The Deal(93)

“I see.” There’s another pause and I can practically hear her smiling over the line. “Is one of these four hockey players someone…special?”

“You can just ask me if he’s my boyfriend, Mom. You don’t have to be cheesy about it.”

“Fine. Is he your boyfriend?”

“Nope. I mean, we’re kinda seeing each other, I guess—” Kinda? He just made you come! “—but we’re friends more than anything.”

Friends who make each other come.

I silence the annoying voice in my voice and swiftly change the subject. “Do you have time to quickly talk me through the recipe?”

“Of course.”

Five minutes later, I hang up the phone and start preparing dinner for the guy who made me come today.





28




Garrett


The house smells like an Italian restaurant when I walk through the door. I turn to Logan, who shoots me a WTF look, and I shrug as if to say f*ck if I know, because I honestly don’t know. I bend down to unlace my scuffed black boots, then follow the mouthwatering aroma to the kitchen. When I reach the doorway, I blink like I’ve just stumbled upon a desert mirage.

Hannah’s sexy ass greets my eyes. She’s angled over the oven door, wearing Tuck’s pink oven mitts as she pulls a steaming pan of lasagna off the middle shelf. At the sound of my footsteps, she glances over her shoulder and smiles. “Oh, hey. Perfect timing.”

All I can do is gape at her.

“Garrett? Hello?”

“You made dinner?” I sputter.

Her cheerful expression falters slightly. “Yeah. Is that okay?”

I’m too stunned—and genuinely touched—to answer.

Fortunately, Dean appears in the doorway and answers for me. “Baby doll, that smells fantastic.”

Tucker trails in after Dean. “I’ll set the table,” he pipes up.

My three roommates lumber into the kitchen, Tucker and Dean going to help Hannah, while Logan stands beside me, looking amazed.

“She cooks too?” he sighs.

Something about his tone—well, not something, since it’s the unmistakable note of longing that causes my guard to shoot up ten feet. Fuck. He can’t actually be into her, can he? I figured he just wanted to sleep with her, but the way he’s looking at her right now…

I don’t f*cking like it.

“Dude, keep it in your pants,” I mutter, which summons a chuckle from Logan, who obviously knows what I was thinking and my opinion about said thoughts.

“Shit, this looks amazing,” Tucker says as he stands over the lasagna dish with a knife and serving spatula.

The five of us settle at the table, which Hannah actually took the time to not only clean, but cover with a blue-and-white tablecloth. Aside from my mother, no female has ever cooked dinner for me before. I kinda…like it.

“So are you dressing up tomorrow?” Tucker asks Hannah as he heaps a modest-sized square of lasagna onto her plate.

“For what?”

Tuck grins. “Halloween, dumbass.”

Hannah lets out a groan. “Oh crap. That’s tomorrow? I swear, I have no concept of time.”

“My costume suggestion for you?” Dean chimes in. “Sexy nurse. Actually, f*ck that, we live in the modern world—sexy doctor. Oooh, or sexy navy pilot.”

“I’m not dressing up as sexy anything, thank you very much. It’s bad enough that I’m stuck passing out drinks at the dorm crawl.”

I chuckle. “Shit, you got roped into doing that?” The annual Halloween dorm crawl involves people popping into a dorm, getting free drinks, and then moving on to the next building. I’ve heard it’s actually a lot more fun than it sounds.

She sticks out her chin glumly. “I did it last year too. It sucked. You guys better stop in at Bristol House if you’re planning on going.”

“I’d love to, gorgeous,” Logan says in a flirty tone that makes me stiffen. “Don’t expect G here to show up, though.”

She looks over at me. “You’re not going out on Halloween?”

“Nope,” I reply.

“Why not?”

“Because he hates Halloween,” Dean informs her. “He’s scared of ghosts.”

I flip him the bird. But rather than own up to the real reason I hate October thirty-first with every fiber of my being, I just shrug and say, “It’s a pointless holiday with silly traditions.”