Page 107 of The Scientist

I smirked. “Is that so?”

“Yep,” he said. “Although it got a little awkward when he asked how serious things were between the two of you.”

Lex fixed him with a look that said he was clearly not in the mood.

“Chill! I told him he needed to give up. I said you guys have a nickname and everything.”

I sighed. “You told him you call us Halex?”

“It’s going to catch on like wildfire. You’ll see.” Stuart winked.

“God, I hope not,” Lex grumbled.

“To answer your question Hadley—yes. He’s always this grouchy in the morning."

I laughed and kissed my grouch on the cheek before going into the kitchen to fix Stuart and I a cup of coffee.

When I came back, they were arguing.

“Hadley, tell Lex you’ll come over tonight. The guys want to have a Spitzer tournament, and we’re one player short,” he whined, frowning at Lex.

I handed him his coffee. “What’s Spitzer?”

“It’s a card game. But you have to play in teams of four and we only have eleven. Lex is the last piece of the puzzle.”

“You don’t want to go?” I asked Lex.

“I want to be with you,” he said, unabashed. “I don’t care where we are.”

“It’s settled then,” Stuart piped in. “You’ll come, right Hadley? Especially since your very good friend Stuart, who took care of your weeping ex-boyfriend last night, is asking so very nicely.”

Didn’t need that reminder.

“Sure,” I agreed. “I’m going to my mom’s for dinner tonight, but I’ll come over after.”

“Yes!” Stuart shouted before I had finished the sentence. “I’m going to tell Pete the tournament’s on.” He shot to his feet and ran out the door toward Peter’s house. I locked the door behind him, and Lex laughed.

“We don’t have to go, you know,” he said, pulling me into his lap. “I’d rather have you all to myself anyway.”

He tilted his head up at me. I kissed those perfect lips that had touched every part of my body last night and whispered, “Greedy,” against his mouth. He smiled at me before resuming the kiss. It started out innocent enough, but the fire was licking through my veins in no time. He grabbed my hips and lifted me onto the table, yanking my clothes off before making love to me right there on the dining room table.

Chapter 25

“Garrett showed up last night,” I told my mom as we dug into our chicken alfredo later that evening.

“What?!” She gaped, her fork suspended in mid-air. My gaze went to the sharp lines of her collarbone and jaw. I still wasn’t used to how thin she looked now, but I never commented on it. I just encouraged her to eat as much as possible whenever we were together.

“I know,” I said. “Lex showed up and pretty much kicked him out.”

Her eyes widened. “Where did he go?”

“I didn’t want him wandering the streets of Stanford late at night, so he stayed at the guys’ house with Stuart, and Lex stayed with me.” A warm flush crept over my cheeks as the memory of last night replayed in my mind. “He took an Uber back to the airport this morning.”

“I can’t believe you waited this long to tell me!” she protested.

“It was quite a scene,” I said.

“Was Lex upset?”