Shaking his head, Sebastian said, “I’m not going to kiss her,” as he began pacing the small bedroom.
“Look, you’re overthinking this. Just tell Mikey how you feel and find out if she feels the same way,” Jonathan said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal.
“And if she doesn’t?” Sebastian asked, watching as his brother pursed his lips as he seemed to think that over.
For a moment, he didn’t say anything, and then finally, Jonathan said, “You still have me?”
“How in the hell is this helping?” Sebastian asked as he watched his brother reach between his bed and the wall and pull out a bag of M&Ms.
“I’m giving you hope,” Jonathan said as he shoved a large handful of candy in his mouth.
“By depressing the hell out of me?” Sebastian demanded, shaking his head in disgust as he reached down to grab his bag only to frown when he spotted the football cleats on the floor. “I thought Mom said that you couldn’t play football this year,” Sebastian said as he threw his brother a questioning look.
“She changed her mind,” Jonathan said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal while Sebastian found himself wondering how he managed to pull that off.
It took his brother forty-five minutes to get to Radcliffe Academy, which meant that it took three hours out of their mother’s day to bring him back and forth to school. Add that on top of running her own business and looking after them, she really didn’t have a lot of time to run Jonathan back to school for late-night practices, games, and team meetings, which were all requirements for Radcliffe Academy’s junior varsity football team since the varsity team got the fields right after school for practice.
“Is Dad bringing you?” Sebastian asked as he threw his bag over his shoulder and double-checked that he had his iPad.
“No need,” Jonathan said with a satisfied sigh and a pointed look at the door. “You’re going to be late for your date.”
Biting back a sigh, Sebastian headed for the door as he said, “It’s not a date,” and-
“But you want it to be!”
-decided that he could be a few minutes late.
“Wait. Why are you closing the door?” came the nervously murmured question as Sebastian dropped his bag on the floor and reached for the roll of duct tape.
CHAPTER19
God, she was adorable when she was pissed, Cole couldn’t help but notice as he watched the small teenage girl sitting across from him struggle with the need to grab the napkin holder and-
“I vote yes,” his partner in crime said with a firm nod and a sip of her juice box.
“Never going to happen,” Chloe said with a glare that was just too damn adorable for words.
“It’s a good deal,” Cole pointed out.
“It really is,” Katie murmured in agreement as she shifted her attention to the box of crayons that she’d grabbed for this meeting.
“No, it’s not,” Chloe said, her glare never leaving him as she folded her arms over her chest and leaned back in her chair.
“Then, what’s the plan?” Cole asked, even as he found himself wondering what the hell he was thinking. He should be at the dance finding out why Amanda Johnson couldn’t seem to take her eyes off him during English class, but…
He didn’t like the idea of leaving the teenage girl whose gaze was now shifting between him and the baseball bat by the door alone on another Saturday night. She needed him, Cole thought with a heartfelt sigh as he was forced to reach over and gently tap the girl, who seemed to have anger issues, on her nose to draw her attention back to him.
“I’m going to need you to focus here,” Cole said as he dropped his hand away and helped himself to her Coke as he waited for her to agree to this plan so that they could get started.
“And I’m going to need you to drop this,” Chloe said as she got up and made her way to the cabinet, where she grabbed a box of microwave popcorn.
“And I’m trying to help,” Cole said, wondering why she was being so goddamn stubborn about this.
“We don’t need your help,” Chloe said as she put a popcorn packet in the microwave.
“We need a car,” Katie said as she climbed off her chair and made her way to the refrigerator and grabbed the chocolate milk.
“We have a car,” Chloe pointed out as she grabbed a large bowl from the cabinet.