Page 121 of Hometown Hottie

59

NOVA

Ryan walked into Moe’s with his arm around Cassidy. I smiled, glad they seemed to have patched things up and that they were back to being happy. I cuddled deeper into Carson’s side, leaning into him. My brother and my best friend headed over to the bar before they came to join us.

Vance sat across from me and he made a gagging noise when Carson turned to press a kiss to my temple mid-conversation with him. “Have I told either of you lately how much I hate being fifth wheel? You guys are too sweet, and so are Ryan and Cassidy. Y’all are going to give me cavities.”

“Don’t be a dick just because it didn’t work out with you and Jessie,” Carson said. “I had to watch you make out with her a bunch of times and you didn’t hear me making any smart-ass remarks.”

“Just because I didn’t hear ‘em doesn’t mean you didn’t make ‘em,” Vance said with a wink at his friend.

“Who’s a smartass?” Ryan asked as he and Cassidy sat down next to Vance. “If it’s Nova, then yes. I agree. If it’s Carson, then I’d leave the ‘smart’ out of it. He’s just an ass.”

Carson laughed and good-naturedly flipped him off. Vance shook his head at them both. While the boys bantered, I reached over to squeeze Cassidy’s forearm since I couldn’t get close enough to give her a hug.

Keeping my voice down, I tilted my head toward my brother. “Is everything okay now?”

“It’s all good,” she said quietly, sliding her eyes to the side to glance at him and smiling as she looked back at me. “He told me about the talks he had with you and with Carson. I’m glad he finally took himself out of the equation, but I’m also glad that you two finally stood up for yourselves and realized that he should never have been such a big part of it to begin with.”

“True, but I like to think that it all worked out for the best.” I reached for Carson’s leg under the table and wrapped my fingers around his thigh. He pressed it against mine immediately and I tried to hide a secret smile, but then Cassidy arched an eyebrow at me and I blushed. “What?”

“Nothing,” she said, laughing. “I just wouldn’t let your brother catch you feeling up your boyfriend right in front of him.”

I rolled my eyes at her, then deliberately tracked my gaze down the length of her arm to where it disappeared under the table. “I’m not doing anything you’re not doing. Except for the fact that my hand is on his leg. I don’t even want to know where yours is.”

“On his leg,” she said adamantly, then turned when Vance said her name. “What now?”

“We were just talking about your parents’ lake house,” he explained. “Jessie was nice to me while we were there.”

Ryan nodded. “Maybe if you’d been nicer to her once we got back, she’d still be around. Where’d she go anyway? Did you run her out of town or something?”

“No,” he lamented. “She went off on some internship program. It really wasn’t anything I did.”

“Which is why it’s time for you to move on,” Cassidy said like it was some kind of sweeping declaration. “I have the perfect girl for you to do it with.”

“Do it?” Vance asked, waggling his brows.

“Move on,” she said.

He nodded. “Right.”

While Cassidy told Vance about this perfect girl—Ms. Norris, the librarian’s daughter who would be coming home from college soon—I ran my fingers along the length of Carson’s thigh and settled in with my drink. Looking around the table, I wondered if this was going to be our new group. The people we hung out with as a couple and those who would eventually stand up with us at our wedding, provided we made it that far.

Our evening was filled with lighthearted banter. Afterward, Carson drove me home. My brother didn’t even flinch when we said good night, he was so absorbed in Cassidy and trying to convince her to let him drive her home.

Carson chuckled as we climbed into the truck. “Do you think those two are going to work out?”

“I don’t know. I used to think so. Then I thought they definitely wouldn’t, and now, I’m just not sure. I guess we’re going to have to wait and see.”

“Well, at least our turn for will-they, won’t-they is over,” he said happily and got us on the road. “You were driving me crazy in there tonight with this.”

He demonstrated what he was talking about by running his fingers lightly over the inner seam of my jeans, and my pulse spiked. “Shit, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t even thinking about that. I just wanted to be touching you.”

“I want you to be touching me.” He dragged his fingertips almost all the way to the apex of my thighs. “Let’s just agree that until we know your brother is fully over the urge to punch me when he sees us together, you won’t touch me there when he’s around.”

I laughed, the sound husky in the dark truck. “What was it that you said before about making promises you can’t keep? You’re mine now. I’m way done with holding back because of him, but I will promise that I’ll try to dial it down in public.”

Carson groaned, fingers skating along my inner thigh and making me burn for him. “As long as I can do the same, I’ll find a way to live with it. It might involve getting it on in public restrooms, though. What’s your stance on that?”