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“Um, okay,” I whispered awkwardly.
Jack chuffed a laugh and gave me a hard kiss on the lips. “Give me your phone.”
I reached in the back pocket of my jeans and grabbed my phone, shocked the screen hadn’t cracked considering the pounding Jack gave it, and handed it over to him.
“I’m putting my number in here, then calling myself so I have yours, okay?” he said as he typed into my phone.
“Okay, that’s fine.”
He handed it back to me and I looked down to find his contact information newly added to my address book. I rubbed my thumb over his name, wondering for the hundredth time what I was doing.
“So, how does this work exactly?” I asked, uncertain how to define, let alone conduct this relationship.
He shrugged. “It’s casual, Ava. When we both want to get together, we get together and have some fun.”
He made it sound so simple, but I knew it was anything but. It was rife with pitfalls and trap doors. It was like accidentally hiring a hitman, not realizing you were the target. The problem was, against my better judgement, the alarm bells clanging in the distance, and all the other reasons to run in the opposition direction of Jack Becker, I didn’t want to. I wanted to be with him, I wanted to experiment, I wanted to be free.
I was just hoping freedom wasn’t another word for stupidity.
****
Chapter 10
Jack
I pulled into the driveway of my house, still grinning after my encounter with Ava. I could not believe she agreed to my proposition. After our session at school, I was dying to get my hands on her, but realized I needed to calm down. I didn’t want her to know how out of control, and out of character, I was acting because of her.
I walked, ignoring the chafing of the stiff fabric of my jeans, back to the pool house behind my parents’ mansion. We had a huge house, but I couldn’t stand my parents and their chaos, so I moved back here a year ago. It was a small one-story cottage with one bedroom and two bathrooms—a perfect retreat from family drama.
My mom didn’t mind me being here because it meant my dad wasn’t using it to screw one of his side pieces. My dad didn’t give a shit about anything that I did. It took him six months to even realize I wasn’t living in the house anymore.
I had just changed into a pair of sweats when I heard a knock at the door. A sick and insane part of my mind jumped at the idea that it might be Ava, even though I knew this was highly unlikely. I didn’t think Ava even knew where I lived, and she certainly wouldn’t know I lived in the pool house behind my actual house.
I opened the door and was shocked at how disappointed I was to see Casey Woods standing there.
“Hey, Casey, what’s up?”
She held out a plastic bag toward me. “Hey, Jack, sorry to bother you. I have some stuff of yours from Shelby. She didn’t want to see you, so she told me to come and drop it off for her. You know, she’s still pissed about you breaking up with her.”
I snorted and took the bag from her, throwing it on my dining room table. “I didn’t break up with her because we were never dating.”
Casey nodded, her expression sympathetic. “Yeah, we all know that, but you know how she is.” She reached up and started twirling a long, blonde lock of hair, as if the act of saying something negative about Shelby was causing her anxiety.
I sighed, eager to end this awkward, but harmless, interaction. “Yeah, well, thanks for dropping off my stuff.”
Casey smiled, the lashes of her blue eyes fluttering at my faint praise. “You’re welcome.” God, she should stop hanging out with Shelby. The friendship was obviously terrible for her self-esteem.
Then she stood there, and short of slamming the door in her face, I wasn’t sure how to move her along. “Is there anything else?”
“Oh, yeah, Shelby said she wanted anything you had of hers.”
“Shelby never left anything here. I never let her. The only reason she had anything of mine is because she swiped it when I wasn’t looking.”
Casey looked perplexed. “Oh, by how she spoke, she acted like she had practically moved in.”
“Yeah, right. Well, she gave you guys the wrong idea. There’s nothing of hers here. If she had left something, I probably would have just thrown it away.”
Casey’s pale eyebrows jumped in surprised. “Oh, well, I guess you really weren’t that into her. Okay, then, sorry to bug you.”
