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I stopped where we were, right in the middle of the parking lot. “Now I’m stupid?” I asked with a smile.

She laughed and shook her head
. “Ty, t
hat’s not what I meant.”

“I know. I just wanted to see you smile again.”

She locked her eyes with mine and wrapped her arms around my neck. “You always make me smile,” she said.

I leaned down and kissed her. It
quickly
became more passionate than what I was used to with her
so far
, and I was a little surprised we were almost making out in the parking lot.

“Okay,” I exhaled, pulling away from her. “I should probably take you home.”

“I don’t want to go home.”

“Where do you want to go?”
Based on the way we’d been kissing,
I was afraid she would say she wanted to go home with
me
.

“I want ice cream,” she smiled.

“Ice cream?
It’s midnight. What’s open?”

“The grocery
store. I want Ben & Jerry’s C
hocolate
Fudge
Brownie
.”

I laughed and took her hand. “Okay, rock star. Let’s get you some ice cream.”

I knew I was break
ing
curfew again, but being with Jayden took priority over anything. The next day was Sunday
,
and I could be with her all day if she agreed, but it was just so hard to end the night.

“I really should take you home so your dad doesn’t worry,” I told her. We were sitting in my truck, parked at the river. She was nestled
in my arm
with her head against my neck
.

“
My car is at Cali’s, so I’ll probably just stay there tonight
.
And I’m not sixteen, Ty. Yeah I still live in my dad’s house, but I’m free to have my own life, you know.
”
             
Oh, boy. Did I really want to risk having
Judge
Adams find
out his daughter was not at the
Davis
’s?
How far would he go to hunt me down?

“Well
if that’s where I’ll be taking you, then I should probably get you there.
”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?” she lightly laughed.

“N
o way. But
I don’t want the entire police force out looking for you.”

She sat up
straighter
and stared at me. I wasn’t sure what I saw in her eyes through the moonlight, but she looked a little sad. “Well, what are you doing tomorrow?” she finally asked.

“That’s easy. If I can’t spend it with you, I’ll be
thinking
of you.”

She
smiled
. “I would love it if you spent it with me.
I’m busy in the morning, but after that I’m free.
”

“All right, it’s a date.”

I pulled her close again and kissed her. That incredible rush surged through me once more and I found myself completely lost in the moment.
She kissed me like she did in the parking lot earlier,
but this time
my hands probably explored more than they should
have
. She suddenly stopped.
             
“Ty,” she breathed.

“Okay.”
I moved away from her and let out a breath of air.
I had pushed my luck and instantly regretted it.
“I’m
so
sorry,” I told her. “I got a little carried away.”

“It’s okay,” she smiled, “s
o did I. I ju
st… I’m not…”

Her phone rang and I think she was relieved. I was sure she was going to tell me I wasn’t about to get lucky any
day
soon.
I hoped she didn’t think I was that kind of guy
.

“Okay,” she was saying to Cali, “I’m on my way.” She hung up and smiled at me. “They’re just leaving the club
,
so I’m going to head to her house.”

“Sure,” I nodded.

I started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. She slid to the passenger’s
seat and buckled her seatbelt,
and then took
my hand in hers.

It had been an interesting night to say the least, and if I had been able to predict certain things to happen, I would have changed a few little
moments
along the way. But the bottom line was that Jayden was an amazing girl
,
and
being that I liked her so much,
I was in for something different than what I was used to. I worried about how much of a problem Aaron was going to be, if Chris was ever going to stop despising me,
if Jayden’s father would end up throwing me in jail someday,
and if Jayden and I were
even going to last another week
.

I wished I could predict the future.

Chapter Seven

             
“So where’d you two end up going last night?” Aaro
n
tried to ask
casually. It was eleven-thirty on
S
unday morning, and although he’
d only been awake for an hour, he had pretty much kept his distance from me.

             
“You think I really want to talk to you about my girlfriend?”

             
He laughed. “What’s the big deal, Ty?
Was she really that offended?”

             
“No, but her friends were.
And I think they’
re probably
more sensitive to it than Jayde
n would be.
You just don’t say stuff like that around people you don’t even know.”

             
“Ty’s right,” Jesse said from across the room. “I was embarrassed
for
you.”

             
“You guys are hilarious,” Aaron laughed.
“
What’s
the big deal?”
he asked me again.

             
“The ‘big deal’ is that you keep
cutting her down
for some reason. Why? What’s your problem? She was nice to you, invited you to
sit
with
us
, and then you turn around and
say
something
crass in front of her friends.”

