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“Hadley, you with us still?” Evan asked.
Evan's voice intruded on my thoughts, and I looked up at him, not comprehending what he'd said for a moment. I shook my head briefly, clearing out the cobwebs.
“Yeah, sure,” I said. “What is it?”
“We were just making plans for tonight,” he said. “Dad's got the pool up and going, and it's heated now, so – ”
“Party at your place?” I teased.
“Something like that,” he chuckled. “What do you say? You, us, some booze – that is, if your mom is okay watching the little man.”
“I'll have to ask, but I'm sure she will be.
Especially since she keeps pushing me to hang out with all of you again,” I said, immediately mentally kicking myself.
“Oh yeah? Why's that?” Jared asked.
All of their eyes were on me, their gorgeous hazel eyes, fixed on me, I felt like a bug pinned to a card. I cleared my throat and was racking my brain, trying to come up with something to say to defuse the awkwardness.
Luckily, Katie returned with our drinks, sparing me from the sudden strained tension around the table.
“Ya'll have a chance to look at our menu yet? I highly recommend the chicken fried steak, it's the best in the county,” she said with a slight giggle.
I noticed she was checking out all the guys around the table, one by one, sizing them all up. I could see the look of approval and desire in her eyes for them, even though she couldn't have been older than nineteen or twenty herself.
“That's what I'll have,” Jared said, closing his menu and handing it to the server with a flirty smile.
She giggled some more, and I rolled my eyes. Of course Jared was going to try to plant his flag there. Apparently, that's just what he did. Katie turned to Gabe, who pointed at me.
“Ladies should always order first,” he said.
“Pfft, when have I ever been accused of being a lady?” I teased.
A smile crossed his face, but it was gone a second later. He motioned for me to order.
“Fine, I'll have the cobb salad,” I said. “And just some chicken tenders and fries for the little guy.”
Katie wrote all of this down, then moved on around the table. She kept giggling every time one of the guys said anything to her, and it drove me crazy. Yes, they were hot, but part of me wanted to tell her to lay off because they were mine. Not mine-mine, obviously. Finished taking our orders, and with no other reason to hang around the table, she finally left, and I guess the weight of everything was showing on my face. Evan, always the most empathetic of the gang, looked at me and piped up first.
“So, what's wrong, Hadley?” he asked me
“Nothing,” I said, swirling my straw in my drink.
“Uh huh,” Evan said. “You seem a perturbed about something.”
“Oh, just the little girl who couldn't stop with the over the top flirting and that obnoxious giggle,” I said with a laugh.
I faked the laugh, then pretended to gag myself with my finger, just to emphasize my point.
“Sounds like someone is jealous,” Jared teased.
“What? Of a child? Come on, now,” I said, narrowing my gaze on him. “I mean, unless you're into the barely legal thing. Which, I would assume you are since you apparently seem to be into anything.”
He tossed his straw wrapper at me, and I dodged it. It fell on the floor, and I reached down to pick it up, tossing it back at Jared. It landed in his Coke instead.
“Hey!” he said as he fished the paper out of his glass.
“Serves you right,” I said, beaming proudly and chuckling to myself. “Guess that means we have to get little miss jail bait back over here so you can hit on her some more.”
