Page 19 of A Little Crush
Fighting the urge to curl into the backseat with Hades, I climb out of the car and open the back door, letting Hades explore the wooded area to his heart’s content. And honestly, I’m jealous. Of how easy-going he is. Without a care in the world.
“Hey.” Tatum grabs my forearm.
The simple touch is enough to snap me out of my funk.
I turn to her. “Yeah?”
“You good?” Her gaze narrows. “What aren’t you telling me?” My expression must tell her everything she needs to know because her jaw drops. “Something happened. What is it?”
If only it was so easy. Where does she expect me to start?
“Rore?”
“Nothing really…” I lie. “Or at least not anything we didn’t already know was going to happen.”
“Rore,” she pushes.
Say it.
“Jax confronted me the other night.”
Her eyes widen. “And?”
“And instead of patching things up or…whatever,”—I shove my hair away from my face, starting toward the cabin—“I acted like a brat and told him how stupid I feel for falling in love with him all those years ago when everyone around us would agree how wrong it was.” I squeeze my eyes shut, refusing to cry. “And then, at the rehearsal, I saw Jax petting Hades, which means I can’t even trust my own dog not to betray me, and…and it’s been a hard few days.”
“Oh, Squeaks.” Warm arms wrap around me, and she pulls me into a hug. “I’m so proud of you.”
Proud of me?
“What?” I ask.
“I said I’m proud of you.” She gives me one more squeeze before letting me go. “Even though your feelings weren’t wrong, just misplaced, you’re amazing. I know how hard that must’ve been to tell Jax how you feel, and I love the crap out of you.”
“Thanks,” I mutter. If only it was enough to get me out of tonight. “Also, who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”
She snorts. “What do you mean?”
“You’re like, the queen of shoving down your feelings andpretending like everything is absolutely perfect,” I point out. “Since when do you compliment me for expressing my feelings to the last person who needs to hear them?”
“Uh, since I learned shoving down your feelings is a terrible way to handle things,” she clarifies. “And I think you’re wrong. Jax was thefirstperson who needed to hear how you felt all those years ago, but I get why you might feel a little awkward now, even though you have no reason to be. Do you want to go back to your parents’ house?” she suggests. “You can take my car. I’ll tell them you’re sick or something. I feel bad cancelling on the whole group bachelor-slash-bachelorette party, but?—”
“I’m a big girl, Tate,” I remind her. “I’ll be fine. Promise.”
“Good.” She squeezes my arm, tacking on a grimace. “Because I kind of need Hades for the second part of the night. Speaking of which…” She looks around the wooded grounds. “Where is he?”
“Hades!” I call.
Branches break to my left before he darts into the clearing. His tongue lolls out on one side like he’s on cloud nine.
Tatum smiles as she watches him. “That thing is a menace.”
“But like, a cute menace,” I retort.
“Sure, he is.” She snorts before arching her brow. “But seriously? Hades didn’t bite off his balls or anything?”
“The traitor was practically sleeping in his lap,” I grumble as we make our way up the steps to the front door.
“I hope you make him at least sleep on the floor for a week as punishment.”