             
“Crass? That wa
s crass?
Oh
Ty, w
hat has she done to you?
One week with her a
nd talk about sleeping with girls is suddenly offensive to you?”

“It’s not really the subject of it, but
how
you said it and in front of
who
.”

“You guys are a joke,” he said, shaking his head.

“Fine, but I’m just
telling
you… Lay off, okay?”

“Whatever
.”

I hated the fact that there had been so much contention in the house for the past week. The three of us had always gotten along, even though we were all so different. There
had never been any arguments
except
over
an occasional card game
,
or stupid stuff like taking food that didn’t belong to you. But there had never been fights over girls.
Period. The three of us talked about girls all the time. We were guys, what
would
you expect? We’d all had our occasional girlfriends or one time dates, hung out together, talked about it, and moved on.

But since Jayd
en… Aaron had said all kinds of
things about her. I was really intent on keeping the peace in the house—playing ball with guys you can’t get along with is not easy—but Aaron made it really hard. I didn’t want it to come down to a major blow up, so I wasn’t quite sure how to handle it.

There was a knock at the door
,
and since Aaron was closest to it, he pulled it open. J
a
yden was standing on the porch
and s
he said hi to
him,
but he just left the door open and walked away.

“Hey,” I said, jumping up from the couch. “I was waiting for your call. Come on in.”

“Hey, Jayden,” Jesse said.

“Good morning,” she smiled. Looking at me she said, “Actually I have something in my car for you. I’ll be right back.”

Before I could respond she turned around and began walking to her car. Out of curiosity
,
I followed after her and asked,
“What could you po
ssibly have for me?”

“Food,” she answered over her shoulder.

“Food?
”

She turned around before opening the car door. “
I told you
I like to cook
, remember?
And I especially like to cook for other people, so get used to it.”
She opened the door and pulled out a brown grocery bag and h
anded it to me. It was pretty heavy
,
and whate
ver was inside was still warm. Then s
he grabbed another bag that looked a little lighter.

“Wow, what do I owe you?” I asked.

With a laugh she
softly
kissed my lips
and replied, “Just that.”

Like a puppy I followed her back into the house.
Once in the kitchen
,
she began explaining the contents of the bag
s
as she pulled out each dish, and
Jesse joined us with a smile on his face.
Before us was a feast of barbecued ribs, spicy buffalo wings, potato salad, baked beans with sausage, and homemade salsa with a bag of tortilla chips.
             
“And…” she pulled out what
seemed to be the last item, “…a
pple pie.”

“Ho
ly crap!” Jesse exclaimed. “Is that all fo
r Ty? Jayden, make him share.
”

“It’s for all of you,” she told him. “I
think
there’s enough for your friends that are coming over to watch the game—if you
want
to share with them,” she smiled.

“Sweet,” he replied. “You’re awesome.”

When Jesse left the kitchen, Jayden raised her eyebrows at me. “I’m awesome.”

“You most certainly are,” I replied, pulling her close for a kiss.

“I hear there’s good food in here,” Aaron
interrupted
, entering the kitchen. At the same time the front door opened and Jack and
D
evin
came into the house.

“It actually smells good in here for once,” Jack
announced
, sniffing the air. “What happened to the dirty sock
aroma
?”

Jack said hi to Jayden and the guys gathered in the front room and began predicting the outcome of the game they were going to watch. Jesse came into the kitchen and asked if it was okay to eat the food because he was starving. For a skinny kid, he sure ate a lot.

“Are you ready to go?” I asked Jayden.

“Where are we going?”

“I have no idea. You were the one that said she’d call me with a ‘plan,
’
”
I smiled. “Surely it doesn’t consist of hanging out with a bunch of rowdy guys and watching sports, does it?”

“Well,
I
don’t mind—I actually do it all the t
im
e—but maybe the guys might care,
” she
added
uncertainly, glancing out at Aaron.
“
But I don’t want you to miss watching the game with your friends—”

“You should stay,” Jesse said, filling
a
plate with food. “I think Megan’s coming over, too. She’d like not being the only girl for once.”

The kitchen suddenly filled up with bodies trying to get at the food, so I pulled Jayden into the front room and asked her what she wanted to do.

“Unless you really want to get out of the house, I’m perfectly fine hanging out here.
We can always leave if you change your mind.”

“Okay,” I agreed. I prayed
that A
aron wouldn’t start any tr
ouble, but I really did want the guys
to get to know her better.