Page 24 (1/2)

Finally she declared, "Well I don’t knohat the right word is, but anyone who adopts a special-needs child and raises money for charity and keeps his end of the deals he makes isn’t a disappointment in my book" With a sht pole"

"Stuck up! I am not stuck up!" I exclaimed, pleased as fuck by what she’d said, even if it did end with a jab

Bianca waved a hand in the air "Oh please, Jackson, you’re so highfalutin, you think your shit tastes like sherbet"

Then she slapped her hand over her mouth and stared at oodness, I’m so sorry," she breathed "That was just classless and rude"

I kept on laughing, so hard tears formed in my eyes Her expression was classic Had anyone else said that to ed, "Please tellto put a retroactive stop pay," I said between gasps of air

She buried her face in her hands and groaned "Iflike that, she’d knocklike a lunatic, I reached out and squeezed her shoulder "Don’t worry about it You’ve been givingto like it"

She raised her head and looked at me Then she looked at my hand on her shoulder

I snatched ruffly,silence, she said, "Turn here"

Wishing for a ti a woman who hadn’t invited hborhood A few more turns and I found her street

"The white one on the left with the red door," she said, pointing to a house

As I pulled to a stop at the curb, Bianca cried softly, "Oh!"

I followed her gaze out theA man sat in a chair on the front porch of her house When he saw her, he rose and stood next to the door, waiting

At one o’clock in the , handsoht was dih to see that

Shit

Crushed by disappointment and an irrational, unwarranted jealousy, I said stiffly, "Your boyfriend?"

Bianca’s head shake was violent She recoiled frousted tone revealed exactly how she felt about the man on the porch Obviously whatever had happened between thery, bitter, and with zero desire to see hie and a need to protect her that was so strong I alet rid of hirowled I reached for the door, but Bianca stopped me

"No" She turned to me with an intensity I’d never seen in her before She laid her hand on aze dropped to my mouth, she leaned toward me, and my heart stopped dead in eon all cylinders on account of the sexual tension between Jackson and ht over how erratically he’d been driving,his big, warentle yet distinctly possessive grip, and seeing Trace standing on ht

So yes I kissed Jackson

Hard

That wasn’t the bad part His lips were soft, his face was smooth, and he smelled even better up close The bad part was that he didn’t kisshis mouth, and had in fact frozen stiff as a corpse left out in the snoithdrew a few inches and sheepishly looked at him

He said, "Did you just kiss me to try to make him jealous?"

I said, "Um"

We stared at each other I felt like every one of hter fluid and set on fire