Page 15 of Layla

Her grin doesn’t fade. “Lennon is not boring. Trust me.”

I lean in a little closer. “Does Mr. Emo have some tricks up his sleeve in the bedroom?”

She fans her face a little. “A lady never tells.”

We’re both cracking up at the idea of Haylee as a lady when James sticks his head through the curtain. He takes one look at us and sighs. “Do I even want to know?”

“Probably not,” I tell him.

“We’re just talking about how long it’s going to take Layla to hook up with the hot new security guard,” Haylee adds.

I groan. “I am not hooking up with the new security guard.”

“Why not?” James pushes through the curtain. “Don’t tell me you’re losing your touch, girl.”

“Who’s losing her touch?” Dylan asks, appearing behind James. I groan again, louder this time. Of course it’s too much to ask that I might get a few minutes of privacy on this damn bus.

“Layla,” James says, sounding way too happy about it. “She’s got the hots for the new security guard.”

“I do not!”

Haylee snickers. “It’s way too easy to get you worked up, you know that, right?”

“I hate all of you,” I mutter. I pick up my book. “And I’m busy, so you can shut up.”

Dylan grabs the book from my hands as he plops onto the couch on my other side. “You’ve read this a hundred times,” he says.

“I’ve also listened to your nonsense a hundred times—more than that, actually. So why don’t you leave me alone and go back to the front?”

He makes a face. “Willa and Lance are making out up there.”

James groans. “That is so not cool, man. Why did I ever give him permission to date my baby sister anyhow?”

It takes a moment before I realize that they’re all staring at me. “What?”

Dylan looks confused. “James just indicated that Lance needed his permission to date his sister, and you didn’t say a single word about the patriarchy or what a controlling Neanderthal he is.”

James is frowning. “Yeah, usually you’d have tried to rip me a new asshole by now. Are you sure there’s not something wrong?”

Okay, clearly these people know me way too well. But Haylee smiles. “I think she’s just daydreaming about the hot bodyguard.”

I throw a pillow at her. “That’s enough from you or I’m going to tell the boys about the time we played Truth or Dare and I convinced you to dance on that bar Coyote Ugly style.”

Dylan and James both crack up as Haylee throws the pillow back at me. I decide this is the perfect opportunity to deflect the attention from me and my supposed—though completely nonexistent—crush on the new bodyguard. I grab a controller from the cabinet under the TV. “Who wants to play Mario Kart?”

“I’m in,” Dylan says immediately, grabbing a second controller.

“Me too,” Haylee says.

“Better option than watching Lance stick his tongue down my sister’s throat,” James mumbles.

I throw the pillow at him this time. “Your sister is an independent woman who can do whatever she likes with the tongues of whoever she likes. Stop being such a misogynistic ass.”

He grabs a controller, grinning at me. “Now that sounds more like the Layla we all know and love.”