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“Hey,” Theo answers curtly.
There’s a beat of awkward silence before Ben shuffles away to talk to Gia, and I elbow Theo in the ribs. “You’re such a dick. He likes you!”
“He also looks like he’s been hotboxing his Prius. Seriously, someone needs to put some Visine in his stocking this year for Christmas.”
“Such a dick,” I echo under my breath.
Theo shrugs. “You don’t pay me for my preference in men.”
“Thank God.”
Gia checks her watch as she clicks her heels across the linoleum floor to take a seat on the other side of Theo. “They should be here soon.”
“Oh.” Strangely, the question on my tongue only occurs to me at this very moment. Maybe because this whole thing has been kind of a whirlwind of a week. “Did we ever hear who they’re sending? Sanchez is nice—the dumb to my brother’s dumber, but nice. Olsson has always been cool too. Either of them would be great.”
“Oh, actually,” Gia says with a slight frown, “I forgot to mention. They’re sending a return player. He’s been gone for a while. Apparently, he needs some good press.”
A shiver runs down my spine—from nerves or excitement I can’t tell. Nerves, I decide. Definitely nerves. Because with only a few sentences, I already have a fairly good idea who’s about to walk through that door, even as Gia says his name. Even as a knock sounds at the door and the handle turns to let a small entourage spill inside.
And as big of a space in my head that Ian Chase’s name takes up—his actual presence is a hundred times worse. Or better. I’m not sure.
He’s changed since I last saw him; his hair is longer, his gray eyes are harder—but even with the years between the last time I saw him and now, that small smile he gives me still does the exact same thing to my insides that it did when I was sixteen. Earlier than that, if I were really being honest.
“Lila?”
The recognition in his eyes is colored with a touch of confusion, which is fair, given that the last time he saw me, I was just a knobby-kneed teen with braces whose boobs hadn’t come in yet. He’s not the only one who did some growing up since we last saw each other.
“Hey, Cupcake,” I answer, pushing up from my chair and feeling my lips curl as I cross the room to meet him.
He makes a face. “We’re still on about that?”
“You don’t just forget someone eating half a dozen cupcakes and then throwing them up on my aunt’s favorite rug.”
He groans. “Serves me right for being your taste tester. Haven’t eaten a cupcake since.”
I laugh, and for a moment, we’re both just standing there, neither of us entirely sure what to do with the other. It never used to be awkward between us. Before, he’d have already picked me up and spun me around until I threatened him to put me down.
Finally, he extends his arms, pulling me into them. “Get over here, kid.”
Kid.
That really shouldn’t sting as much as it does. Kid. Seems ridiculous since my boobs are currently squashed against his abs like overfilled water balloons. If the awkward pat between my shoulders is any indication, I think he might be picking up on that fact also. I snort before I can stop myself, and he cocks his head at me as he pulls away.
“You do realize I’m two years away from thirty, right? I don’t think the whole kid thing applies anymore.”
He frowns, a wrinkle forming between his eyes as he considers this. For a moment, he looks almost uncomfortable. Like he’s just now considering that I’m not the kid he knew. My ego doesn’t know what to do with that. His eyes widen a fraction, and I feel the weight of them as they move over my face, flicking down the length of me so quickly I might almost miss it, but long enough that I feel a flush at the back of my neck. I watch his throat bob with a swallow, his lips turning down in a slight frown.
“I guess you’re right,” he admits quietly. “Habit.”
“Yeah, well.” I jut out my chin. “Definitely grown up now.”
There’s a beat of silence before, “Yeah, I guess you are.”
It’s an innocent statement, but it gets me all flustered just the same. Not very good for my argument about being all grown up.
“It’s good to see you,” he tells me.
I nod, my smile tight but miraculously still on my face. How did a beard and a few creases at the corner of his eyes somehow make him hotter?
