can focus on your sweet little brown eyed nerd and have fun.” She taps her pencil against the textbook in front of her. “Though it would be kind of exciting to have both Steven and Tristan vying for your attention.”

“That sounds like a nightmare. I hate drama. Remember?” I’ve had enough to last me a lifetime thanks to my parents. “I bet you’re right. He’s given up on me.” Oh, I sound pitiful but Kelli is the only one I can discuss this stuff with.

“Tristan?”

I nod.

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s just biding his time. Jade’s party is at his house, after all. Maybe he’s hoping he’ll see you there.”

“I doubt that,” I mutter as I refocus my attention on the problems in front of me.

But the numbers and formulas start to blur the longer I stare at them. I’m just wasting my time so I think about other things. Like how nice it is to have new friends and a guy that’s interested in me whereas before I was stuck in limbo, unsure which way my life was going next.

I’m finally able to forge a new life and have new experiences versus being worried about my parents all the time. You’d think they would’ve written their only daughter from prison by now…

Your thinking would be incorrect.

Pushing all thoughts of my shitty parents out of mind, I tap my pencil in the middle of the page Kelli’s looking at to get her attention. “Let’s do some vodka shots.”

The slow smile stretching Kelli’s mouth is infectious. “Are you serious?”

“Definitely. I need to loosen up. I’m too tense trying to prep for this stupid quiz that I’m bound to fail.”

We both get up and head for the freezer where a half-full bottle of Grey Goose sits. “Is it the stats test that’s making you tense or all your man trouble?” Kelli asks.

“Both,” I tell her truthfully.

“I don’t want you at the house tonight,” Jade says firmly, her gaze directed at me. Not that she could be talking to anyone else, considering we’re the only ones here.

I’m sitting at the kitchen counter eating cereal for lunch. I’m too lazy to leave the house to grab something and I definitely don’t cook. Jade’s bustling around the kitchen pulling shit out of the pantry she’s going to use to make her appetizers for her little gathering later this evening. She’s even wearing an apron—a rather domesticated scene that’s making me extremely uncomfortable.

Does Shep even understand what he’s doing by living with Jade and letting her have full reign of his house? He’s insane.

“Why can’t I stick around? It’s my house too,” I mumble around a mouthful of Fruit Loops.

“Ew, don’t talk with your mouth full.” She swats me with a dishtowel and I duck out of her way. “No girl is going to want you if you talk to her with milk dribbling down your chin.”

I immediately touch my chin, which is bone ass dry. Jade grins. “Made you check.”

Grumbling beneath my breath, I shovel another spoonful of fruity loops in my mouth, chew and swallow before I speak again. “All the girls want me, Jade. I don’t think a little milk drool is going to hurt my game.”

She rolls her eyes. “Are you for real right now?”

My answer is a shrug, which seems to irritate her more.

“You need to go out. Maybe you and Shep could go to a bar. Or to the gambling house,” she suggests. That she’s encouraging me to drag Shep’s ass to a bar is unbelievable—and tells me she’s serious about getting us out of here.

“I don’t want to go out.” The weather is for shit today. Cloudy and gloomy and rainy. A big storm is forecasted for later tonight—thanks Ginger Zee on Good Morning America—and I really don’t want to get stuck out in it.

Do I sound like an old man or what?

“Seriously? The one night I will practically pay you to go to a bar with my man and you’re not interested?” She stops on the other side of the island, directly in front of me. I look up to meet her irritated gaze. “What can I do to convince you to leave?”

“You’re not going to pay me?” Like I’d take her money.

She shakes her head.

“So you really don’t want me around.”

“Absolutely not.” She even mock shudders for the full effect.

“Because of your party?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of party is it?” No one has said. I think it’s weird that Jade is entertaining her friends like my mom would on a Friday night. With appetizers and wine and all that bullshit.

The look on Jade’s face is immediately sketchy. “Just a little something to get all the girls together.”

Uh, huh. She’s not telling me everything. Pushing my empty bowl away from me, I fold my arms on top of the counter and contemplate her. “I won’t disturb your little something. I’ll lock myself away in my room for the entire night. I promise.”

“You can’t promise anything and you know it.”

She’s got me there. “Where’s Shep going tonight?”

“With you.” She does this weird little hand thing that’s a total gimme a break gesture. “Come on, Tristan. Help me out here.”