My muscles flex, longing to propel me from my stool and around the table so I can hug her. I remain seated. We're old friends, it would be acceptable, but the twins’ curious green gazes stop me.
I scratch at my temple. "Hey, Jess, it's been a long time."
"Yeah … it's … how's your …" She starts, and quits, multiple lines of thoughts. How's your knee? I imagine that's what she means to ask, but she stops short. She's friends with Jules Blacklin. Has Jules shared much with her about my decisions? Being re-injured during spring practice helped; it meant less national sports coverage than I would have received had the injury happened during the regular season or the playoffs like the first time. I left Oregon without fanfare, finishing out my junior year online.
"Figures these scoundrels are friends of yours," Jess says with a shake of her head and a grin. I school my features for Finn's benefit.
"Scoundrels? You wound me, lass." Finn huffs, but Owen and Frey exchange glances and nod, agreeing with her assessment. We're all scoundrels, no sense in denying the truth.
She eyes him from the tips of his shoes to the top of his sandy brown head, cutting straight through his knee-deep crap, and I understand what Frey meant this morning. Finn's charm fails on Jess, and the organ in my pants, and the one in my head, appreciates it. With a tip of her pretty head, she shifts left, putting space between my lovesick buddy and herself, before settling her elbows on our tabletop. "Okay, can I get you guys some drinks? Are we eating tonight?"
"Tell me the bro rule is null and void with this one?" Finn asks after we place our orders.
"The bro rule?" It takes a moment for his words to sink through the layer of lust surrounding me as Jess leaves, my gaze planted on her backside. "Shit, Finn, no. I haven't slept with her. Jess and I went to the same school, had the same friends and all, but no sex was had—" How come? I dated or hooked up with half the cheerleaders in school, but not Jess. Teenage Carter was an idiot.
"So, she's fair game?" Finn presses.
My attention snaps his way. "She's not a game. She's—"
Owen shifts in his seat as the twins wait for me to elaborate. She's what, Carter? She's a girl you knew in the past. A girl home from college for the summer.
"She's a nice girl, Finn. If she's interested in you, go for it, but don't be an asshole, okay?"
Finn grins and offers his fist down the table. My knuckles bump his, but there's no joy in the movement.
Jess
Carter Cooper. Holy hell.
Slipping around the corner where I'm invisible to customers, I sag against the wall and knock my head against the sheetrock. My face burns. Am I blushing? Ten bucks say I'm blushing. I groan, shocked at the heat two minutes in his presence stirred within. Brittle laughter draws me upright, and I open my eyes.
"Lucky girl," my co-worker Gina says, her voice wistful. "You got the Friday night special." She swipes her badge and enters an order into the system.
I inch over and give her space to work. This chesty blonde with her swooping cat eyeliner and glossy over-lined cherry red lips. She's beautiful in an 'I try too hard' kind of way.
"I'm sorry?"
Gina smirks at the screen. When she closes out, she turns my way. "Those four," she says, her brows raised.
Ahhh, of course.
"Ally said Finn asked for your section."
The heat of embarrassment prickles my neck. Finn flirted with me nonstop last night, he must be eager for round two. He’s cute, and a little annoying, but I grin at his antics. Gina's blonde head falls to the side, and I straighten, reading her friendly head cock and eyebrow raise for what they mean. She wants information. There's a chance she's jealous or feeling territorial. I'm unsure, but her blue eyes blaze with curiosity as they scan me from head to toe. I've worked at Bleachers for four days. I have no clue if I've walked myself into a sticky situation, but by her expression, I may have.
Mirroring her haughty facade, I shrug a shoulder. "I met him last night."
"But you know Carter and Owen, right?"
I nudge her and swipe my badge so I can enter the guys' orders. Carter Cooper and Owen Henry. I should laugh at her asinine question. What female under the age of