Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81426 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81426 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“I made us both this new recipe we have for caramel apple cider.”
That sounded awesome.
“Get rained out?” he asked.
“Yeah, so I thought I’d come say hi. You talk to Mom?”
“Yeah. I can’t believe she and Dad are going on a last-minute vacation for Thanksgiving. They’re enjoying their retirement entirely too much,” Sawyer said playfully, and I laughed. He was right. They were having a blast in Florida, and we were both happy for them. They were great parents and deserved it. “I’m taking Carter there for Christmas. Are you taking Jude?”
Well, shit. I hadn’t even thought of that. Obviously, my situation with Jude was different from Sawyer and Carter’s. Hell, this whole thing was only happening because he wanted to experiment with me and because he wanted Rush to think he had a boyfriend, which still made me uncomfortable at times. There were moments I thought I got it, but then others, I wondered why in the fuck it mattered what Rush thought. The only thing I could think of was Jude still had feelings for him, and I cared much more about that than I liked to admit.
“Not sure.” I shrugged. “We’ll see what happens. That’s kind of a big step.” There was a sort of twisting in my chest, like the words had been wrong. I was pretty sure I wanted Jude to go home with me for the holidays, that I wanted him to meet my parents, which was a shock to my system. I’d never taken a lover home for a holiday before, but I’d never dated or fake-dated someone I considered my best friend either. “Maybe,” I tacked on at the end, and Sawyer grinned.
“Oh, wow. Cam has it bad. Camden and Jude sitting in a tree,” my brother sang, and I rolled my eyes.
“Fuck you very much, Baby Burke. Are we really going to start teasing each other? Because I’ll win.”
“Only because you don’t play fair.”
“I play to win,” I countered before taking a drink of the cider. “Holy fuck, that’s good.”
“That’s what Carter says to me every night.”
A laugh jumped out of my mouth. The changes in Sawyer were incredible. Carter had helped him find the confidence I’d always known was there. “Eh, must be in the Burke genes. Though I’m sure I’m better at that too.”
“Okay, this is getting weird.”
“You started it.”
We finished the coffee cake and cider, chatting for a while before Sawyer needed to go back to work.
The rain was still coming down, so I jogged to my truck, my pants and hoodie wet when I jumped inside. My cell beeped, and I pulled it out to see a text from Jude.
Lunch?
Now, obviously, I’d just eaten coffee cake, but I also didn’t plan on passing up a chance to hang out with Jude.
You really like going on dates with me, don’t you, Beautiful?
Oops, sorry. I texted the wrong person!
I frowned just as another text came through.
That was a joke.
I know, I replied, even though I hadn’t fucking known…and probably shouldn’t care. Jude could go to lunch with whomever the fuck he wanted, but it was better when he chose me.
I can be there in about half an hour, Jude added, and he didn’t even have to say where. We were always at Fever Pitch.
See you then. I tossed my cell to the seat beside me and made the quick drive to the restaurant. I would be there early, but what the fuck else did I have to do?
A few minutes later, I was sitting in a booth at the bar and grill.
Should I invite Jude home with me for Christmas? Fuck, I really wanted him there, wanted my parents to meet him and for him to feel part of a family. He has that with Rush… Which he did, and that was fine and all, but he could have it with me too.
But then that made me consider that he would be with Rush, Lincoln, and Rush’s mom for Christmas. Or hell, maybe he would go home to Virginia to see his dad, though I didn’t think so, which was sad. But inviting someone home was a big step, as I’d told Sawyer, especially when the guy in question was your pretend boyfriend.
And yeah, I needed to stop obsessing about this. Jude was making me lose my damn mind.
“Where’s your other half?”
My eyes snapped up at the sound of Linc’s voice. “Hey, Short Stuff.” Rush stood beside him and smiled at me. “Jude’s meeting me here in a bit.”
“I was talking about Sawyer because you guys are usually here together, but I guess Jude makes more sense. It’s so weird. I can’t believe you’re going to fall in love with Rush’s best friend.”
“Who said anything about falling in love with him?” I asked.
“Don’t hurt him,” Rush said, which rubbed me raw like sandpaper.