“Who you’ve bribed into being your mentor,” Jake guessed drolly.

I felt another pang in my chest at the reminder of how well he knew me. I shrugged it off as if it wasn’t a big deal he knew all the simple stuff about me that made me me. “I tried. He’s too concerned with impressing Mom and Dad to commit, but I’ll wear him down.”

Jake gave a huff a laughter. “I have no doubt.”

Brushing off the moment, I asked about his brother Lukas.

Jake instantly grinned. “Oh, he says hi.”

“Tell him I say hi back.” It occurred to me Jake must’ve mentioned he’d run into me, and I wondered if his whole family knew. I also wondered how they felt about that.

“He said to say that he saw the picture of you and Lowe on Facebook and you’re looking, and I quote, ‘hotter than ever.’”

Remembering Lukas’s crush on me, I laughed. “He hasn’t changed. He was worse than you. I imagine he’s breaking hearts all over a college campus as we speak.”

“Well, yeah, but he tells me he’s met ‘the one.’ He slept with her first week in and she’s an even bigger player than he is and doesn’t feel like settling down with the first freshman she banged. So Lukas’s game plan is to outplay her in some weird, modern mating ritual.”

Laughter bubbled between my lips as I attempted to ignore the fact that I had a new ache from missing Lukas too. In my intense pain over losing Jake, I’d almost forgotten how much I cared about his little brother.

We yammered on for a while about family and then somehow, the conversation got turned around to my dating life.

“Am I in a relationship?” I repeated Jake’s quiet question and then slowly shook my head. “No. I was back in freshman year. Since then, though, I’ve not really been looking for anything serious. I’m just focused on college and my friends.”

Jake nodded thoughtfully and then asked, “What happened to the guy from freshman year? Were you together long?”

“About ten months.”

This appeared to surprise Jake, and not in a good way. I still knew him well enough to know that the flicker of hardness in his dark eyes meant he didn’t like something. I pushed it aside. “That’s a while,” he finally responded, taking a long sip of his cooling coffee.

“Yeah.” I didn’t say anything else because I didn’t want to talk about it. Especially not with Jake. “So,” I drew in a deep breath, hating that my stomach churned just at the mere thought of my question, “how long have you and Melissa been together?”

He stared at me a moment, perhaps trying to gauge if I could really handle the answer to my question. He put his empty coffee mug down and sat back. “We were friends first. We met sophomore year at the study abroad meeting, actually. Our friends started hanging out and uh, Melissa wanted to date but … um, well, we finally got there at the end of sophomore year so that takes us to six months of actual dating.”

“She’s beautiful. And she seems really nice, Jake,” I said. And I meant it. I didn’t like it, but I meant it.

Jake’s expression softened. “I almost forgot how kind you are.”

“Our history is not her fault.”

Our eyes locked and the air around us grew so thick and hot, it felt like even my skin couldn’t breathe. I stood up, exhaling heavily, like I’d just come out of an oppressive sauna after being trapped inside for days. “I’ve got to go. I need to hit the gym.”

“You work out?”

I nodded, watching as he unfolded himself from the chair and stood to tower over me. “I still haven’t given up on the idea of applying to the police academy after college, and I think a cop should be in good shape.”

“Of course. I work out too. We should go together.”

I opened my mouth to say no but as soon as I looked up into his warm, eager eyes, I melted. “Okay.”

I was such an idiot.

Chapter Eight

Seconds after I threw the door open and saw Jake standing there, I burst out laughing, delighted at what he was wearing. “You didn’t!”

He grinned back at me. “You said you were going as a cop.”

I giggled as he reached out and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me against his body so he could duck his head and kiss me. My hands automatically wrapped around his neck and my lips parted to let his tongue dance with mine. We came up for air at the sound of a throat clearing. I tensed as I turned to find my dad in the doorway, glaring at Jake.

“Have her back by ten.”

Uh, I didn’t think so. “Dad, we’re going to Hub’s after the dance. A whole group of us.”

Dad’s mouth pressed tight as I begged him with my eyes. “Fine,” he sighed heavily. “Eleven.”

I was going to protest this as well, but Jake squeezed my waist to silence me and answered respectfully, “Eleven it is, Mr. Redford.”

Dad gave him a wary nod before his eyes flickered back to me. He took in my costume and grimaced. Feeling another argument coming on, I pulled out of Jake’s arms and gave my dad a quick kiss on the cheek. “Tell Mom I said goodnight.”

My dad’s expression softened and he brushed my jaw affectionately. “Have a good time, sweetheart.” His focus sharpened on Jake. “But not too good a time.”

“Dad, I’m going with Jake … I’ll have an awful time.”

Jake grunted behind me but I made Dad smile, so it was worth it. I said another goodbye and then Dad closed the door behind us. Jake held my hand as we walked to his truck.

“So, if you’re going to have such an awful time with me … why are we going?” Jake teased.

Glancing up at him from under my lashes, I checked him out in his tight, black, long-sleeved top, black jeans, black boots, and the black cloth with eyeholes cut out tied around his upper face. “I said that to loosen up my dad. If I told him the truth, he’d lock me up until I’m thirty.” I got into Hendrix as he held the door open.

“And what’s the truth?” he asked and then hurried to get into the driver’s side.

“That I’m even more smitten with my boyfriend since he dressed up as a robber to go with my cop costume.”

Jake chuckled. “Smitten?”

“It’s a good word.”