Page 51 of The Draft
His only addition to the conversation was a grunt.
“It’s not like that. I don’t have a crush on my tutor,” Alex replied flatly.
“Hear that, Big Man? I might still have a chance,” I joked, elbowing Dash, but judging by his clenched fists, I was still skating on thin ice.
“So you didn’t answer my question? What are you guys doing here, hiding in a dark corner, having secret conversations?”
Well, darn it. I really thought the overacting would have made him forget. I had to think fast.
I pointed my thumb back at Dash. “Dash just met me after class.”
“He did?” Alex tilted his head and smiled, and he looked at Dash knowingly. What he knew, I didn’t know, but whatever it was, Dash hadn’t denied it. In fact, he almost seemed paralyzed in thought. “What kind of business have you got with your best friend’s little sister, D?”
The smirk. The raised eyebrows. Yup, he was putting two and two together to make four, but I needed him to believe it was six.
“It’s because we’ve been planning a party for Cade’s birthday,” I said quickly, trying to get him off the trail, but seriously, what the hell was I talking about? A birthday party? For my brother. It was ridiculous, but Alex’s face lit up with curiosity, so I went with it. “Because you know, in the summer, Dash and Cade are probably going to sign their contracts with Atlanta, and I won’t see them much, so I wanted to throw Cade the most epic birthday party he’s ever been to.” I opened my palm and pointed at Dash casually. “Can’t throw Cade the perfect birthday party without his best friend involved, obviously.”
Alex was nodding, and strangely, I thought he might believe me. Crap. Maybe this worked. Maybe I wasn’t as bad a liar as I thought.
“But, and it’s a really big but… You can’t tell Cade because it’s a surprise.”
Alex raised his hand, doing some kind of salute. “Scout’s honor.”
I chuckled because, of course, Alex was a Boy Scout. With light stubble and perfectly cut hair, he was immaculate.
“Explains the secrecy. Don’t want any of the guys telling Cade.”
“Exactly,” I replied brightly. I loved it when people inadvertently helped with my lies. “We don’t want any of the guys accidentally ruining the surprise. You know, because Scotty can’t keep a secret to save his life. But we can trust you, can’t we, Alex?” I rolled the “x” in his name so muchthat it sounded like I said sex. Another grumble from Dash. I guessed he didn’t like me flirting anymore. Interesting. Because this wasn’t different from how I was before.
“Well, I’m sure he’ll love whatever you have planned. You two know him better than anyone.” Yeah, we did, but Dash knew me a hell of a lot better now. Was I getting territorial against my brother? I guessed so. I flittered my gaze to Dash, giving him a quick wink.
“Dash and I were just about to go to Covey’s Cantina for lunch. Did you want to come? Maybe help us out with the party planning?”
Dash frowned, but I had to do it. If I wanted to keep us a secret, and I desperately wanted to do that right now because I didn’t want any outside forces changing Dash’s mind, then we needed to act like we normally would.
“Sure, why not?” Alex said with a shrug. “I need to up my carbs before the game tonight, anyway.”
“Sounds great,” Dash said through gritted teeth, and I knew it most certainly wasn’t great. At all. But what was he going to do now? He wasn’t going to leave me with Alex. There were too many things he wanted to talk to me about. So, he was just going to have to deal with it. If the burritos didn’t convince Dash he couldn’t live without me, then maybe teasing him with a game of footsie under the table would.
Chapter 13
“Dash also said no to laser tag,” Madison said with her mouth dropped in mock shock.
Well, this wasn’t going to plan at all. Here I was, sitting next to Alex, spitting with anger because of the way Madison was flirting with him, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. I wasn’t sure what had gotten into me, but I’d screwed this up badly.
I was supposed to meet Madison after class to warn her about Henry, but the minute I saw her, with her hair pulled back, looking fresh-faced and just showered after we’d been together the night before, I couldn’t think straight, because all I wanted to do was mess her up all over again.
Suffice it to say, I still hadn’t warned her about that idiot’s presence because I was too busy monitoring her interaction with another teammate. Honestly, Alex hadn’t done anything wrong, but I was so close to giving him a broken nose because she was giving him more attention than me. Madison should be solely focused on me. Preferably without a shirt on soI could tweak her nipples, but I’d take her any way I could.
Sitting in a booth, Madison was on the other side of us, describing the most ridiculous birthday party I’d ever heard of. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Not only was she flirting with the guy next to me, but she’d now essentially forced me to throw a birthday party for Cade. And as we’d already established, I hated parties and people, so my quiet time before joining Atlanta was looking to be completely taken over by this monstrosity of an event.
Madison laughed at something Alex said, and my breath caught.
The girl was driving me insane. I couldn’t have her. I knew that. I’d told myself countless times that we needed to be friends. Hell, I even wrote out an apology on my phone to Cade, but when it came down to actually implementing any of my plans, I seemed to be stalling.
“Crazy, right? How could anyone say no to laser tag?” With her hands out to emphasize her disbelief, she had Alex engrossed in her fake plans. Her foot dug deeper into my thigh. Oh, did I also mention that she’d been playing footsie with me under the table this entire time, and I was supposed to keep a straight face?
Torture. It was absolute torture that Madison was putting me through because not only was her foot caressing my dick, but I wanted more. With every new item added to the birthday list, her foot would go progressively higher, so close to my cock that it was straining just to feel her.