Page 2 of The Love Playbook

I wiggle my fingers at him in a prissy little wave. “Hi.”

“Brynn told me you’re going home for your birthday?” he asks.

“Unfortunately.”

The second the word leaves my mouth, a bumbling buffoon in the form of Chris Collins, Jace’s roommate and Ann Arbor’s best running back, comes crashing into the room, panting like he’s just run a marathon.

“What the hell, man?” he says, slightly out of breath. “Why’d you leave the field so fast? I told you I wanted to come with you.”

Jace rolls his eyes. “Exactly. Maybe I wanted to see my girlfriend before she leaveswithoutyour smelly ass getting in the way.”

“Hey!” Chris points at him. “Not fair. She’s my friend, too, and I have every right to say goodbye. Also, my ass smells divine. It’s like a fucking fresh pine forest down there.”

I shake my head, convinced this water buffalo of a man made it into adulthood on a technicality.

“Besides,” he continues, crossing his arms over his broad chest in a look of defiance, “she promised to make me her peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes over the weekend.” Hewaggles his brows, and Jace’s head whips in Brynn’s direction, betrayal flickering in his aquamarine eyes. “You’re making him cupcakes?”

“Here we go.” I sigh, shaking my head as I mutter, “This room is not big enough for this many people.”

“Agreed.” Samantha pushes away from the wall. “But I’m out, anyway. I have dinner plans with James.”

“Tell Bar Dude we said hello,” Brynn calls out.

“Later,” Samantha says with a chuckle before she disappears out the door.

“Think you’ll ever call him by his name?” Liz asks.

“Nope,” Brynn and I say in unison, then laugh.

Liz didn’t start school at AAU until the fall of last year, so she wasn’t here during the summer when Samantha first began pining after James, the hot bartender at Bradd’s, solidifying his name forever in our minds as Bar Dude.

With a laugh, Liz stands. “I should probably get going, too,” she says, pulling an AAU baseball cap over her long dark waves, covering the purple streak in the front. “I have a really long drive.” Her long legs eat up the room as she crosses it and pulls first Brynn, then me in for a hug before she says goodbye and disappears not far behind Samantha.

“Look what you did,” I say, turning a glare on Chris. “You’re here for one second, and you’ve already cleared the room.”

“Agreed. You’re like a fucking fart,” Jace says, holding in a laugh.

“Good to see you, too, Lettie.” Chris grins, ignoring Jace, as the annoying nickname he gave me rolls off his tongue. I swear my loathing of him gets him off. “Interesting how I didn’t driveyouaway.”

I smile sweetly. “That’s because the prospect of seeing my parents earlier than I have to is about as enticing as shoving bamboo shoots under my fingernails.”

“So, you like me more than your parents? I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Of course you would, but trust me, it’s not that hard.”

“Hey, Chris, Jace said something about you heading home tonight, too?” Brynn asks, and I know it’s in an effort to defuse the tension between us.

He walks over to Elizabeth’s bed and sprawls out on it, making himself at home, while I watch him like a hawk. “Yep,” he says, popping thepand folding his hands behind his head. “Since my family only lives about fifteen minutes from here, I’ll be back in plenty of time to get my beauty sleep for the game tomorrow. Unless, of course, Lettie wants me to stay and take her out. We could go to dinner or dancing, get some drinks, then come back and crash at your place since it’s going to be empty.” He winks.

I clasp my hands in front of myself. “Oh, yippie. My dream date. Dinner and syphilis.”

Chris barks out a laugh, and I have to give it to him; at least he has a sense of humor.

“Oh, Lettie, Lettie, Lettie. You think your jokes will turn me off, but really, they just make me want you even more.”

My cheeks burn as his eyes heat, thawing all that ice blue.

I smash my lips together, tamping down the flush spreading down my neck.

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