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“Have you ever actually had a slumber party before?” I question, crossing my arms.
He shakes his head. “Nope. Have you?”
I shake my head. “Nope. I’m a virgin slumber partier.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I internally cringe.
Hunter briefly smashes his lips together while Jax clears his throat a few times.
Can you say awkward?
“Well, so are Jax and I,” Hunter finally says, breaking the awkwardness, much to my relief. “So, I guess it’s going to be a first for all of us.”
I assess him closely. “Are you being serious right now?”
He nods. “I never kid about slumber parties. So, are you down?”
I shrug. “I guess so.”
Grinning, he glances at Jax. “What about you, man? Are you down for a little party fun tonight?”
I look at Jax and find him chewing on his lip ring with an undecided look on his face. Hunter is pressing him with a look, and I get the feeling that they’re having one of those silent conversations that I have seen them have a few times. This one probably has to do with Hunter basically begging Jax to agree to do this.
I’m about to tell Jax that he doesn’t have to when he looks at me.
“Only if I get to braid your hair,” he finally says to me.
I giggle for the second time in a minute, probably looking like a total dumbass. “You seriously want to braid my hair?”
He smiles, and it seems genuine. “I do. And I really want to hear you giggle like that again.”
“I second that,” Hunter intervenes. When I look at him with my brow raised, he shrugs. “You look absolutely adorable when you giggle.”
I shake my head and roll my eyes. “You’re the cheesiest guy I’ve ever met.”
“But you like it,” he insists with a smile.
I hold up my finger and thumb an inch apart. “Maybe just a little bit.”
Chuckling, he heads for the doorway. “Come on; let’s go get this party started.”
I turn to Jax, who’s looking right at me. “You really don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. It’s kind of weird, right?”
“A little,” he agrees. “But I want to.”
“Just as long as you get to braid my hair, right?” I tease, because I honestly can’t tell if he’s being serious or not.
Nodding, he looks completely serious as he extends his hand toward my head and sweeps strands of my hair out of my face. “If I get to do one thing tonight, it’s that I want to braid your hair.” When he pulls his hand back from my hair, he ends up softly tugging on the strands. The same tugging sensation floods my mind with a memory …
“I’m not sure if I’m doing it right?” the boy says as he tries to braid my hair.
It’s been a while since it’s been braided, because my mom usually does it. But I haven’t seen her in a while, either.
“Just try your best,” I try to reassure him, knowing that he’s only doing this because he knows I miss my hair being braided.
“I will this time,” he tells me as he fiddles with my hair. “But after this, I’m going to learn how to so that, next time, you’ll have the most perfect braid ever.”
I smile at that. He’s always so nice to me. And makes me feel safe—
“Raven.” Jax’s voice tugs me back to reality, along with a brush of his fingers along my cheekbone. “Are you okay?”
