Pretty Sweet - Christina Lee Page 0,41

searing into me. We had always been close and shared whatever was going on in our lives, but this was one thing I couldn’t make the leap with yet, and he was likely feeling burned. But I didn’t know how to broach this topic, not yet. I was only just getting used to the idea myself.

“What kind of bar is it?” Brett asked, cranking the jack to lift the Chevy he was working on.

“The kind that wouldn’t accept your ass in there because you’re homophobic,” Mia replied over her shoulder, heading back inside to a waiting customer.

Brett looked shell-shocked, his mouth turned down in a frown.

“What the hell are you pouting about?” Tad said. “She’s not wrong.”

“I’ll have you know, my cousin is gay and I’m totally cool with LGBT rights and gay marriage and all that shit,” he said in a rush, his face blotching pink. “Live and let live.”

“Well, then stop saying such tone-deaf shit all the time,” Tucker piped in, flinging the wrench in the toolbox harder than he’d probably intended.

“I don’t—” Brett began but then stopped himself. “Yeah, okay, I could work on a few things.”

“Attaboy,” Tad said, tongue-in-cheek, and Brett pushed him a bit too roughly. Before we knew it, they’d be in a fist fight. But if Tad was saying all that for Mia’s benefit, she had missed it.

“Should we all join hands and sing Kumbaya?” I asked, amused by their scowling at each other. “Okay, back to work.”

I sighed, grabbed some brake pads from the box Mia had brought out, and turned up my earbuds again.

17

Seth

Hey, you. Just seeing how you’ve been.

I’d been staring at the text from Jake off and on for hours. It was a simple message, obviously. It wasn’t like the guy pledged his unending devotion to me or anything, but it made me feel warm and gooey inside, like a cinnamon roll just pulled out of the oven. Maybe that didn’t make much sense, but to me, that text had a whole lot of meaning. He didn’t have to check on me. He wasn’t technically my friend—or, I guess he was but only because I’d become friends with his mom first. I could have given a hundred reasons for him holding me the other night, or at least like five. I mean, he was a caretaker, so it was in his nature. He was a nice guy, so of course he would want to help. He knew I was close to his mom, so maybe he wanted to support her friend. But he could have easily walked away now. I’d given him space to do exactly that. I didn’t want Jake to feel obligated to me or to feel weird, because as far as I knew, he was straight, and I’d cuddled up on him all night.

But he hadn’t walked away. He’d texted to see how I’d been.

Good. Been a busy few days. You?

His reply came a whole lot quicker than mine to him had. Yeah, same. Listen…I don’t want things to be weird between us. I like hanging out with you. I know I was kinda… Actually, I don’t want to do this by text. Do you have plans tonight?

My heart basically felt like it exploded, and then all the little pieces started running a marathon. I could bring dinner over if you want?

Nah, you shouldn’t have to do that. I can throw some burgers on the grill. How about six?

A tingly feeling blossomed inside me. I’d been so scared I’d messed up with him, that he would feel too weird around me now that he’d seen some of my baggage. But there he was, inviting me over, and a part of me, one I’d been too scared to believe in, wasn’t shocked by this. Jake was a good guy. Sounds great! I’ll be there!

As soon as I hit Send, I wanted to take it back and remove the exclamation points. It was as if I was yelling at him about how excited I was to have burgers at his place. But when he replied with, See ya then, I grinned because he’d sent a smiling emoji, which was cute.

The rest of the day seemed to drag on. It was Wednesday, and I hadn’t seen or spoken to Jake since we woke up Sunday morning. I showered and got dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. I literally went back and forth for an hour, trying to decide if I was going to wear makeup or