Page 40 of Prickly Pair
“Are you jealous?” Levi asked.
“Yeah,” I admitted.
“Are you jealous of Evie or Matthew?” Mateo asked.
My heart thumped in my chest. “Both of them,” I admitted.
“Maybe you’re a little jealous of Nick too,” Dallas prodded.
“No,” I said immediately. “He just shouldn’t even be around her. We used to fight all the time. You remember that, right?”
Dallas shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, but part of that was because you competed for everything. And frankly, Austin, you won most of the time. He didn’t have a stable family like we did, if I remember correctly. I think I would have punched your smug smirk off your face too if I were in his shoes.”
“We’re too old to keep holding grudges like that,” Levi said.
“Whatever,” I sighed. I bit into a piece of pizza crust. “This wasn’t helpful.”
“It was, because now you’ve been enlightened about Evie,” Dallas said. “What are you gonna do now?”
I didn’t have a single idea.
“I think you should ask her out.” Mateo wiggled his brows. “Why not?”
I could think of a thousand reasonswhy not.
But not a single one of them was strong enough to make me not want to.
Or stop me from wanting her.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Evie
“You will spare no details,” June demanded. “Not a single one.”
“If you do, we’ll know,” Madi promised.
“And if you do, we’ll make you drink another margarita to loosen you up,” Avery teased as she put down the massive glass bottle of a premade mix.
Madi made a face. “It’s going to make us all sick.”
“Everything has made me nauseous lately. This is the best I got at the moment,” Avery sighed.
The four of us sat around the kitchen dining table of Avery’s new house. Her two dogs sat under our feet, heads craned back and eyes on us begging for scraps. Bonnie was a little older, and Bandit was her puppy that Avery and Levi had adopted with her as a surprise to Mateo. Bonnie and Bandit had become part of our ever-growing friend family.
I was the weak link when it came to offering them treats. I dipped a tortilla chip in queso and sighed. “They’re looking at me, Avery,” I said, looking down at Bandit. He let out the softest whine, his tail giving a gentle thump.
“Don’t look him in the eye,” Avery said. “He doesn’t need chips and queso.”
“I don’t know,” I drawled. “I feel like he might.”
Madi leaned over and grabbed his face, giving him kisses on his head. “He’s a good boy. So is Bonnie.”
“Okay, I love the dogs, but I needdetails,” June demanded.
Where the hell did I even start? And was I going to come clean about what I’d said to Austin right now?
“Let’s start with Dr. Sexy,” Madi said. “He’s so dreamy.”
