Keeping Casey (Keeping Him #1) - Amy Aislin Page 0,56

his part of the group project weeks ago. Where was he going to find time to write Kristen and Kendra’s parts?

Unless he half-assed it, which . . . no.

And whatever wasn’t due before Thanksgiving was due the week after. That was all kinds of stupid if you asked him. Who wanted to be doing schoolwork on Thanksgiving break? But he didn’t make the rules, so . . .

Sitting on his bed with his back against the wall, laptop on his thighs, Jasper’s head swung between Casey and Kelsey. “So we’re not starting the website today?”

“No,” Casey said, a pout to his voice. “But I designed what I want it to look like.” From next to his laptop on the little coffee table, he grabbed his design, which was essentially outlines of where text and images would go. He hadn’t had enough space on a single letter-sized sheet, so he’d taped several together, bottom to top, like a crude Santa’s List.

Jasper’s jaw dropped when Casey unfolded it, revealing his scribbles and photo boxes. “You made a wireframe?”

“I don’t know what that is but . . . sure?”

“Let me see that,” Jasper demanded.

While he looked at the wireframe, Casey turned back to his calendars. It wouldn’t be hard to do Kristen and Kendra’s sections. What did they have again? He checked his notes. Archeology career and major contributions to the field of archeology, respectively.

Oof. Okay. That meant a lot of research. Not hard, but definitely time-consuming. Fuck it. He was giving one section to Kelsey.

“Do you want Kristen’s section or Kendra’s?” he asked.

She blinked at him.

He pushed his notes closer to her.

“Oh.” She looked at his notes, back to him, back to the notes, frown getting deeper and deeper. “I guess I’ll take Kendra’s?”

That left him with Kristen’s—archeology career. Cool. That decided, the storm of gloom over his shoulders lessened, and he blew out a breath. He had a shift at Ansel’s Antiques on Monday, and Mondays were always mind-numbingly slow at the store. Perhaps he’d bring his laptop and research materials and get it done then.

“This is pretty simple,” Jasper said, waving Casey’s wireframe in the air. “We can get started on it now and finish up later when you’ve got the rest of the copy. I can even show you how, Casey, so you can do it yourself. It’s super easy.”

Casey didn’t believe for a second that website design—even a basic free one—was “super easy.”

He was proven wrong half an hour later. Jasper kneeled on the floor with the laptop on his bed. Casey and Kelsey hovered on either side of him, and slowly the website came together as Jasper added images and text.

“Huh. Maybe I can do this myself,” Casey muttered.

“There’s really nothing to it,” Jasper said.

A shadow darkened his doorway and he glanced over. Ethan leaned against the open doorjamb, backpack hanging off one shoulder. Casey smiled automatically, stomach somersaulting.

“Hey, Eth.”

Two thoughts simultaneously went through his head.

How did he get up here? and Fuck, he looks good.

No doubt some other student entering the building had let him in. As for the other thing—

Wait. Ethan did not look good. His shoulders sagged, there were bags under his eyes, and his hair was rumpled. He wore two different colored socks with his sandals and the lined jean jacket he wore over a black T-shirt hung crookedly off his tall frame.

Something about his posture screamed defeat.

Concern wedged a ball in Casey’s gut. Rising, he crossed the short space to the door, feeling exposed as Ethan’s gaze ran over his face. Not with hunger or desire but with familiarity and comfort. Casey wedged himself right into Ethan’s space and settled a hand on his hip. Two things he would’ve done at any time in their lives that now held a layer of intimacy that made Casey’s heart skip a beat.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Lines creased Ethan’s forehead. “Just tired. I stayed up late working on an assignment.”

Casey had seen Ethan’s schedule of classes, quizzes, labs, and assignments. If he thought his own schedule was crazy, he had nothing on Ethan.

“Okay if I crash here for an hour before my study session? It’ll save me back and forth time to the House.”

“Of course.”

He towed Ethan inside by the hand and shut the door to quiet the sounds of the Frisbee game. Ethan waved at Jasper and Kelsey with a “Hey,” tossing his sandals under Casey’s desk and leaving his jacket on the desk chair. He sat on the bed, then gingerly laid down on