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“Yes. Exactly like a date.” Jesse held his breath, waiting for her response.
“I would very much like that.”
A grin broke across Jesse’s face. “Great. Um, we have a few weeks, so we have time to figure out costumes.”
“I look forward to it.”
“Me too,” Jesse said earnestly. He pulled out his phone to check the time. “It’s noon. Do you want to go for lunch?”
“Sounds good, let me put my stuff away.”
Jesse watched as she scrambled off the bed, carefully putting her pencils in a colorful pencil case. He admired how her long, blonde hair swished around as she moved and only tore his gaze away once Raina turned around again.
She smiled as soon as their eyes met, a dopey expression probably mirrored on Jesse’s own face. “Shall we?”
* * *
Raina drummed her fingers against the table, nodding occasionally as Zara ranted about her brother and cousins. The dining hall was fairly busy at peak lunchtime, but they’d managed to snag a table.
“Did you know that last year, they somehow replaced all of my markers with sharpies? I don’t know how they did it, but they did, and when I colored on my hand, it stayed there for days! I got in trouble with Uncle Aaron because of them,” Zara complained. “And have I told you about the time they dumped marshmallow fluff into every single one of my socks?”
Raina placed a hand over her mouth in an attempt to cover her grin. “Zara, I’m pretty sure you give as good as you get.”
“Oh, that’s so true,” Jesse said, leaning over. “I’m assuming she hasn’t told you about the time that she painted the bottom of our shoes with food coloring? Aunt Becky was pissed.”
Raina did laugh this time. “No, she hasn’t.”
“Hey, you haven’t eaten,” Jesse said.
Raina glanced over at him, catching the redhead mid-frown.
“I’m not hungry,” she replied. It wasn’t a lie.
“One bite?” Jesse asked, giving her puppy dog eyes.
Raina sighed. She couldn’t say no when he looked at her like that. “Fine. You can go get me food, then.”
“Okay,” Jesse agreed easily, and Raina blinked in surprise. She hadn’t expected him to say yes.
“Um, you can just grab me anything,” she said after a minute. “There should be stuff in the fridge.”
“Sounds good. Come with me, Theo.”
Theo didn’t bother to look up from where he was digging into his pasta. “No thanks.”
“Theo, come keep me company on this long, hard hike.”
Jesse snickered and Raina looked over at him curiously. When Theo also chuckled, Raina figured Jesse had made a joke she didn’t understand.
After a lot of groaning, Jesse eventually dragged Theo up from the table, and the two boys set out to get Raina food.
Zara leaned closer to Raina. “He’s whipped.”
“Yeah, are you sure you two aren’t dating?” Gracie added, moving to Jesse’s vacant seat.
Raina blushed. “We’re not dating. We’re just...going to the dance together.”
Both girls gasped and Gracie demanded, “You didn’t mention this! When did this happen?”
