Juicy Rebound (IceCats 1)

Amelia,

I wanted to brighten your day in the way that you brighten mine. Your smile can knock me on my ass, and I wanted to make you smile today. I thought maybe you’d be available for a walk on the beach when I get back. Or dinner. Or a movie. Basically anything, as long as I get to see you. I hope you have a great day.

Love,

Chandler

I tap my finger on the card and shake my head. I glance at my watch, noting the time and hoping he’s awake. I take out my phone and dial his number. He answers on the second ring.

“You like them?”

I bring the bouquet into my chest, smelling the sweet and fresh aroma of the flowers. “I love them.”

“Great. I wanted to make your day a bit more cheerful.”

“You did just that,” I say breathlessly. I walk into the back with the flowers to my chest so that William doesn’t hear me on the phone. “I’d like to see you when you get back, but this is complicated, Chandler.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know if I’m ready to start dating someone right now. I’m over Drew and all, but I’m still a little wounded.”

“I get that,” he says simply. “And I can admit I’m about the same, but who says we can’t try to heal our wounds while getting to know each other again?”

I swallow hard, chewing on my lip.

“I’m not asking for the rest of your life, Amelia. I just want to take you out.”

I exhale heavily and shrug, even though he is unable to see me. “You probably won’t take no for an answer, will you?”

“Of course I will,” he chuckles. “But I’ll keep asking until you say yes.”

My lips quirk at the side as I lean my head back, looking up at the ceiling. “Can we go as friends?”

“We are friends. Friends who are getting to know each other to see if there is more. But I can guarantee you, Amelia Justice, there is more. And when you decide to feel it, I’ll be ready.”

I already do feel it. It just terrifies me because I don’t want to be that girl who needs a guy to make her happy. I want to be with a guy who adds to my happiness.

Is Chandler that guy?

Chapter Eleven

Chandler

“Why am I here?”

“Will you just shut up?” I ask as I get out of my truck, and Nico does the same. “It’s free food and a case of beer. What more do you want?” I yank at my shirt that’s riding up, and then I open the back door.

“I want to know why I have to come when this isn’t my date.”

“It isn’t a date.”

“It is. This is just a roundabout way of doing it.”

“No,” I say simply. “She invited me over for dinner with her and her cousin. I don’t want to be the third wheel. Hence, why you’re here.”

Nico thinks that over for a second. “Can I sleep with the cousin?”

“No!”

“Why not?”

“I’m gonna need to come clean to my best friend that I’m trying to get with his sister, which might go badly. But if he finds out that my other best friend took advantage of his young cousin, he’ll murder me.”

Nico looks bored. “Do you realize how ridiculous all this is? You won’t sleep with her because y’all are ‘friends’—” he adds in the air quotes, and I roll my eyes “—so you bring me to make this some kind of group dinner date. When, really, me and the cousin are just decoys to keep you two from tearing each other’s clothes off. For what reason? I have no clue.”

“For one, I haven’t had the chance to sleep with her. And for two, that is probably true, but fucking hell, just go with it.”

He sighs loudly. Maybe it was a bad idea to bring him. I reach for the bouquet of daisies and red roses I picked out for Amelia before grabbing the bottle of wine lying beside it. Nico grabs his pack of beer and is still grumbling.

“I could be playing Fortnite and getting drunk.”

I give him a dry look. “Yes, if you want to be a fourteen-year-old, go do that. But if you’d like to be an adult, let’s go to dinner.”

“Fuck you,” he says to me as we head up the drive. The lights are on in Amelia’s little bungalow, and I see her moving around the dining room table. I can’t make out what she’s wearing, but I can tell her luscious hair is falling down her stunning back. Her cousin stands before her and looks as if she hasn’t changed. Shelli has always been on the shorter side but thick in the legs and hips. Her long brown hair is wavy along her shoulders. But for some reason, in that dress, she looks way older than I remember her looking.