Page 110 of More For Me

“Don’t be nosey, Rosie,” Everly says primly, and there’s a chorus of outcry from the table.

“Are you kidding me, right now?” Jasmine asks. “Within like, twenty seconds of meeting me, you were both bugging me for information about me and River. You barely introduced yourself first.”

“That’s different,” Everly says in a haughty voice.

“How?”

“Because we’re very charming.”

I grin at her, not even caring that they’re all staring at us.

“Come on,” Alex says. “You have to give us something.”

I hold Everly’s gaze. “We’re dating.”

Rose rolls her eyes. “Duh. We all know you went out last night. Those aren’t details.”

Everly looks like she isn’t sure what to say, so I take over. “We had dinner and went dancing.” I find her hand under the table and give it a squeeze. “We had a very nice chat about road trip snacks in the car. Are those enough details?”

“You had dinner and talked about snacks?” Fox asks incredulously. “And that took you all night?”

Leo rolls his eyes. “Honestly, I can totally picture the two of them discussing snacks for the entire evening. They probably made flowcharts and shit. God knows I’ve witnessed them have more ridiculous conversations.”

“We also went to Echo Park,” I add, because there’s no way I’m telling them about the hotel. They have a good point about Everly and I being equally nosey when they started dating their significant others, but I don’t really care. I’m happy to be a hypocrite if it means protecting what we shared last night.

Across the table, Alex and Rose go still, staring at Everly with wide eyes. “You went to Echo Park?” Alex whispers after a moment.

Everly’s cheeks flame as she meets their gaze, but there’s a little smile on her face. “Yes. And we rode the swan boats at night.”

“You were always obsessed with those stupid things,” River grumbles, shaking his head. “I don’t understand the appeal at all.”

But Alex shocks me by bursting into tears.

“You rode the swan boats together?” she asks, hands over her mouth. “Together?”

I look between her, Everly, and Rose, who’s eyes have gone red and watery. “Uh, yeah? One time I heard Everly say it was something she’d always wanted to do.”

“Oh, that’s just…that’s just so nice,” Alex says, wiping at her eyes.

“Really nice,” Rose agrees, beaming at me.

River raises his hand like he’s one of my students. “Um. Anyone else have zero clue what’s going on right now?”

Fox, Leo, Jas, and I also raise our hands.

“Don’t worry about it,” Rose says, dabbing at her eyes. But she’s grinning huge between the two of us. “I’m so happy for you guys.”

“Because they rode pedal boats?” River asks, bewildered. “You have to drive all the way up past Westlake for that place, and it’s always so crowded. And I read that they’ve tested that water and it’s totally gross, actually—”

“Shut up, River,” Rose says.

Feeling very confused, I cast a desperate glance at Leo, who’s been mostly quiet this entire time. “Save me,” I mutter.

He rolls his eyes, but changes the subject. “Fox was about to tell us about his meeting with his agent yesterday.”

Fox’s face lights up, apparently losing the urge to rag on us at the mere mention of his agent.

“She has me scheduled for three photo shoots this week,” he says. “And yes, I know the modeling thing is really lame, and you’re going to give me shit about it, but she thinks it will help me feel comfortable in front of the camera.”