“Yeah.” If I blamed my wallet, he’d offer to treat me, so I went with the easier excuse. Seeing George had killed whatever limited appetite I had, but I did need to save every dollar.
Finally, we delivered April and her drink safely back to the Quigleys’ where Jasper’s mom must have been waiting by the door, lights going on as soon as we pulled into the driveway. Jasper glanced at me as if he was debating going in, then shook his head before I could speak.
“Tell Mom I’ll call her soon. And that Milo says thank you for the parking space.”
“Yeah. I appreciate it,” I added.
“Okay. Don’t get into trouble with the rest of your night.” She winked at us as she exited the car. “Or rather, get into lots of trouble, but tell me all about it.”
Jasper and I groaned in unison. “April…”
“I’m going, I’m going.”
I waited until her door shut and Jasper was back on the road before I unleashed the question that had been burning a hole in my brain ever since George’s appearance.
“What did he mean?” I asked as Jasper turned toward campus. “Offer? When did you talk to him, anyway?”
He sighed like he’d been expecting this question. “Yesterday.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me?” Heck. I sounded like my mom, and it was not a comfortable comparison. Shifting in my seat, I looked out the window.
“You were a little busy yesterday.” That flimsy excuse got me whirling back around, and Jasper quickly added, “And I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”
“Well, it is. I don’t trust him.”
“Oh, neither do I.” Once we arrived back at his dorm, Jasper did a parking maneuver that had me sending up a quick prayer.
“Then what were you doing making him offers?”
“Chill.” Turning the car off, Jasper twisted toward me. His command had the opposite effect, making all my muscles tense, but I waited for him to continue. “All I did was suggest a friendly game. My ticket to the launch party wagered against at least one of the cards. I’m going to argue for him including all of them—”
I held up a hand before he could go further down this absurd path. “No, you’re not.”
“I’m not?”
“I don’t want you playing him!”
“Because you don’t think I can win?” Jasper took on a pinched expression.
“Because he’ll cheat and you’ll lose that ticket, and your whole future is riding on your contacts at the game.”
“Well, maybe not my whole future…” Shrugging, he looked right at me, holding my gaze until I swore years passed between us.
My face heated. God. I wanted him. But he couldn’t pin a whole future on me. On us. “You know what I mean. You can’t lose your shot at that job.”
“I don’t know. Maybe staying local wouldn’t be the worst thing.” He still had that stubborn tilt to his chin to match his speculative tone, like I was anything other than an iffy bet at best.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You are not risking your future for me.”
“Who else would I do that for?”
My heart trembled even as my soul thrilled. But I couldn’t let myself wallow in his sweetness. “Be serious.”
“I am. You’re insistent that you need those cards. I want you to have the cards. Ergo, playing to get you the cards makes sense.”
“No, it doesn’t.” I didn’t need fancy Latin words to know I was right. Jasper was always so quick to want to solve things for me, and right then, the math simply wasn’t adding up for me.
“Are you jealous of George?” Jasper studied me more intently, parking-lot lights glinting off his eyes. “Because I can tell you that he’s a piece of slime with zero appeal to me.”
“Not helping. I don’t want you having to associate—”
Buzz. Jasper’s phone clattered around in the console. “I better check.”
“Fine.” I didn’t blame him for grabbing the excuse, but I didn’t have to like it.
“Good news!” He shook the phone like it might shower us with glitter confetti.
“It better not involve George.” I glowered.
“It doesn’t.” Jasper patted my knee. “Professor Tuttle put Arthur in contact with this retiree looking to offload their whole collection. There might even be some Frog Court cards in the lot.”
“Sounds good, but what’s the catch?” There was always a catch.
“The entire collection is unsorted. Just boxes of cards all mixed up. Arthur says if I stay late tomorrow and help sort, I can have dibs on an ultra rare if we find one.”
“I could help too.” Anything was better than Jasper playing George, even cataloging cards.
“I was hoping you’d say that.” He hadn’t lost any radiance from his smile even with our earlier argument. “See? Things are looking up!”
“Maybe.” I wasn’t going to count on anything right then.
“Still mad at me?” Jasper let his head fall onto my shoulder before giving me a puppy-dog smile that had me laughing despite myself.