The Do-Over (The Rooftop Crew #5) - Piper Rayne Page 0,16
homeless.”
Knox keeps his side toward me, but I feel his stare from the corner of his eyes.
“Yeah, but I have friends.”
“Friends you didn’t have last night?” Jax asks.
When I’m about to wipe my hands of this and say forget it, I’m out of here, their apartment door opens, and the guy Knox was with all those years ago walks in.
“What the hell? You’re trying to get Rian to be your fake girlfriend?” He leans his shoulder on the fridge, looking at Knox.
Knox glances at me, and a sour feeling coats my stomach. I don’t know why.
“And the plot thickens.” Jax sips his coffee, his eyebrows at his hairline.
“We’ll talk about this later.” Knox flips the omelet. His skills in the kitchen are impressive.
“Why?” Dylan asks.
“Because we have company,” Jax interrupts.
Dylan’s gazes shoot to us. His eyes narrow slightly, then he points. “I remember you.”
“Kamea.” Jax puts his arm around my shoulders. “She’s staying with us for a while.”
Dylan glances at Knox, but he continues to concentrate on the omelet and says nothing about me staying.
On one hand, staying here would be nice—I don’t really have another option. On the other, I don’t really know much about these men.
Knox lifts the pan and slides an omelet onto a plate, which he places in front of me. “Ketchup or hot sauce?”
I shake my head and accept the fork he hands me a second after he digs it out of a drawer.
“Are you with him?” Dylan asks me, pointing at Jax. “Because you know I have to tell Frankie if you slept with someone and ended the bet.”
I unwind myself from Jax’s arm that’s still slung over me.
Jax laughs. “Hell no. She’s Knox’s.”
“No!” Knox and I yell at the same time.
I guess that answers that.
Dylan chuckles, and he and Jax share some sort of look behind Knox’s back. “Let me fill you in. Kamea here bailed out Leilani. Remember the girl—”
Jax can’t finish his sentence before Dylan snaps his fingers and points. “That’s where I know you from.”
I nod. Although he looks slightly older and more confident in his own skin, Dylan looks exactly the same.
“Anyway… she bailed out Leilani and now she can’t find her, but between getting out of jail and running away, Leilani got Kamea kicked out of her apartment. But our good buddy over here found her last night under an overpass and decided to play knight in shining armor like always. He dropped her off here last night and the rest is history, right?” Jax looks at me.
I nod, forking my omelet.
“Now you’re going to live here?” Dylan asks, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
“No. I’m leaving after the omelet, which is delicious, by the way.”
Knox smiles at my compliment.
Jax waves in front of my face. “Why leave? I thought we had a good thing going on here?”
I have no idea why Jax is so hell-bent on me staying here. He doesn’t seem like someone who would want a girl ruining his game.
Instead, I say, “You don’t even know me. And I don’t know you.”
“We know you’re a nice friend who bails people out. We’ve all bailed each other out a time or two, whether it be at a police station or in life’s circumstances,” Dylan says. “I can swear by both these guys. You’d be safe here.”
“Likely story coming from their friend.” I raise an eyebrow.
Knox prepares another omelet and serves it to Jax. Before grabbing more eggs, Knox asks Dylan if he wants one.
“Give me a Bible,” Dylan says. “Or the girls can vouch for them.”
I finish chewing and decide to rip off the Band-Aid. “Why on Earth would you be so gung ho for me to stay? I could steal all your stuff in the middle of the night or something.”
Jax looks me up and down before his eyes shift to Knox, who snickers, and Dylan, who outright laughs. “Yeah, I doubt that.”
“What?” I glance down at myself. I’m wearing jeans and a sweatshirt.
“You got that sweet look going on.” Dylan sips his coffee.
I frown and fork off another bite of omelet.
“Believe it or not, it’s a compliment.” Knox refills my orange juice.
“Yeah, my girl is even sweeter, so there you go,” Dylan says.
Knox rolls his eyes, but I’m the only one who catches it. I think Jax might be hoovering his omelet.
“Which brings up my reason for coming over. Why are you trying to date my girlfriend?” Dylan asks Knox, who hands him his omelet, leaving himself last.