Page 51 of Side Out

Jax interrupts before the server can turn to head to the bar and tells her, “Make mine frozen, actually.”

As the server walks away I dare myself to look at him. With my hand still resting on his thigh, the two of us stare at each other before a slow and wide smile starts to spread across his face. Then, Jax bursts out in uncontrollable laughter. I can’t help it, I don’t even know what he’s laughing at but hearing that sound come from him is infectious. I chuckle as I ask, “What’s so fucking funny?”

Jax has tears streaming down his face. “Y-your—You’re eye.”

I reach up with my other hand and let my fingers ghost along my cheek bone, before I bark out an even harder laugh. Our hysterics continue for a while, despite everyone looking at us like we’re crazy. Once the two of us regain some of our composure, Jax wipes away the last of the tears falling from his eyes. “Oh my god, I fucking needed that.”

I smile widely at him. “Are we even now?”

He snorts. “Not even close. But it sure is a fucking good start.”

The server appears out of nowhere with our drinks and sets them on the table. Jax and I each hold up a shot, and to my surprise he says, “To well-deserved black eyes.”

“To well-deserved black eyes,” I agree before we crash our shot glasses together.

Get A Room (with Megan Cromwell) - VOILÀ, Megan Cromwell

CHAPTER31

IF I WAS A DUCK

JACKSON

“If a river was liquor and I was a… oh shit, what am I?” ?*Theo busts out laughing as we hold our shots in the air. “Oh yeah! If a river was liquor and I was a duck, I’d swim my way down and drink my way up. But a river ain’t liquor and I ain’t no duck, so let’s take these shots and get fucked up.”

Theo snorts. “I think we’re already there, buddy.”

“Eh, fuck it.” I lick the salt off my hand, down the tequila, and shove the lime that’s in my other hand in my mouth, rind and all.

As I attempt to suck the lime dry, I watch as Theo does the same, but unlike our last six shots, my eyes zero in on the way Theo’s lips wrap around his lime.

Oh fuck.

And because I’m too fucking drunk to have a decent reaction time, Theo clocks my stare. Slowly, he pulls the lime out and sets it with the rest of its dried up friends. A slow smile spreads across his face as he holds out his hand. “Lime?”

I pull the whole lime from my mouth and set it in his hand, which he then sets on the pile.

Like she has all night, our server clocks us as soon as our shot glasses are empty and comes right over. “Another round?”

My eyes grow wide, and I look over at Theo, who is now starting to sway in his chair as much as I am. But there’s a new look on his face. I’ve seen it countless times, on Clay, on Emerson, and even on little Lizzie Bug.

Mischief.

“I think we’ll take one more round,” Theo tells her.

“Be right back,” her bubbly voice announces before heading to the bar.

Thank god Coach Taylor decided not to come back. When he took Austin back to his room, Lizzie caught sight of Coach and insisted he play for a while. Being the softy at heart that he is, he was all to happy to agree, and by the time he managed to peel himself off the floor after building what I’m assuming was countless block towers, he decided to hit the hay.

When he texted us to make sure it was okay, Theo and I were already on our third shot and second margarita, so we assured him it was more than fine.

“Where the hell did you learn that anyway?”

“Learn what?” I ask before sucking down more of my frozen margarita through the straw. A vital piece of information about me, I willalwayschoose a frozen margarita, because I’m secure enough in my masculinity to admit on-the-rocks margaritas are shit and frozen isfarsuperior.

I mean, it’s like a slushie… but for adults. What’s better than that?

Theo chuckles. “That ridiculous toast.”

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