Page 46 of Anyone But Me
“Sweetie, wouldn’t you agree that no one could possibly be out of Carter’s league? She’s hot, right?”
Wren’s face turned red in response to his wife’s question, but he laughed as he looked between the two of us. “I feel like this is a trap.”
Annika put her hands in the air. “Not a trap. I’m just trying to show Carter that she definitely has a chance with some girl she thinks is out of her league.”
Wren looked between us once again as if he was trying to assess the situation, before putting his focus on me. “I think anyone who issinglewould feel very lucky if they knew you liked them.”
“Nice neutral answer, babe,” Annika said with a laugh. “Now go get your food and join us.”
I watched Wren walk out of the room, then turned back toward Annika. “Even if she did like me, there are a lot of factors that would make things complicated between us.”
“For example…” Annika prompted me.
“Well, for one, she’s my sister’s best friend.”
“And? I’m sure you wouldn’t be the first person in the world to date their sibling’s friend.”
My mind immediately went to my moms and my Uncle Jamie, and I started to laugh. “I can guarantee I wouldn’t be the first one. My mom was best friends with my Uncle Jamie before she started dating my mama. In fact, she met my mama when she was pretending to be my Uncle Jamie’s girlfriend.”
Annika’s eyes went comically wide. “No way! Are you serious?”
I laughed even harder now, because this was usually the reaction I got whenever I qtold people the story of how my parents met. “Yep. From what they’ve told us, it was a pretty insane meet cute.”
“And your moms are still married?”
I nodded. “Veryhappily married. They just renewed their wedding vows this summer to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary.”
Annika brought her hand to her chest and pushed out her bottom lip. “That’s so sweet. It also proves my point. It worked for your moms. It could definitely work for you.”
“Maybe.” Annika was so convincing, she almost had me tempted to rush home and tell Jax exactly how I felt, but unfortunately, my insecurities would always win. “I don’t have the most confidence. My ex kind of messed me up.”
Wren joined us back in the room at that moment, and I explained my dating history to both of them. The conversationnaturally shifted to Annika and Wren sharing nightmare dating stories of theirs, which led to the story of how they met.
Even though the subject had shifted away from her, Jax was all I could think about the rest of the night. When I got back to our apartment and found Jax’s door closed, I was tempted to knock and see if she was home. I walked up to her door and raised my hand to knock, but thought better of it. The fact that she hadn’t come out when the front door opened meant she was either asleep or not home. I looked around the room, but Speck wasn’t in any of his usual places. When I went into my bedroom, I didn’t find him there either. That meant Jax was definitely home and had him in the room with her.
You can talk to her tomorrow,I reminded myself. The only question was what the hell I was going to say.
Chapter 16
I woke up the next day to a knock on my door. I blinked my eyes open and stretched before standing up out of bed and dragging myself across the room. When I opened my door, I wasn’t surprised to see Jax, since she was the only one I expected to be in our apartment, but that didn’t stop me from taking a deep breath at the sight of her standing right in front of me.
“Hey,” I said breathlessly.
Jax stared at me for a few seconds before her lips split into a smile. “Good morning.” She looked down at her feet. “Sorry to wake you, but do you think we could talk?”
I swallowed hard. I didn’t know if there was anyone in this world who could hear the words‘Can we talk’and not panic, but I certainly wasn’t one of them. “Yeah, definitely. Can I just have a few minutes to get changed and brush my teeth and stuff?”
“Of course. I’ll be here all day.” Jax winked at me before walking away.
At least the wink meant she most likely wasn’t mad. That didn’t stop me from obsessing over what she might want to talk about the whole time I got ready. I took my time picking out my outfit, fixing my hair, and brushing my teeth. I wasn’ttryingto waste time… okay, that was actually exactly what I was doing, but the closer I got to being ready, the faster my heart beat, and I could barely take it.
When there was nothing else I could possibly do, I left my room. Jax was lying on the couch, looking at something on her phone while she snuggled Speck. Speck looked up at me, but quickly laid his head back down, clearly not willing to give up his snuggles from Jax to greet me.I get it buddy. Trust me.
“So, what’s up?” I asked as I took a seat on the recliner.
Jax put her phone down and pulled Speck closer to her as if she was using him for protection. “Are you mad at me?”
“Mad at you?” I had no idea why she would think that. She hadn’t done anything wrong. “Of course not. You’re the perfect roommate.”
