Playing to Win

“Absolutely,” he answered. “Is that okay? I mean, you did eavesdrop on me for a whole two weeks without my knowledge.” He nudged my arm with his elbow.

“You should have stayed inside if you didn’t want anyone to hear you.” I nudged him back.

“Oh, I don’t care that you listened.” Without missing a step, he leaned down to murmur in my ear. “In fact, it’s kinda hot.”

Oh, wow. I swallowed hard. But I couldn’t let him know how much he affected me.

“Don’t get cocky, Sloane. It was either listen to you or listen to my parents chew out my brother.”

“Oh-ho!” He held his fist in front of his mouth. “Burn. You are mean.”

I patted his arm. “Don’t be so sensitive. On second thought, it wasn’t that bad. Kind of like getting serenaded every evening.”

Asher wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me around in front of him. He kept us moving, me walking backward with both his arms around me. His dark, heavy lidded eyes met mine. “Serenaded, huh? That’s what it takes to get your attention? Because if so, I’m down.”

I bit my lip to hold back my grin. I could get down with flirting with him, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Oh, no. It would take a lot more than singing outside my bedroom window to get my attention.” I stepped out of his hold and left him standing in the middle of the sidewalk. “See you later.”

“What the heck was that?” Natalie came out of nowhere, or maybe I’d been too distracted by Asher to notice her. “I thought we hated him?”

“We do,” I said.

“Uh-huh. You keep telling yourself that, Jord.”

“He’s doing me a favor.”

Natalie lifted a brow.

I pushed her shoulder. “Not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter.”

“Hey, you were the one hugging him.”

“Who hugged who?” Kelly asked as she joined us.

“Jordan and Asher,” Natalie said.

Kelly’s eyes widened. “I thought you couldn’t stand that guy. Are you guys going out now?”

“What? No. Absolutely not.” I shook my head, back and forth.

Natalie nudged Kelly. “They were totally hugging for like a long time.”

“Really?” Kelly’s eyes lit. “You totally like him!”

“I do not!” Ugh. I hated my friends right now. “He’s helping me-”

“Right. Helping you.” Natalie winked.

“I’m serious. He’s going to see if he can mentor Payton for his community service hours for graduation.”

That shut them up.

“Okay, that’s cool of him,” Kelly said.

Natalie nodded. “Yeah, it is. But how did he find out about Payton?”

I hadn’t told them about Asher living behind me or about listening to him play his guitar and sing outside my bedroom window. I hadn’t told them what happened after school when Asher gave me a ride and we ran into Payton skipping practice to hang out with his friends. And I hadn’t said a word about talking to Asher last night.

So, I rectified the situation by telling them right then.

“Asher’s your neighbor?” Kelly asked.

“You’ve been hanging out with him in your backyard,” Natalie said.

“We’ve hung out twice.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Kelly asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. There really hasn’t been anything to tell.”

“Um, I’m pretty sure you just spent the last five minutes telling us a whole lot.”

When she put it that way…

“Okay, when you put it all together, it seems like more than it really is, but I promise, there’s nothing going on.”

Kelly leaned her shoulder into Natalie’s and spoke out of the side of her mouth. “Do you think she’s lying to us or herself?”

“Whatever,” I said, turning my back on them, heading toward my first period class. “You guys suck.”

“See you at lunch?” Natalie called after me.

I waved over my shoulder. Their giggles followed me down the hall and I had to smile. Natalie and Kelly were good friends. They always had my back and rarely let me off the hook.