I went to my locker—no surprises of any severed limbs, thank God—and gathered everything I’d need this weekend. I’d be seeing Dante and Vaughn tonight, and Archer tomorrow. Look at me go. Hopefully my vagina could handle it. She was a trooper.
Not that I thought I’d be hooking up with Archer right away, but I wasn’t blind. I knew how my body reacted to his, and I knew how his reacted to mine. It seemed a logical conclusion anyone would make, given our history.
With my bag slung over my shoulders, I zipped up my thin hoodie and headed out. Jacob always parked in the back of the lot, preferring never to pick me up near the front doors of the school, always right next to Dante’s bike. Should make this a little easier, huh?
Instead of going to the passenger’s side, I went to the driver’s side. Jacob saw me approaching, and he noted that I wasn’t getting in, so the window was rolled down by the time I arrived. I leaned through the window, giving him a smile. He seemed extra grumpy today, or maybe that was just because he was Jacob. Mr. Grumps simply living up to his name.
“Should I guess why you’re not getting into my car, or are you going to tell me?” Jacob asked, his frown turning more intense. Such a handsome, chiseled face—a face that was now scruffier than ever.
“I already talked to my mom,” I said. “Told her I’m staying back at the school to practice choir songs with Bobbi.”
His lips thinned into a line. “But, let me guess, you have something else planned?”
“I’m going with Dante to—”
“No.” A one-word interruption that irritated me, to be honest.
“No?” I echoed. “If by no, you mean yes, then yes.” Shrugging, I went on, “I figured you’d follow like you normally do. Not sure if you’d want to come in, since I think things are going to get intimate—”
Jacob let out a sound that was a mixture of a growl and a groan.
“Vaughn might come along, too,” I said, “though I think his driver will bring him there. I don’t think we’ll all fit on Dante’s bike.” His growling groan turned into an outright wince, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What you’re saying is, you want me to lie to your mother and Oliver so you can get frisky with your freaks?” Funny how Jacob refused to call them my boyfriends, even though that’s what they were. It’s what he was, too…even if he was about ten years my senior.
Jacob Hall, my ex-cop, ridiculously grumpy boyfriend who, as it turned out, wasn’t really Jacob Hall.
Whatever. He was a good man, even if he’d done some terrible things in his past. The scars on his body bore the truth, and now every time I thought of them, I couldn’t help but wonder what his childhood was like. My mom might’ve been a helicopter parent, but she’d never hurt me, never abuse me. I couldn’t imagine what he’d gone through as a child to make him want to die and burn them all.
“Boyfriends,” I corrected him. “The right term is boyfriends, Mr. Grumps.”
He muttered a string of swearwords under his breath that made me think he was never going to call them that. Whatever. He didn’t have to. What he did have to do was not tell my mom or Ollie the truth about where I was going right now. Could Mr. Grumps handle that?
“Well?” I asked, when he was silent for a while. I saw Dante emerge from the high school, cutting across the parking lot and heading straight for us. “Are you in?”
“You didn’t really give me a choice,” Jacob muttered, turning those pretty hazel eyes on me. The sunlight shone off his light brown hair, making it look almost like a dark blonde.
I tapped his car, pushing away as I decided to take that as a yes. Moving to stand beside the motorcycle, I waited for Dante to reach me. He sauntered up, wearing his typical leather jacket and worn jeans. His tatted head flipped to Jacob, whom he gave a smirk to.
Jacob responded by lifting his hand and moving to hold it out of the window, giving Dante a one-finger salute.
Dante only laughed, turning to me. He snaked an arm around my lower back beneath my backpack and pulled me against his chest, planting a hard kiss on my lips—to show off in front of Jacob, who couldn’t walk around and do that.