And just like that, I had Broody Hero of the Year on my hands. “You need to work on your poker face. It sucks.” I strode away before he could reply.
“Hey there, hot stuff,” I said as I slid into the booth.
Lowe grinned. “Hey, yourself.”
“Oh, as pretty as you are, babe, I was talking to Claudia.”
Claudia smiled and opened her mouth to reply only to freeze at the sight of Beck with me. “Oh. Hey.”
He nodded as he slid in beside me.
“Hey, man,” Lowe said, something akin to excitement in his eyes. “Guess what Claud’s doing for us?”
“I have no idea,” he replied in a tone that suggested he couldn’t give a shit.
I kicked him in the shin, eliciting a grunt.
Claudia narrowed her eyes. “Who spit in your bean curd?”
“What the hell does that even mean?”
I tried not to smile, deliberately avoiding Lowe’s eyes because I knew he’d make me laugh.
“It means,” Claudia gave a long-suffering sigh, “what’s your problem?”
“I don’t have a problem. I just sat down.” Beck pulled his buzzing phone from his pocket, glaring at Claudia. He looked at the screen. “According to Maggie, Melissa is doing okay. She’s even got a date this weekend.”
A little weight lifted off my shoulders. “That’s good to hear.”
Claudia caught my eye. “Feel better?”
“Much,” I admitted. “You know I hate guilt.”
Relaxing, I had a drink with my friends, listening to Beck and Claudia snipe at each other. They were on the cusp of giving me back the tension I’d just gotten rid of, so I decided it was time to leave.
“I need to go too.” Lowe slid out of the booth at my announcement. “I have stuff to do. Claudia, if you and Beck can stop griping for five seconds, why don’t you show him the plans for this summer?”
Claudia’s green eyes filled with something like panic.
“Go ahead,” Beck said, clearly not in the mood to leave her company. “Do you want another coffee?”
Instead of answering, my friend looked to me for help.
I needed to get her out of this somehow. I looked at Beck, but any excuse that might’ve been making its way from brain to tongue melted upon seeing the puppy-dog look on his face.
Crap. No wonder she has such a hard time resisting him.
I looked back at Claudia and shrugged. “I’ll catch you guys later.”
Seriously. Where was my willpower? If I couldn’t harden my heart enough against Beck to keep them apart, how the hell was she supposed to?
Lowe and I hit the top of the steps off Chamber Street that led to my apartment. We were about to descend them when I started at the sight of Jake coming up them.
His head down, hands jammed into his jacket pockets, he was listening to whatever band was singing through his earphones. A rush of longing ripped through me. My heart soaked in what little it could see of his familiar face; my eyes drank in his broad shoulders and long legs.
I missed him.
Even when I was with him I missed him. What we had wasn’t what we’d had before. At this point I only had myself to blame for that.