Evan turned the music up a notch and clicked her tongue. “I’m trying. It’s not easy. Savannah is so big, but so claustrophobic. Everyone knows everyone else’s business, so it’s not like I get a clean slate.” She sighed and said, “But I don’t want to talk about my boring, lame-ass school life. The shirt you sent me is freaking amazing, by the way. I love how you did that special thing with all the little green stars all over the sleeves. Did Tony get back to you? Did he like it?”
“He did! And Cadence was happy with it, which I was worried about because it was her picture on it and all. It’s tonight, and Jake should be here any minute, but I wanted to call you and talk before I went out.”
“Girl, you better hop to. It’s late already. And I have these damn files to go through. My life is a miserable, rotting pile of boredom, isn’t it? But I’m being a good girl. You would be so proud. Did I tell you I haven’t even been out drinking more than, like, three or four times since Dublin?” Evan relayed the news with confidant enthusiasm.
“I amproud of you. I’m sending you queen ant zombie transmissions. You are going to kick your binders’ asses!”
“Thank you for making me feel less like the loser I truly, truly am. Mwah, darling.”
“Love!” We disconnected, and I worried about my outfit.
I was wearing the t-shirt I designed which I had cut and tailored with Mom’s sewing machine so that it was extra fitted and the v in the v-neck was almost scandalously deep, a pair of skinny jeans and my favorite green Chucks. I had painstakingly straightened my hair, just to make it extra shiny. And I did my makeup smoky and sexy. I was aiming for hot, but didn’t know if I only managed to pull off “trying hard to be hot.” Because I had a worry that I’d never really had before.
Cadence was gorgeous. Like runway model hot. I had completely beautiful friends, Kelsie and Evan at the forefront. But there was something approachable about Kelsie’s kind of beauty, and Evan was so easy about the way she looked, it never bothered me. I barely knew Cadence at all, and she sort of scared me.
And there was the added complication of Jake’s comments about her. Not that I thought anything was going on. It was normal for any guy with functioning eyes to drool over Cadence. But Jake had never mentioned a girl the way he mentioned her.
It sucked because I felt like I was getting a well-deserved dose of my own medicine. Jake had been pretty cool about the whole thing with me and Saxon, and he’d actually had to watch us date; at least I had nothing like that to worry about.
I hoped.
Ugh! I hated that I was thinking that way. Not only did thinking that way make me feel like a complete tool, it made it hard to get comfortable around Cadence, which made me feel like a bigger tool.
Before I could get too sucked in, the doorbell rang and I heard Mom get it.
“Hi Jake,” she said, her voice newly-friendly.
It had taken a while, but now that Jake had won her over, Mom was a lot more accepting of him being around.
“Hello, Mrs. Blixen. The weather’s been great this week.” I smiled at his good-boy manners.
I heard my mom laugh at Jake’s attempts at small talk. She felt completely open and free with him after our time together at his family’s in New York; Jake still felt like he was being judged and measured whenever my mother was around. I raced out to rescue him.
“Bren.” He raised his eyebrows behind Mom’s back. “That shirt is…um looks…it’s great. It’s really good.”
What Jake was trying to say was that the shirt showed a lot of cleavage. Which was helped by a really nice pushup bra I had recently purchased and never worn before tonight. I could see that Jake appreciated the effects.
“Well, we better go. We’ll probably be a little late,” I said apologetically to Mom. I was appreciative of the fact that my parents never set a curfew for me, and I tried to be respectful about that.
“It’s okay, honey.” Mom adjusted the hem of my shirt. “Go and have fun! I’m so happy about how your shirts turned out! You can tell me everything in the morning.”
I kissed her, knowing full well I could tell her tonight if I wanted. Mom never went to sleep before I was safely home and tucked in.
Jake and I ran out to the truck, and he opened my door, but pulled me over to him before I could get in. He yanked me so close, our hips bumped.
“Hey-a, good-looking.” He grinned, then leaned in and kissed me softly.
When he pulled away, his gray eyes looked almost silver. I loved how his hair was getting kind of long and wild and all streaked with gold from the summer. He had a great tan, and had actually developed more muscle on his summer off. Jake got bored if he didn’t have things to do, so he bought himself a weight bench.
I really appreciated his need to keep busy.
“Hey-a yourself, hot stuff.” I smiled back, warm and dizzily happy.
“I just thought I’d take a minute to tell you how damn sexy you look.” He drew one finger along the soft curves of breast popping out of my v-neck. “You make me a little crazy, Bren.”
“That’s the point.” I shook my boobs proudly. “Don’t they look great?”
He chuckled. “Yeah. I mean they always do. They just look…eager.”
I waggled my eyebrows at him. “It’s a new bra. You like?”
“Probably like it more off,” he said lowly, and I felt a little rash of shivers along my neck.
I pressed my hands to his chest and kissed him, feeling a real, honest want to do a lot more. But we were in my driveway, and we had already dawdled for a long time. Mom would wonder why we hadn’t started.
“Maybe later?” My words were tinged with all kinds of reluctance as I slid into the truck.
Jake slammed the door shut and winked at me. “I’m not hiding under your bed.”
“Fine,” I muttered and stuck my tongue out at him. We started to Lodi in a good mood, which helped the massive flock of butterflies kickboxing in my stomach. This was the first time we’d be seeing Saxon and Cadence after my whole essay debacle, and I was all jammed full of nerves.
“What’s up?” he asked. I snuck a look at him, driving with one hand, the other arm resting half out the open window. There was something incredibly sexy about the way Jake drove.
I blushed, embarrassed to bring the whole thing up with Jake again. “I’m just nervous. New t-shirts, new crowd, big concert.” I took a few slow, deep breaths.
Jake took my hand and squeezed before he had to let go and shift. “It will be awesome. I have a good feeling.”
It didn’t necessarily make any practical sense that that would make me feel better, but it did somehow. I trusted Jake’s gut feelings. He was reliable like that.
He left me in silence, just flipping me a comforting smile across the seat once in a while when we caught each other’s eye. By the time we were really close, I was feeling pretty calm about the night ahead.
When we pulled up to Tony’s there was a fairly good number of cars. Tony’s was built in an enormous circle, so cars could pull up around the outside. In through the long plate glass windows, we could see the interior.
All the booths were around the outside of the circle, and the tables that usually filled the inside had been moved out, so there was a huge, open floor space. The booths were filled, but the waitresses were only on the counters for the night. You had to go up to the counter to order any food you wanted. And there were tons of people up there.
“Hey, look. They’re wearing your shirt.” Jake pointed, and I craned my neck to see a few kids wearing the new Folly design. Jake kissed my temple and grabbed my hand, dragging me inside.
We walked through the doors, and I finally released the huge breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding.