Page 73 of Fight for Me
Lexie felt her cheeks heat up as she looked across the field. When her gaze came back to the girls, every single one of them was staring at her with questions in their eyes.
“Spill!” Brooklyn said, grinning. “I want to hear all about this concert he took you to. Did he tell you we helped him get dressed? He was so nervous! It was adorable.”
Lexie felt her face split into a wide grin as she remembered Jake’s obvious anxiety when he’d come to her door.
“Do you want the concert story or the meteor shower story?”
“Thewhat?!” the girls screeched, all leaning in closer. They listened in rapt attention and made appropriately impressed noises as Lexie shared the details—all the good ones, at least. When she reached the end, there was silence while the four cousins exchanged a loaded glance.
“Okay, who wants to break the news?” Hannah asked, looking around the group with a satisfied smile.
Lexie frowned. “What news?”
Morgan grinned. “You are so far gone,” she said, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “Go ahead and have the tea towels monogrammed, because you’ll be one of us before you know it.”
Lexie sat for a moment, considering the possibility, but a tremendous shout went up from the field before she could respond. The game appeared to be over, and both teams were advancing toward the cooler at an alarming rate.
“Your feet are in the way,” Jake told Lexie as the girls were overrun. But instead of simply moving her legs, he swooped down and grabbed her around the waist before hauling her over his shoulder. Her eyes went wide as the other girls laughed.
“Jacob Ryan, put me down!” she demanded, struggling to push herself upright.
“Ooh, she middle-named you,” somebody shouted, which only made Jake hike her up higher on his shoulder.
“Guess I’d better go before I get in trouble then,” he said.
“What? No!” Lexie shrieked, laughing despite her embarrassment, but Jake kept walking toward the house.
“What did I tell you? Totally gone,” she heard Morgan say, catching Lexie’s eye with a wink. Lexie could only wave back helplessly.
“You are incorrigible,” she told him, twisting so she could at least see where they were going. Jake only grunted, but Lexie could hear his amusement anyway. He finally put her down on the far side of a small garden shed among some old windowpanes, a rusted car fender and a peeling wooden door that might have come from someone’s closet.
“I want to know what all the cackling was about,” he said as he backed her up against the shed’s metal siding.
“What cackling?” Lexie asked, playing dumb.
“At your hen party,” he said. “There was pointing and laughing, and I want to know why.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, that’s confidential information,” Lexie answered.
Jake made a displeased sort of noise, though it was clear the act was hard to maintain.
“Were you talking about me?”
Lexie scoffed and rolled her eyes in mock derision. “No, actually. Believe it or not, you’re not the only cute guy at this party,” she teased, pursing her lips against a smile.
“Oh! Wrong answer,” he said. His fingers brushed against a sensitive spot below her ribcage.
“Jacob, stop that!” she shouted, laughing, but when she tried to squirm away, he went for the other side as well.
“Take it back, woman!” he demanded, obviously holding back a laugh of his own as he started prodding all the ticklish places he could reach.
He’d shed his sweatshirt during the game, and his navy T-shirt was streaked with mud and grass, some of which Lexie was sure would transfer to her sweater. She giggled as she tried to fend him off, but stilled when he pinned her wrists above her head, holding her easily in place.
“Take it back,” he murmured, his face now only millimeters from hers.
Lexie could count the shades of brown in his eyes, and she watched them all grow darker as the air between them shifted, turning into something more heated than before. The words she still hadn’t said bubbled just below the surface, and she tried to catch her breath enough to let them out. But the moment didn’t last.
“Jacob!” somebody sang, sounding downright gleeful. “Jacob, you’re up to something!” The footsteps came closer, crunching through the old garden nearby, and Jake straightened.
