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“Food is for the weak.”
Jules laughed. She should have known that would be the answer. “All the same, I’m going to order pizza. There’s nothing in the fridge.”
“I wish this place had more options for delivery. Little Johnny Jacob has started giving me judgmental looks when he brings me food.”
“That’s because you prefer to just order pizza instead of going down the street to one of our restaurants and interacting with real-life people.”
Aubry turned on the Xbox and propped her feet on the table. “I believe we just covered this—people are not my favorite.”
“Noted.” Jules picked up her phone and froze when there was a knock on her door. “Okay, I know Johnny Jacob is good, but no one is that good.” She walked over and opened the door and then stared. “What are you doing here?”
Adam stood on the top stair, looking all sorts of delicious with his worn jeans and black T-shirt. He held up hands laden with beer and a pizza box sending out the most amazing smells. “I brought pizza and beer.”
“Let him in,” Aubry yelled from behind her. “I’m liable to waste away from starvation if I don’t eat soon. They’ll find me on the couch, and there will be whispers of, ‘If only Jules had let her fake boyfriend inside in time. Such a tragedy.’”
“I thought you said food was for the weak.” She stepped back, holding the door open for Adam. “You’re an awful drama queen—and inconsistent to boot.”
“Noted,” Aubry sang a second before the sound of video game gunshots filled the room.
Jules led Adam over to the small kitchen and grabbed three of the bright plastic plates that made her mother cringe every time she saw them. She opened the pizza box and put two slices on each plate while Adam popped the tops off three beers. They deposited the food and beer in front of Aubry, but she shook her head. “You two need to talk. Git.”
“Did you just say ‘git’?” There went Adam’s eyebrow.
“Don’t you, like, ride bulls or something? You’re a cowboy. I’m speaking your language.” She tore her gaze away from the screen for half a second. “Seriously, though—what kind of death wish do you have that you’d climb onto the back of a pissed-off bull? Did your daddy not tell you he loves you enough?”
Jules saw the tightening in Adam’s jaw and the way his shoulders braced ever so slightly. She shifted her grip on the plates and touched his arm. “Let’s go into my room.” When he turned toward her door, she shot a glare at Aubry and hissed, “Stop being rude.” Jules didn’t give her friend time to respond before she nudged Adam fully into her room and shut the door.
Looking around, she realized this was the dumbest plan ever. They had to step over her dirty clothes pile to get to the bed, which was covered in her clean clothes pile. Probably should have found time to fold laundry in the last week. She couldn’t let him sit there while she scrambled to put away her clothes and unmentionables. It didn’t matter if he’d had his mouth on the same parts of her that those unmentionables covered. It was just weird.
She skirted the edge of the bed and moved to the window. “Sorry about the mess.”
“It’s fine.” But he was looking at everything like he was committing it to memory. With her luck, that was exactly what he was doing. She set the plates down long enough to muscle open the window. That got Adam’s attention. “What are you doing?”
“Come on.” She slipped out the window and reached back in to grab the plates. A few seconds later, Adam joined her on the roof. “I like to come out here and think sometimes.”
He peered over the edge to where they could see the majority of the main street. “And spy on the poor people of Devil’s Falls. No wonder there’s so much gossip.”
She started to argue but then laughed. “Maybe a little spying. People stumble out from the bar”—that didn’t actually have a name beyond “the bar”—“and they forget that sound travels.” Jules took a sip of her beer. “Plus, no one ever sees me up here.”
“Fair enough.” He went after his pizza with the single-minded focus of someone who didn’t know when their next meal would be—or who wanted to avoid conversation.
The problem was that avoiding conversations wasn’t something Jules was particularly good at. She would rather burst through the awkwardness like the Kool-Aid Man came through the wall—all at once, just to get it over with. It wasn’t subtle, but subtlety wasn’t really in her skill set. “So, I don’t know what to think of what happened earlier.”
He chewed his bite and swallowed, not looking at her. “You mean when you came against my mouth and then sucked me off.”
