Charming Like Us (Like Us 7)

Jack looks shocked, his hand runs through his dark hair and stops on his head for a long, long beat.

Shit.

My chest tightens at his reaction and at the mention of an ex. I glance at Joana. “Like you’re grilling Jack right now? You’re closer to calling him your BFF.”

“I already knew Jack before you two started dating. It’s different. I never met Darrien.”

“Darrien?” Jack repeats.

Look at that, she gave him the name of my ex. “Yeah.” I imprison a breath, our eyes locked. Wondering what he’s thinking.

His knee bounces. “Why didn’t you bring him home? Were you scared your parents wouldn’t like—?”

“No.” I shake my head stiffly. “I just didn’t come home a lot, so I didn’t bring him to Philly when I did.”

“Oscar was married to Yale,” Joana explains. “She was the other woman stealing my brother from the family.”

Jack shifts his gaze to my sister. “College will do that.” He slips me a furtive smile like, I understand.

I can’t regret Yale, not for a single second. The experience opened my world and changed my life forever. I am who I am because I left home and discovered myself without any familial pressures attached. It was a freeing time of my life.

It’s also a personal, introspective take on the situation. If I shared this with my brother and sister, they’d be upset thinking I valued being alone over being with them.

To me, that’s not it.

I didn’t love college because I never saw them, but being on my own did help me figure out what I wanted for myself.

Jack glances anxiously at his phone, his fingers racing back through his hair. He’s still waiting for the execs to email an actual verdict.

I stand up.

“So if I’m taking the bed,” Joana says, hand on the gray comforter, “and your brother lives with you too…?” She eyes Jack. “Then, how are you both going to…?” She glances between us.

Good fucking God. My nineteen-year-old sister is asking where me and Jack are going to fuck.

Highland has his knuckles to his mouth, his smile rising. I love that not much fazes him.

“Ah, ah, ha.” I wave a finger at Jo. “That’s off-limits.”

Boundaries, I have them when it comes to my nosy family and who I date.

She throws up her hands. “It’s an honest question, Oscar. There is no door! We’re in a fucking studio.”

Jack tips his head like, she has a point. He stands off the bed. “I’m a filmmaker,” he tells Jo. “I know how to get creative.”

My muscles contract. He might’ve given my sister way too much info, but fuck is he hot.

Joana nods, impressed. “I respect that.”

He slings a messenger bag across his chest. “I should head out. I’m supposed to be teaching Jesse a new editing software.” They have enough footage to begin piecing together some of the pilot, and Jesse is only going to be in Philly on the weekends soon. Jack said his brother’s senior year is about to start. Which also means Highland and I won’t have to “get creative” for that long.

I come up to my boyfriend before he goes, and then a knock sounds on the door.

“Oscar!”

“Joana!”

“Mom and Dad are here?” Jo asks me at the sound of their voices.

“Yeah.” They just showed up unannounced. Also, not shocked. I’m sure they just want to help Joana get settled in. “Can you get the door, Jo?”

“You bet.”

While my sister descends the loft’s stairs to answer the door, Jack stops cold a foot from me. “Am I about to meet your parents?”

“Unless I toss you out the window, but we’re in a high-rise, so…”

Stress lines his face. “Fuck.”

I catch his hand in mine. “Hey, you’re a people-person, Highland. You’ve got this.”

“I want your parents to like me, Os.” He rubs his forehead. “After the execs told me I’m a ‘liability’ to the docuseries last night—I feel more like crawling into a hole and crying into a baby blanket than putting on a happy face.”

“Why cry in a baby blanket when you have me?”

His laughter dies too fast. He lets go of my hand just to place his palms on either side of his waist. Like he’s on a cool-down after a marathon.

His confidence is on a hiatus, and I’m about to bring it back. “You are legitimately the most endearing motherfucker on a first meeting. You could make polar icecaps melt.”

He cracks a dim smile.

“You could make all the stars in the sky fall for the sun.”

Jack looks deeper into me. He takes a huge breath and hangs his arms over my shoulders like a casual slow-dance. “Tell me a secret that you’ve never told anyone else.”

We have a short window of time. Joana is at the door, but I take advantage of every single second. Holding his waist, I lean in and whisper, “Estou apaixonado por voçê.” I translate, “I’m in love with you.”