Chapter 21 #2
The game kept going. Faye and Cammie were a force to be reckoned with. Faye guessed “airplane,” “cafeteria,” and “anklet” from drawings that mainly looked like blobs. Dad and Chase rallied once Chase stopped drawing vegetables and started sticking to basic shapes.
Through it all, Jase and I stayed on the same wavelength. Half the time, he didn’t even finish a picture before I spit out the answer. Sometimes he’d look at my mess of a drawing and somehow pull the right word out of thin air. Each time, there was a small spark between us.
By the time the last round hit, the score was tied between us and the girls.
“Final showdown,” Chase announced. “Losers on cleaning duty, winners get bragging rights.”
Cammie stood and cracked her knuckles. “You’re going down.”
Faye looked determined and a little flushed from laughing.
She started drawing. A rounded shape. A long line. Some squiggles.
“Uh … a balloon?” Faye guessed.
Cammie kept drawing.
“A whale? A bicycle.”
She added two stick-like things to the bottom.
“An elephant!”
The timer buzzed.
Cammie spun around. “It was Florida.”
“That was Florida?” Jase couldn’t hold back his laughter.
“Honey, you gave it legs.” Chase’s shoulders shook.
“That’s the panhandle!” She pointed at the drawing. “And that’s the peninsula.”
“At least we tried,” Faye offered. “Besides, the guys have to get theirs right in order to win.”
“No problem.” I got up for my turn, but swallowed hard when I read the word.
Dad flipped the hourglass.
I drew a square with a triangular roof. Then, because my brain didn’t know how to stop, I added three stick figures in front of it. Three little dots above their heads, like the stars Jase had put on Faye’s bracelet.
Jase stared for half a second. His eyes moved to Faye and back, and something flickered in them.
“Home,” he guessed quietly.
My chest squeezed. “Yeah.”
Cammie groaned. “This game is rigged.”
Chase clapped his hands together. “All right, all right. Dylan and Jase win.”
Cammie shrugged. “Good game, partner. We’ll win next time.”
Faye laughed. “We definitely need a rematch.”
Jase and I began picking up the markers and folding the game board as everyone else took dishes into the kitchen.
He looked at me as he grabbed the game box off the table. “Nice drawing.”
“You guessed pretty fast,” I replied.
He met my eyes for a heartbeat, something vulnerable hidden there, then looked away. “Yeah. I guess I knew what you meant.”
That spark moved through me again. I wanted to say a dozen things, but couldn’t find the words.
Instead, I went with, “We make a good team.”
“Always have,” he agreed.
The house was quiet when I wandered downstairs later.
The digital clock on the microwave glowed, telling me it was just after two in the morning. My brain couldn’t turn off after a day of travel, laughter, family, and the way Jase had said, “Nice drawing,” at the end of our Pictionary game, like it meant something more to him.
I poured myself a glass of water and sat at the island, staring into the dark. The light above the stove cast a soft glow across the granite countertop. “You planning on staying down here all night?”
I looked up.
Jase stood in the doorway, barefoot, wearing a T-shirt and a pair of sweats. His hair was rumpled, but he still looked far too cute for his own good.
“Couldn’t sleep.” I shrugged. “Figured this way I wouldn’t wake you and Faye up.”
As far as everyone else in the house knew, Faye was spending the night in my room, but Jase had joined us shortly after everyone had gone to bed.
“Well, she’s passed out, but you’ve never been able to sneak out without me noticing.” He leaned against the opposite counter, his gaze holding mine for a beat before he looked away. Silence stretched between us.
Finally, he sighed. “We probably should talk.”
My stomach dropped. “Yeah. Probably.”
He poured a glass of water, then took a sip. “So, the night at the villa. What was that really about?”
This was my chance to lay it all on the table and see what would happen. “I’m not exactly sure when, but I feel like ever since Faye came into the picture, she’s turned my life upside down.”
He nodded. “Mine too.”
“We’ve shared girls before and nothing ever came of it,” I continued. “But once she came to visit us in LA, I was sure I wanted more.”
He cocked his head to the side. “I get that, but what does that have to do with what happened between you and me?”
I took a deep breath. “Somewhere along the way, while I was trying to figure things out about her, I realized that the more I wanted wasn’t just with Faye. It includes you. I probably should have talked to you about that before just diving in and kissing you, huh?”
He chuckled. “The kiss definitely caught me off guard. And the blow job after? Well, that wasn’t something I thought would ever happen in a million years.”
“Sorry—”
“You don’t need to apologize,” he jumped in. “I wasn’t grossed out or pissed off or anything like that. Just surprised.”
“That’s fair. I didn’t exactly ease us into it.”
“No,” he agreed. “You really didn’t.”
There was no anger in his tone. Just honesty.
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’ve never thought about you like that before. Not romantically. Not sexually. You’ve always just been … you. My best friend. My brother.”
“Those things are still true,” I said quietly.
“I know.” He looked at me then, really looked. “But I have thought about how weird it’s going to be when we’re not on the same team. Different cities. Different schedules. Not living side-by-side anymore. I didn’t expect it to mess with me so much, but it does.”
Something twisted in my chest. “Yeah. Same.”
He exhaled slowly. “So when the other night happened, it was startling. But it didn’t feel wrong. Just unexpected. It’s not like they make an instruction manual for how to feel when your stepbrother goes down on you.”
It was my turn to laugh. “You’re ridiculous.”
He smiled. “What I can tell you, though, is that I’m not shutting it down. I’m not pretending it didn’t happen. I might not be ready to slap a label on it or promise something I don’t fully understand yet. But I’m willing to see where things go, not just with Faye but with you too.”
Relief washed through me. “That’s all I was hoping for. I don’t need answers right now. I just didn’t want you to regret it or think that I was trying to force something.”
“I don’t think that. And for the record, I don’t regret any of it.”
My pulse kicked up.
He held my gaze. “We’ll take things slowly without blowing up what we already have.”
“That works for me,” I agreed. “I’m not in a rush.”
The tension in my body eased.
“Thanks for talking to me.”
“Yeah,” he replied.
Soft footsteps sounded on the stairs, and Faye appeared at the edge of the kitchen, wrapped in one of my T-shirts, sleep still heavy in her eyes. She took one look at us and lifted an eyebrow. “Am I interrupting?”
“No.” Jase gave her a grin. “We’re good.”
I nodded. “Yeah. We’re good.”