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I snorted at Jack’s unexpected humor. “Well, anything in the name of science.”
Jack raised his eyebrow at me. “Anything?”
I blushed and shrugged. “Depends on the experiment, I suppose.”
His cocksure grin returned. “I can think of a few interesting ones…”
My heart started pounding like a bass drum in my chest at his flirtatious tone. “Oh, yeah?”
He cocked his head. “You going to Rico’s party this weekend?”
“Oh, yeah, I heard about that,” I replied, striving to act casual.
“Hannah tell you?”
“Uh, I heard it from a couple of people.”
“People like Mike Crenshaw?” he asked, his jaw tensing.
“I, uh, um, well, yes, he mentioned it, too.”
Jack turned the water off, reached for a paper towel, handed it to me and crossed his arms over his chest, his face the picture of displeasure. “You going with him?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m going with Hannah. Would it bother you if I did go with him?”
Jack grimaced. “Look, Ava, Crenshaw is shady as hell. You know he doesn’t really need your help in math, right?”
I had been starting to suspect as much, but it startled me to hear Jack say it. “Why do you think that?”
“Why has nobody told you? He’s some kind of math genius. I think he got early acceptance to MIT.”
My jaw dropped. “I didn’t know,” I murmured. While I had been figuring out that Mike knew more than he was letting on, I didn’t know he was gifted in math. God, guys will do anything to hook up with a girl.
“Yeah, he mostly made up the whole thing to get close to you. Did he ask you out?”
“Well, he had asked me out before, but I said no a couple of times. Then he said he needed my help, and I felt bad for him, so I agreed to help him.” I reached for the Band-Aids while I was talking, preparing to patch up my fingers.
Jack plucked them out of my hands and started to bandage my cuts, using the same gentleness as before. “Lying asshole. What did I tell you?”
“Yeah, I mean, I guess he technically lied, but it’s all pretty harmless.”
Jack finished with my fingers and shot me a disapproving look. “Are you serious, Ava? If he’ll lie about stupid shit, who knows what else he would lie about?” Jack muttered as he collected our lab materials. Shit, I had truly done nothing during this lab but get injured.
“Here let me help.”
“No, Ava, you’re hurt. I’ve got it.”
I gave him a grateful smile and playfully socked him in the arm with my good hand after he returned what was left of our lab materials. “Thanks, Jack. You’re a pretty awesome partner.”
Jack turned to me and grinned. “I thought you figured that out last weekend.”
I felt heat flood my face, remembering just how awesome a partner he’d been last week. The humorous smirk slowly fell away as tension and heat filled the space between us.
The bell rang, interrupting the mood, but I could still feel heat crawling through my veins and zings of desire pinging under my skin. By the look on Jack’s face, he was having a similar reaction.
Before either of us could speak, Addison walked up to us again.
“So, Jack about that rid–”
