“Shady as fuck,” Hayden muttered under his breath.
“And shady as fuck,” I agreed. “Last night he asked me to run an errand for him. It wasn’t exactly an errand—he wanted me to go meet someone. At a party.”
Anderson lowered his fork. “At the church thing?”
“Meet who?” Hayden added. His shoulders hunched.
“No freaking out,” I reminded them.
Hayden blinked. Oliver sat up in his seat and Jackson rubbed his chin. Anderson? Well he worked his jaw so hard I thought it may snap.
“His name is Noah and he seems fine. Both of our dads are worried about our social standing and want us to hang out together.”
“Hang out?” Hayden asked. “Is that code for sex?”
“Dammit,” Oliver said, punching Hayden in the shoulder. “I can’t believe you just asked her that! It was a church thing, for Christ’s sake.”
“I’m just trying to figure it out!”
I sighed and rubbed my head. “Stop it. Noah is kind of a nerd who isn’t into all this religion stuff as much as his dad wants him to be. Like me. We’re both in a bind and we agreed that we could help each other out by being friends.”
Hayden snorted.
“Of course he wants to be friends. You’re fucking hot,” Jackson declared. “Who wouldn’t want to be seen with you?”
My cheeks heated at his compliment. “I told him no social media, no kissing, and absolutely no sex. Of any kind.”
“No touching at all,” Oliver added. Then he looked guilty for bossing me. “Sorry. I got carried away. Heaven, I trust you. If you feel like this is something you need to do to keep things on good terms with your father, I get it.”
“Thank you. I really think if I play along, maybe my dad will get the funding from Noah’s father and he’ll back off on some of the other stuff.” I looked around the table. “It sounds like Noah’s dad is even worse. He pays his roommates to spy on him.”
Jackson’s jaw dropped. “Wow. That’s third-level psycho. Are you sure this is safe?”
“I think it will be fine but look, I’ll give you or Amber my location all the time if I’m with him. Full transparency with you guys.”
“Did you tell him about us?” Anderson asked.
“I haven’t told anyone about you,” I confessed. “Although Samantha has her suspicions. I just don’t want my dad to mess up what we’ve got. He’s holding all the strings right now.”
I could tell that didn’t go over well with the guys, but what else could I say. I was trying to be truthful and that was the truth. My father had his thumb on me.
Hayden slung his arm over my shoulder and pulled me in close. “You know we just want you to be safe, right? That more than anything else.”
I nodded and kept on a brave face. “I’m fine. This guy…he’s pretty harmless.”
“Yeah, that’s what we thought about Spencer,” Oliver said quietly. Spencer did seem pretty benign until we found out he was the one stalking and harassing me my senior year. I didn’t fully appreciate how dangerous he was until he tried to attack me at the winter formal. A rock settled in my stomach at the memory.
“He’s not Spencer. And nothing is going to happen. We’ll get through the next few weeks and then I’ll tell my dad it’s just not working and move on, okay?”
They all nodded, well, everyone but Anderson, who looked like he may stab the table with the fork he continued to grip like a weapon in his hand.
“A few weeks,” he finally said. “But after that, we have to come up with something else. This is too hard on you and too hard on us. Deal?”
I held his eyes, green and unforgiving. He was right. This was only a short-term game—nothing longer. I nodded in agreement. “Deal.”
“Yes, Daddy,” I said, holding the phone between the crook of my neck and chin, “Noah was really nice. We hung out at the party and plan on spending some more time together.”
“That’s good to hear, Heaven. I know his father’s been worried about him.”