Shattered Ties(30)

Actually, I hadn’t. The thought of her moving all the way across the country for some guy was ridiculous. My mom was smarter than that. I stopped and thought about the way she’d looked at him at dinner. Maybe she really is that stupid.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore. How was your party last night?”

She groaned and dropped her head to the table. “It was awful. I could barely fit in the room with all the overly inflated egos in there. At least Todd and Lucy were there with their parents, so I had someone to talk to.” “Todd was there?” I asked.

“Yeah, and it would have been nice if my mom and his mom hadn’t tried to play matchmaker all night. And Todd went right along with it. I could have smacked him.”

“Do you like him?”

“Todd? Yeah, he’s a nice guy. I just wish he’d tell his mom to back off.”

“I meant like him as in like him. I could have sworn you had a crush on him that first day.”

Her face flushed. “I did have a crush on him then.”

“Did? What changed your mind?”

She picked up her napkin and started shredding it. “You.”

“Me? What did I do?”

“You’re different, and I don’t know. I guess my like switched from him to you.”

“So, you like me?” I teased, but secretly, I was on cloud nine.

“Oh, shut up. I don’t need to deal with someone else with an overinflated ego. I have enough of them on my side of town.” “You like me,” I sang, causing her to laugh.

“Oh my god. Yes, I like you. Happy?”

“Delirious,” I teased as the waitress put our food on the table.

“Why did you kiss me?” she asked as she picked up a fry.

“Why’d you kiss me?”

“Are we back to this again? I didn’t kiss you. You kissed me.”

“Nope. I put my lips on yours. You did the kissing,” I said.

She threw a fry at me. “Fine, I kissed you, but you kissed me the second time.”

“True, but we’re focusing on the first time.”

“Your lips were right there. What did you expect me to do? Lick you?”

“I wouldn’t turn you down if you offered.”

“Of course you wouldn’t. You’re a guy.” I just grinned at her as I started eating.

“Stop grinning at me. This isn’t funny.”

“Actually, it is,” I said through a mouthful of food.

“So, we know I like you, but you never said if you like me.”

I looked at her, really looked at her—not at her outside appearance but at the person she was. Contrary to the assumptions I’d made when I first saw her, she wasn’t the stuck-up princess that I’d expected. Instead, she was turning out to be one of the sweetest and most down-to-earth people I’d ever met. She didn’t care about her parents’ money or the fancy parties. She was just a seventeen-year-old girl trying to live a normal life in an unusual situation.

Before this moment, I thought of her in a way that I knew I shouldn’t, but it took me until just now, when she’d flat-out asked me, to realize that I actually cared about this girl.





––––––––

Apparently, Jesse planned on dragging this out. I waited impatiently as he studied me as if I were a science project coming to life.

“Well, do you?” I asked when I couldn’t stand it any longer.

He smiled. “What do you think?”

“If I knew the answer to that, I wouldn’t be asking. You’re a hard guy to read.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m practically an open book.”

I snorted. “Sure you are. Stop avoiding the question.”

He leaned back in his chair and looked at me. “I’m not sure what to say to you. I think that if we both felt something, this could go south fast. There are too many people out there who wouldn’t like the fact that we were... something more than friends.”

“Since when do you care what others think of you?” I countered.

“Oh, I don’t. I just don’t see you dealing with crap just for me.”

“I don’t think that we would be able to tell anyone—at least not for a while. I’m seventeen for a little longer, and I have to listen to my mom, or I’m shit out of luck. I don’t think my dad would care who I’m with, but he’s never around to tell me.”

“Neither of us have much of a father figure, do we?” he asked.

“At least I know my dad. Yours kind of just disappeared,” I said sadly.

“Don’t act so sad about it. As far as I’m concerned, his douchery is a blessing. Would I really have wanted to know a guy who abandoned his family?”

“That’s true,” I said thoughtfully. “You wouldn’t be half the guy you are now if he were around.”

“Are you saying I’m a good guy?” he teased.

“I am. Underneath all the tattoos and bad attitude, you’re a pretty decent guy.”

“Wow. Since we’re sharing our feelings and all that warm and fuzzy crap, I guess I’ll answer your question.”