Page 170 of Last First Kiss

Must be nice, Jordan thinks. Just as quickly, he regrets it. Javi saved his ass from the McClintocks. From the rest of the event-planning industry. He should be thankful.

He smiles for Nic. “Glad it all worked out.”

She squints. “Something’s going on.”

“Yeah, some kids are shotgunning Gatorades like this is a frat party.”

“No, besides that. You’ve been acting weird for months.”

He crosses his arms, defensively. “I haven’t.”

She mimics his pose. “Youhave. It’s me, Jordan. I know when something’s up.”

Jordan rocks on his heels. He fights the urge to change the subject. It wouldn’t work. Nic is relentless. If competitiveness is his Carter trait, stubbornness is hers.

“I’m working through it,” he says.

“It’s Jamie, isn’t it? Did you two break up?”

Jordan’s muscles have never seized so rapidly in his life. “W-we were never—no, that’s not… that’s not a thing.”

Nic laughs in his face.

“Nicola,” he says, frustrated, “there’s nothing between—”

“Oh,please.” She tilts her head. “You either get super tense or flustered like a schoolboy on the playground whenever I bring him up. You got all worked up when I asked if he was coming for the Fourth of July. And when he didn’t show up—”

“He wasbusy.” At least, Jordan thinks Jamie was. He never asked. “And I was fine.”

“I haveeyes, Jordan,” Nic says with the confidence of a lawyerthree seconds from making a witness crack on the stand. “It was blatantly apparent last summer.”

Jordan bites his lip. Was he truly that obvious? Did anyone else notice? Was that what Tevin was talking about?

“We’re friends,” he says hoarsely.

“Friends in lo—”

A high-pitched noise springs from Jordan’s throat. Luckily, it happens at the same time the game buzzer goes off. The teams switch out. Nora’s giving a brief speech on the microphone. No one cares what he and Nic are talking about.

Still, Jordan creeps in close and whispers, “We are not…that.”

Nic puckers her lips, unpersuaded. “Jordan, I’m intuitive as fuck. I knew Kami had a secret boyfriend before she told any of us. I knew my dad was retiring because he feared my mom would leave him after I graduated high school. I knew Denz and Braylon would get back together. I know Braylon’s gonna propose—”

“Wait, Braylon’sproposing?”

“I’m pretty sure he will. One day?” Nic’s face twists up. “Point is, I have an innate sense about these things.”

“That UPenn education sure is paying off.”

She jabs a finger in his chest. “I know there’s more to you and Jamie than you say. So spill.”

He stares at her. This isNic. They understand each other. When the rest of their family leans left, they lean right. He should tell her.

The problem is, he doesn’t knowhowto say what’s going on in his head, in his chest.

Nic decides for him. “I’m pan.”

“You’re—?”