Page 105 of Firecracker

“Yeah.” He sighed. “This didn’t start last night. We…well, there’s something there between us. I don’t know what it is, right now. But…”

“I can’t believe this.” Jamie stared at him. “You never got over that crush on her?”

Tyler’s face heated. “What crush?”

“Come on, man, you were obsessed with her back in high school.”

“I was not!” That was a lie. “I mean, okay, maybe I had a little crush.” He paused. “I didn’t think you knew about it.”

Liam grinned. “This is interesting.”

“Sure, reliving my teenage humiliation is fascinating.” Tyler grimaced.

“Everyone knew about it,” Jamie said.

“Shut the fuck up!”

Jamie laughed. “Okay, not everyone.”

Terror seized Tyler’s insides in a tight grip. “Arden didn’t know, did she?”

“Nah. Don’t think so anyway. Honestly, I don’t think she paid much attention to you,” Jamie said, busting his balls with honesty.

“Thanks,” Tyler muttered. “Good to know.”

“Look, she told me that you’d asked her out. I thought she’d changed her mind, though, because she didn’t want to mess things up with all of us if things didn’t work out.”

“She did change her mind. I convinced her one dinner together wasn’t going to mess things up.”

Jamie gave him a long look. “Well. She’s an adult. I guess it’s up to her.”

Arden, Mila, and Emma arrived back at the table with fresh lip gloss and fluffed hair. Arden took a seat opposite him instead of next to him, lifting her chin at him.

She was still pissed.

Had she really been interested in that dude? Was that why she was pissed—because he’d interfered with her flirtation?

Fuck that.

Okay, now he was pissed too. They’d had a great dinner last night. They’d talked and laughed, and then they’d had amazing sex. Had that all been nothing to her?

They eyed each other across the table while others talked.

He’d have his chance when they got home. She couldn’t get away from him there.

* * *

“Good night, Tyler.”

He followed her uninvited into her apartment.

“Hey—”

“We need to talk.”

She frowned and crossed her arms. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He shut the door. “We do. Were you seriously interested in that dude…Brendan?”

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