Page 106 of Before We're More Than Friends
I jumped, stumbling backward, to see Oliver open the gate next to his house. “Oh, hey,” I said, putting a hand to my chest.
“Sorry I scared you.” Oliver laughed before his gaze traveled to Kami, but his smile didn’t falter. “Hey, didn’t know you were coming.”
“I can’t miss out on s’mores,” Kami said, smiling back.
“You made the right choice.” Oliver’s smile widened as he gestured for us to go into his backyard. “Almost everyone is here already. Just waiting for Raina and Arielle.”
The hairs on my neck stood up, the palms of my hands sweating. “Cool,” I said, sounding anything but thrilled.
Oliver raised an eyebrow but didn’t question me. He led us into the backyard, where everyone was sitting around the fire. Hayden was playing his acoustic guitar and singing with Caleb.
I didn’t understand why neither one of them had wanted to be a lead singer. Their voices were pretty good, fitting together in harmony. Sienna and her cousins swayed from side to side as Oliver’s sisters sang along, closing their eyes. Lana waved her phone in the air with her flashlight on. My heart warmed at the sight.
“This is so cute,” Kami said as we sat with Oliver. “It’s like something out of a movie.”
Oliver nodded with a beam. “We love doing bonfires, especially in the winter.”
“They’re perfect,” Sienna said, still swaying her head as Hayden and Caleb sang. “We don’t do them enough.”
“We used to do them more often.” Oliver’s smile slipped, and he cleared his throat. “Raina and Arielle are still coming, right?”
“Raina just texted me a minute ago,” Sienna said. “They’re almost here.”
“Okay.” Oliver smiled at Hayden and Caleb as they finished their song. He clapped for them, and everyone else followed. “That was a great one, guys.”
“I wrote it a while back,” Hayden said, the golden glow of the fire highlighting the flush in his cheeks. “Caleb helped me fix it up.”
“Because the rest of you are no help whatsoever when itcomes to songwriting,” Caleb said, wrapping his arm around Hayden. “I always knew I was the best.”
Sienna rolled her eyes. “I’d help if I knew how to write good lyrics. But the juices never flow.”
“Because you’re full of coffee.”
“And you’re full of crap.”
“And I want to be full of s’mores,” Hayden said, putting his guitar down. “Why do we have to wait until everyone is here to make them?”
“Because we’re supposed to be bonding,” Oliver said. “Like family.”
“What are we, siblings who don’t get along?”
Sienna snorted. “Since when did Caleb get along with anyone?”
“I get along with a lot of people,” Caleb said, puffing his chest out. “I have the most siblings out of all of us, and they all like me. My parents like me, you guys like me?—”
“That’s a bold statement.”
“You justloveme.” Caleb winked at her. “Everyone loves me.”
“Not everyone,” Adam, Sienna’s cousin, said.
His twin sister—Eve?—nudged his shoulder. “Don’t mention it.”
Caleb’s face twitched, but he rolled his eyes. “Her opinion doesn’t count. I mean, she prefers passion fruit over strawberry. Can we really trust her?”
Sienna snorted. “You’re not wrong for once.”
I assumed theshethey were referring to was his ex-girlfriend. I remembered Raina saying something about Gracelynn breaking up with one of the guys and hating him. It had to be Caleb, right?
