Page 97 of This Life and All the Rest
“C’mon, Len,” he goads. “You’d be way better at it than Jaxon. He’d much rather be manning the grill.”
Casper looks from me to Macon.
“You know Jaxon is gonna suck at face painting. Emoji smiles and hippie flowers.”
I laugh and look at Macon. His eyes are already on me.
“I can do face painting,” I say before overthinking. “It’ll be fun.”
“Are you sure?”
His voice echoing the same words to me last night replays in my ears. The way his gaze heats, I think he’s thinking it too. I nod slowly.
“I’m sure.”
Macon tells me the plan for tomorrow and leaves me to continue setting up with Casper. When we finish, Casper moves us to the kitchen and instructs me to take final inventory on all of the freeze pops and juice boxes we’ve got.
When Casper leaves, I pull out my phone and call Sam.
“Hey,” she says when she answers. “Where’ve you been? I thought we were getting lunch.”
“Oh shit, sorry.” I totally forgot about my plans with her. “I kind of got distracted at the rec center...”
“Distracted doing what?” she asks, then adds, “or doingwho?”
“Setting up for tomorrow’s Fourth of July event,” I tell her, choosing to ignore her last comment. “And I kind of volunteered to volunteer tomorrow.”
“Hmmm.”
“What?”
I can practically hear her shoulder shrug.
“You’re an adult and I trust you to make your own decisions,” she says slowly, and I roll my eyes.
“But...?”
“Buuuut,” she takes a deep breath and delivers the blow, “you’re fucking dumb if you think you and Macon can ever just be friends. You know you guys are like sodium and potassium just waiting for a rainstorm."
I snort a laugh at her chemistry pun.
"You're such a nerd.” I hear her laugh followed by a harsh sigh.
“You know what I mean, though, Len,” she says softly. “I’ve seen you together since you’ve been back. I can tell. That much sexual tension will shoot any shot of platonic friendship straight to hell.”
I bite my tongue, something like shame or embarrassment washing over me. I hear Sam gasp in the silence.
“Oh my god, you’ve already hooked up,” she says, and I don’t answer. “Oh my god, when? Why didn’t you tell me? When did it happen?”
I squeeze my eyes shut. “Which time?”
“OH MY GOD,” Sam screeches from the other end, and I have to pull the phone away from my ear. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
“I’m sorry. I’m still processing.”
“Well, was it at least good?” she asks, and I can’t help but smile. My face heats and a spark of desire shoots through me.
“Yeah,” I whisper, and Sam goes quiet. I wait a few breaths before prodding. “What?”
