pull his heart out right now. Stomp on it and throw it in the trash. Because this woman thought she was not sexy. He tilted his head and his neck cracked. Which seemed appropriate because he felt like he was going into battle.
“Yesterday aside, I haven’t slept with anyone since my ex-wife.” He wasn’t sure what his point was. Unlike her, he wasn’t feeling insecure so much as incredibly turned on, but he wanted her to know that this was a big deal for him, too.
Even though it wasn’t a big deal. Because they were just friends.
It had been a while for him, was the point. A long while. “And we didn’t sleep together in the six months between when Jude died and she left. So it’s been almost four years for me.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“How come?”
“How come we didn’t sleep together the last six months, or how come I haven’t slept with anyone since?”
“Either. Both.” She stopped walking, so he did, too. “Sorry. None of my business.”
“No, I’ll tell you the whole sordid story if you want to hear it.”
That seemed to cheer her. She smiled and started walking again. “Can we grill fish and talk about our sexual insecurities?”
“We can.” The answer was immediate and instinctive, which was weird because if you had asked him to make a list of things he wanted to talk about with Nora or anyone else, sexual insecurities would have been dead last.
“I mean, is that allowed? Even if we’re going to be friends with benefits, we’re still friends, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And friends talk about this stuff.”
He shrugged. He didn’t talk about this stuff with Sawyer and Law, at least since the ill-fated get-a-phone-so-you-can-get-on-hookup-apps intervention of two years ago.
“You’re thinking you don’t talk about this stuff with Sawyer and Law.” She was reading his mind. He chuckled. She kept talking. “Yeah. Don’t listen to me. I don’t even know what the bases are.”
“I already told you, first base is rolling around nearly naked in a pink room. Second base is talking about your sexual insecurities while grilling fish.”
“I thought second base was sex on the beach with condoms.”
He made a face. “Who told you that? That’s not right. Second base is talking about your sexual insecurities while grilling fish. Everybody knows that.” Mick, who had run ahead of them, circled back and started barking. “See, even Mick knows that.”
If someone had asked Nora, yesterday morning during the Anti-Festival, what she would be doing the following evening, the last thing she would have said was that she would be grilling fish with Jake Ramsey and talking about how they lost their virginity.
“I had some girlfriends when I was younger,” Jake said as he laid the fish on the grill. “Like, high school stuff. But really, it all started with Mrs. Robinson.”
“She wasn’t really named Mrs. Robinson, was she?”
He smiled. “No. Her name was Sarah. And she wasn’t that old. I was seventeen, and she was thirty-four.”
“That’s twice your age! You were a child! Isn’t that technically statutory rape?” She sounded like a scandalized old lady, but she couldn’t help it.
He shrugged. “All I know is I had the summer of my life. And then I took what I’d learned and became a slut.”
Nora cracked up—so much for scandalized. “What does that mean?”
“She was here the summer before my junior year of high school. I met Kerrie the spring of my senior year when her family moved here. But before that, let’s just say I put my Mrs. Robinson–instilled skills to good use.” He came over and sat next to her. “To frequent use.”
“You are terrible!”
“Well, maybe, but I never heard any complaints, if you know what I mean.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Mrs. Robinson taught me well. I got kind of a reputation.”
“So you were a playboy. A player.” He smirked but didn’t deny it. “A slut, like you said.” She cocked her head. “Why do men get to be playboys, but women have to be sluts?”
“That question is above my pay grade, Doc.”
She smiled. “So then what? Kerrie arrives and suddenly you’re cured of your slutty ways?”
“Pretty much. I fell hard for her.”
He got up to flip the fish. His back was to her, which was probably the only reason she had the guts to ask, “What was she like?” She was so curious about the woman who had captured Jake’s heart.
“Out of my league.”
That was the last thing she’d expected him to say. “What does that mean?”
“Smart. Driven. She wanted to be a lawyer—which she did end