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Jax looks at my phone with his brows raised. “That’s your phone?”
I nod. “I know it’s super outdated.”
“Outdated is a total understatement,” Hunter says while texting on his phone. He saw my phone yesterday when he tried to help me track down that unknown number, so why didn’t he say anything then? “You seriously need a new one.”
“Hey, it works,” I point out. “That’s all that really matters.”
“We need to get her a new one,” Jax states. “If she’s going to help us out, that one isn’t going to fly in some circumstances.”
I gape at him. “What circumstances would this phone not work in? It gets texts and calls. What else does it need to do? It’s a phone.”
He offers me a sympathetic look that I don’t quite fully understand. “We need to be able to make sure we can send files to and from each other safely without anyone being able to hack into our phones and see them. It requires a phone that can hold a pretty large program, and I’m guessing that”—he gestures at the phone—“doesn’t have much storage space.”
He’s completely right, but still …
“I get it. Well, sort of … I’m still kind of confused what I’m going to be doing for you guys … Anyway, this is the only phone I have, and I can’t afford a new one right now, so …” I shrug, likewhat’re you gonna do?
“No one’s asking you to buy yourself a new phone,” Zay says as he makes a turn onto the main road that leads to the center of town where all the shops, food places, and stores are. “We’ll buy you one.”
I shake my head. “No, you won’t.”
Zay throws me a hard look that would probably scare a lot of people. I’m not one of those people, though. “That wasn’t a request,” he tells me firmly. “You work for us now, so we will get you a new phone.”
My lips part in protest, because I don’t want anyone to buy me anything. It makes me feel like I’m a charity case or something. Before I can say anything, though, Hunter speaks first.
“She did this to me yesterday at lunch, too,” he tells Zay as he sets his phone down on his lap. “I bought her lunch, and she made this big deal about it.”
“I didn’t ask you to buy me lunch,” I protest, hugging myself. I can feel it—the embarrassment and discomfort stirring inside me.
“He didn’t mean anything by it,” Jax tells me, as if sensing what’s going on inside my head. “He was making a joke. Just a bad one.”
“My jokes aren’t bad,” Hunter insists, turning around in the seat. He has a smile on his face, but when he looks at my expression, the smile plummets. “Aw, shit. I didn’t mean anything by that. I promise I was just joking. And it was definitely a very bad joke.”
Zay peers over his shoulder at me, and I suddenly feel like the freak everyone thinks I am.
Here they are, being super nice to me, and I’m getting all defensive over dumb things.
“It’s fine.” I lower my gaze and start picking at my chipped fingernail polish. “I just don’t like feeling like a charity case, and when people buy me stuff, I kind of feel that way. But I’m totally overreacting.” I sigh softly. “Sorry.”
When they say nothing, I want to shrink inside myself. Awesome. My first day with real friends and I’ve already messed it up.
I feel fingers brush my jawline, causing me to jolt a little and glance up.
Hunter withdraws his hand from my face and offers me the kindest smile ever. “You don’t need to apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I’m being weird,” I point out, “about silly things.”
He dazzles me with a grin. “If anyone is an expert on being weird, it’s me. And I think you know that by now, since you called me weird yesterday at least ten times.”
“True.” I exhale quietly, telling myself to calm down.
“We’re all pretty weird,” Jax adds, drawing my attention to him. A faint smile touches his lips. “Zay’s the worst. Seriously, he’s a freak.”
“For sure,” Hunter agrees with a grin.
When I look at Hunter, he winks at me, causing me to smile.
Zay doesn’t seem as amused. “Great, here we go. Let’s make fun of Zay to impress the new girl. Story of my damn life.”
