Locked Heart (Cash Me Outside 1)

“Boyfriends, huh?” Locke asks with a slight edge in his tone.

“I don’t do boyfriends,” I say. “I think Seb’s messing with you to see how you’ll react.”

“Okay, fine,” Seb says. “I actually meant all those guys I’d scare off by showing up and pretending to be your boyfriend.” He laughs. “They’d scramble like I’d lit their farts on fire or something.”

“Hmm, how many guys are we talking here?” Locke asks.

I look at my imaginary watch on my wrist. “Oh, wow, look at the time. We should get ready to go if we’re gonna hit Vegas before it’s too fucking dark to see on these desert roads.”

Locke throws his arm around my shoulders. “I’m not under the delusion that you’re still the same blushing virgin you were when I met you.”

Seb howls with laughter. “This guy popped your cherry? That is so awesome.”

“How much did you tell them about our past?” Locke asks.

“Not … a lot …”

“Nothing,” Seb answers, and I scowl at him.

“He didn’t tell us until we booked Death Valley. Then he blurted it all out over a bottle of tequila. That wasn’t a fun cleanup.”

“Seb. Stop. Talking.” I pinch the bridge of my nose.

“You should’ve seen him on prom night,” Locke says. “He—”

I glance up at the roof. “God? If you’re up there. Please bring me home now. I’m ready to die of embarrassment. Thanks.”

Locke squeezes me close to him. “Oh, honey, you might want to be looking down for that.”

“Is this gang up on Cash day?”

“Every day is gang up on Cash day,” Locke and Seb say at the exact same time.

Freaky.

Seb smiles. “Okay, I approve. He seems chill enough to deal with your shit.” My supposed best friend goes back to his seat.

“That’s it?” Locke asks. “That was the extent of my interrogation?”

“Oh, that’s just the start,” I mumble. “Let me go pack some things and we can head out.”

“You’re going to Vegas early?” Thorne asks.

“Yup. Locke and I have a lot of catching up to do. Like, a lot.”

Thorne looks concerned.

“I mean sex, Thorne. Lots and lots of sex.”

“Thanks,” Thorne says dryly. “I had no fucking idea what you meant.”

Locke’s body heat increases to the point I can feel it against me. When I look up at him, his cheeks are pink. I made him blush? It has always been the other way around. This is so awesome.

“What’s wrong, then?” I ask Thorne.

“Can you at least let me get a background check on this guy before I let him take you away?”

Beside me, Locke stiffens, but I take hold of his arm and squeeze it in reassurance.

“I’ve known Locke since I was a kid. He’s not a psychopath. So no, you can’t do a background check.”

The tension leaves Locke’s frozen frame.

“Besides, what do I always say when you fear for my life?” I ask.

Thorne sighs. “That you’ll be worth more dead than alive.”

“Think of the album sales!” I say enthusiastically.

Thorne lets it go, but I don’t miss the way he eyes Locke as I pack a bag of clothes and shit I’ll need for the next few days.

If Locke notices, he doesn’t acknowledge it. He watches me with a warm smile that’s so him, it makes me move faster.

The sooner we get to Vegas, the sooner our few short naked days together can begin.

I throw my duffel over my shoulder. “See you fuckers in four days outside Caesars.”

“You’re blowing us off for our whole vacation?” Seb asks. “Who’s gonna come with me to a gay bar seeing as the straight boys over there refuse to?”

Jasper glares. “We only refuse because you always pick up some guy and leave us there without telling us you’re going and then laugh the next day when you realize we were hanging out for an hour in a bar with no pussy in sight. None that are interested in us anyway.”

Seb laughs. “Okay, fair enough, but that is the funnest game ever. Or was until you ruined it by catching on quicker and quicker.”

“We’re out,” I cut in.

I take Locke’s hand in my free one but realize as soon as we’re off the bus, I have no idea which way to go.

Locke points. “This way.”

Walking hand in hand, I’m thrown back to high school and the very first time this ever happened.

Just two inexperienced seventeen-year-olds walking home from school one day because my piece-of-shit car had broken down and Locke had said I could walk him home and then he’d drop me off in his mom’s car.

We’d barely gotten a block when he made his move.

Suddenly my hand was in his and my confident exterior I’ve always been able to show slipped away, revealing an insecure boy who had a serious crush on the new kid in school.

We may be older now, but the feeling is the same.

This guy has me nervous and wanting at the same time. I try to be confident, but my trembling gives away how much he affects me.