Page 77 of The Stalker Snafu

“Yep,” Finn chirped, eyes shining as he looked back and forth between me and Julian.

Julian frowned and shook his head at the other boy. “That isn’t sanitary, Finn. You had no clue what diseases she may have been carrying, and it isn’t safe to⁠—”

“Whoa.” I barely held back a scoff. “Excuse me again? You’re worried about me giving Finn a disease? You should be worried about my cupcake. He murdered her right in front of my eyes, and the nightmares still haven’t stopped.”

Julian stepped closer and curled an arm around my shoulders, which tensed on instinct, and he herded me toward the couch. “Why don’t you have a seat? I’ll make you a nice cup of coffee.”

“You’re not her servant,” Rafe protested as my feet stopped fighting Julian’s herding. A coffee sounded lovely. “Why are you all spoiling her?”

“She’s a guest, Rafe,” Julian said through clenched teeth. “Everyone try and be civil until I get back, please.”

“Grab me a beer?” Finn asked Julian, who rolled his eyes and disappeared into the kitchen.

I slumped down on the couch as far away from Rafe as possible. The others exchanged glances, but Rafe was the one to break the silence with a short grunt. “Can someone explain what’s going on? Did you all have a crush on the same piece of ass?”

“Hey, I’m a person,” I chimed in as Oliver and Adrian were quick to voice their denials.

“I don’t have a crush on anyone,” Oliver claimed, crossing his arms.

“It’s not like that,” Adrian added, sending his twin a censuring glare. “And you need to either cool it or take a walk if you’re gonna keep being an ass.”

Rafe chose to shut his mouth, but the line of his jaw stayed taut.

“For the record, I knew she had a boyfriend, and it’s not like I was going to try anything,” Finn announced to the room, before mumbling under his breath, “I only proposed the one time.”

“You what?”

“Hold on.” Oliver stepped toward Finn, ignoring Rafe’s outburst. “You knew she had a boyfriend, and you were still talking about asking her out?”

Finn tugged on his ear and smiled sheepishly. “Well, when you put it like that…”

“Did you know it was Kincaid?” Adrian asked Finn with narrowed eyes.

Finn frowned, glancing around at all of us. “That what was Kincaid?”

“That he’s her boyfriend,” Adrian answered as if it were obvious—as if he hadn’t been just as shocked himself earlier.

Finn’s eyes bugged out, arm dropping to his side as he turned to gape at me. “You’re dating Kincaid?”

“Um, yeah?” I answered unsurely, before clearing my throat and forcing a more confident tone that somehow ended up sounding like Batman. “Yes.”

Finn gave me an odd look before nodding to himself. “Huh. Not who I would’ve guessed.”

What was that supposed to mean?

Julian came back through the door with a steaming mug in one hand and a bottle in the other. I gladly accepted the coffee with a “thank you.” He smiled, handed the beer to Finn, and took a seat in the armchair I’d abandoned.

No one batted an eye at Finn drinking underage—let alone during the middle of the afternoon. I shook it off as he took a pull and instead focused on my coffee.

The mug was almost too hot to hold, but I embraced it in both hands and soaked up the warmth as I plunged my nose into the wafting steam. Coffee heaven.

Of course, black coffee wasn’t to my taste, so I balanced the mug between my thighs and dug out a few sugar packets from my backpack.

“You carry sugar around with you?” Adrian asked, his brow rising higher with each packet I poured in.

“I told you she’s a genius. I even started doing it myself.” Finn beamed proudly. He set the beer down and grabbed a handful of identical sugar packets from his pocket. “Need more, Cupcake?”

I grinned as Julian groaned. He looked pained as he watched me struggle to stir the sugar in without a spoon. The coffee scalded the tip of my finger, but it was worth it.