“You don’t have to go. I’ll get it.” I paused to swallow. “I’ll grab you something, too, if you want. I kind of forced you to come out.”
“I mean …” She paused to chuckle. “If we were gonna say anyone ‘forced’ me, that’d be Brooker. You were just looking for an out. Sorry I didn’t catch that until afterwards.”
“What?”
“Well.” She pulled her phone back, tapping the side of it against her leg. “I was kinda surprised you invited me, because this whole thing isn’t your scene. But on the way over, I realized you were probably hoping I’d say no so you could get out of going.”
“That’s not it at all,” I said immediately and her eyes snapped up to mine, widening.
“Oh.” Color started to bloom across her cheeks and she looked down at her hands, brow furrowed. “Why then?”
“Why what?”
“Why’d you invite me out if you don’t wanna be here?”
I tried to shrug it off, but she slapped my arm. Huffing, I gave her the best answer I could that didn’t involve confessing that I wanted to spend time with her.
“I thought you might enjoy going out with everyone, but would feel awkward going if I wasn’t here.”
“Oh.” Kodi shuffled some, creating a gap between us. “That’s really considerate.”
I hated the feeling of her pulling away. I hated the chill that set between us.
So I said something impulsive, something stupid.
“Plus I wanted to hang out with you, too.”
Again, Kodi’s eyes snapped to mine, her head tilting ever so slightly. She chewed at her bottom lip and my breath caught.
I couldn’t picture a world where Kodi liked me, where we could have a romantic relationship. But that didn’t stop me from picturing kissing her right now. I wanted to lean in, sink my fingers in her hair, bring her lips to mine, take a turn at sinking my teeth in that bottom lip.
“Drinks!” Jimenez shouted, setting a handful of glasses on to the table, quickly followed by a waitress who set down a full tray. When Jimenez set a beer down for me and leaned in to whispered, “Rosa’s in on the wingman plan.”
“What?” I pulled back in a panic because it was one thing for Brooker to be on this quest to get me closer to Kodi, it was another thing for him to be telling the others. And complete hell for them to be telling their wives. So I grabbed at his shirt and pulled him close to whisper, “Whatever you’re planning, cut it out.”
“Chill, man. We’re not gonna take it too far.” Jimenez pried my fingers open and walked away. I would’ve glared at him as he went, but a shift of weight on the couch caught my attention and I turned to see Brooker crowding Kodi, showing her something on his phone. Immediately I shifted closer so I could hear what they were saying.
“Can you believe it?” Brooker was saying and my stomach twisted into knots when Kodi laughed in response.
“I wouldn’t if I wasn’t seeing it.”
My eyes dropped to Brooker’s phone, which was playing a video of me walking a turtle across the street in a rainstorm. It was from roughly a year ago, when we came out to a nearly flooded parking lot and a couple of turtles were crossing the only visible part of the road, nearly getting hit by somebody speeding through the lot to get out of the rain. All I did was scoop them up and put them out of harm's way.
“Why’re you showing her that?”
“Just so she knows what kind of man you are.” Brooker shrugged.
“It’s sweet,” Kodi said.
“It’s irrelevant.”
“It shows that underneath all the grumpiness, you’reactuallya good guy,” Brooker said, leaning around Kodi to give me a pointed look.
“She doesn’t need proof of that,” I said, voice low.
“That’s true,” Kodi said and we both pulled back to look at her.
“Aw, don’t tell me he’s beenthatmuch of an ass that the turtle video won’t change your mind.”
