“Your beauty easily outshone my stupid phone,” Hunt told her. “I completely forgot about it once I saw you heading my way.”
Despite Layla’s lines being more cheese-licking than I thought she had in her, and despite the fact Brady looked like he was about to burst from trying to hold back an eyeroll, Zoe beamed up at Hunt, who was several inches taller than her.
“So, what was the message about?” he asked, echoing Layla’s instruction.
Zoe blushed—actually blushed—and trailed a finger along the tattoo across his collarbone. She wore mascara, which I didn’t remember her usually doing, and batted her thickened lashes at him. “Well …” Her finger ran back and forth across the neckline of his t-shirt. He looked like he was trying hard not to pull away. “Maybe we can talk about that tonight, on aprivatedate?”
“Man,” Layla interjected, “I’m sure he’d really love to, but we’ve got dibs on him tonight. Gotta work on Joss’s car if we’re ever gonna be able to move on to Hunt’s, and he’s next in line. You want him to have his own car up and running for your dates, don’t you?”
For the first time, Zoe appeared unsure what to do. “Uh, yeah, of course.”
Brady made a performance of checking his cellphone for the time while Layla swooped down to pick up Hunt’s.
“It’s almost time for the first bell,” Brady said. “Catch up with you later, Zoe.”
It was as clear of a dismissal as it could get, and yet Zoe clung to Hunt a bit longer.
Hunt mumbled miserably into our shared connection, when he was the least likely to ever say something like that. Then he leaned down to give her a goodbye kiss. “Catch you later?” he asked her, pulling off what passed for a hopeful expression.
Zoe’s lips spread into a grin before she licked them in a way I suspected she intended to be enticing. “Of course, babe. I’ll always be here for you, no matter when.”
Hunt gave her a chaste peck on the lips, leaving her wanting more, then pulled out of her arms. “Perfect.”
Layla handed him his phone and he pocketed it without looking, even though Zoe’s stare followed his movements as if urging him to read her message already.
“Bye,” Layla told her, then looped an arm through Hunt’s and led him away toward the lockers, not waiting to give Zoe the chance to come with us.
“See ya later, Zoe,” I said with a smile of my own that felt as brittle as the rest of the show we were putting on. I stuffed my arms through both Griffin’s and Brady’s and hustled them after the other two.
Brady snarled through our super-duper cool and now extremely helpful telepathic connection.
We pulled up to our lockers and held our collective breaths as we entered the only combinations we remembered. When the doors all popped open, we exhaled loudly.
Layla said.
I retrieved my calendar first, relieved to find my class schedule waiting for me at the front.
Griffin said.
I blew out another relieved exhale. As I loaded the books I’d need into my backpack, I shared,
Layla interjected from a few lockers down.
Brady said.
Hunt said.
Layla said.
Layla’s head popped out of her locker just to waggle her eyebrows in his direction.
Griffin said.
Her expression soured. She slammed the door of her locker shut hard enough to rattle the whole row of them on this side of the hallway.
