Love You Better (Better Love 1)

“I like you sweaty,” I tease.

“Well, how about we go get sweaty together?”

“Nope!” Bailey yells, “No dry humping in public!” I can’t help but bark out a laugh. “I know you guys wanna boink like bunnies but we’re going out to celebrate first.”

“Beers first, bone later,” Jesse snarks with a nod then grabs Kelley’s shoulder. “You just ran a fucking marathon, my man. Ivy has submitted all of her law school apps and scored a 177 on her fucking LSAT retake. Bailey signed up to do that bake-off thing—”

“That’s not for certain yet,” Bailey interjects. “But yeah, the goofball is right. Aaaand he got another acceptance email yesterday.”

“No shit?” Kelley crows. “That’s great, J. Is it—”

“Nope,” Jesse cuts him off with a light shrug. “Haven’t heard from them yet. This one was from Perelman. So still hella good. Which means we need to celebrate!”

“I’m definitely down for a celebration,” I chirp. We deserve it.

“My soccer buddy’s frat is having a party. A couple of them ran today, too. We could grab some food and then hit that up? I just need to go back and shower first.”

“Yes! Plans made.” Jesse claps once, does a little shimmy, and starts pushing Kelley toward the park exit. “Now let’s get this man his post-race craft beer.”

* * *

The house seems to be thrumming with energy. The music is loud, the front porch is packed with bodies, and everyone is holding a red plastic cup full of god knows what.

As we walk up the sidewalk toward the frat house, a guy in a polo bumps into Bailey, sloshing the liquid from his cup onto her shirt.

“Sorry,” he grumbles and stumbles off.

“Yeah, it’s cool.” Her sarcasm is evident as she shakes the liquid off her sleeve. She lifts her arm up and sniffs, then turns to Jesse with a Cheshire grin. “Fireball and fuckery,” she laughs. “You’ll fit right in.”

Jesse scoffs. “Please. Dr. Vanessa Hernandez raised no peasant. I’m much more refined. I’m more of the Don Julio and Debauchery type.” Kelley and I laugh loudly, and Bailey rolls her eyes.

“You’re such an asshat.”

“Ahem,” Jesse says brusquely, pointer finger in the air as if he’s about to make a crucial statement. “A refined asshat.”

While they’re snarking amongst themselves, Kelley’s phone pings in his pocket.

“Huh,” he says as he reads the message. “Preston is on campus.”

“Preston from high school?”

“Yeah. When I ran into him a few weeks ago, I told him to hit me up if he was ever in town.” He takes a moment to shoot off another text. “He’s coming here. That cool?”

“Yeah,” I say with a shrug. “I don’t think he really liked me much but I’m sure we can get along for a night.”

Preston was an entitled, jerk-faced weasel of epic proportions in high school, but maybe he’s matured in the four years since I’ve seen him last.

Ugh. Please, let him have matured.

Kelley threads his fingers through mine and leads me through the door. We weave in and out of bodies until we reach the back of the house, then step outside onto a large deck.

“Kelley!” A guy I recognize from Kelley’s soccer scrimmages waves us over.

“Scotty,” Kelley says as they slap hands and do that weird bro-y handshaking back-pat thing. I’m so glad Kelley and Jesse just hug and don’t bother with the extra whatever that was. “Ivy, this is Scotty. He’s whose truck you’ve been driving.”

“Oh!” I perk up at that information. “Thank you so much for letting me learn to drive manual on your truck.”

“No problem. Anything for the Rocket Man’s girl,” Scotty slurs with a grin. “Thanks for not wrecking it, though,” he adds seriously.