Boarded by Love (Bellevue Bullies 1)

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“Don’t be sad. He popped your celibate cherry. Now time to find Mr. Right!”

I shrug as I let out a very unhappy sigh. “I guess.”

When a text signals, I look down at my display and my heart skips a beat at what I see.

Hey Jude: I didn’t even make it out of the quad before I craved ur touch. I can’t wait to see u again, baby, I’m counting the hours.

“Is that from him?”

I nod my head as I reread his words. “Maybe it is different?” I ask, and my God, I sound so fucking hopeful.

“Are you sure that’s Jude?” she asks and I nod, pointing to the top where it says Hey Jude.

“Ugh, I’m a little speechless,” she admits and I couldn’t agree more.

“Me too,” I whisper but then quickly type him back.

Me: I can’t wait to see u, when will I?

Hey Jude: Sooner than u think. I’ll be thinking of u all night.

“Holy crap! Jude Sinclair does not talk to girls like this.”

I shrug as I bite into my lip still staring at the screen. “He does with me.”

Chapter 12

Jude

“First, you ever wink at Claire again, I’ll gouge your eyes out,” I say to my brother once I open the door to our room.

He looks up at me and laughs. “Whatever, dude. I was playing around.”

“Don’t do it again,” I say sternly and he rolls his eyes. “But hey, you’ve done the girlfriend shit, right?”

Jayden looks back up at me and raises an eyebrow. “Yeah, why?”

“’Cause I think I might want to do that,” I say, shutting the door and throwing my keys and phone down.

“I’m sorry, I misheard you,” he teases and I glare.

“Shut up and tell me what I need to do to have a girlfriend.”

He laughs as he shakes his head. “First ya gotta find a girl who wants that, which considering it’s you, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Check, got that. Next thing.”

He eyes me and then goes on, “You can’t sleep with anyone else but her. She is it, that’s all. You do everything with her, you call her, you walk her to class, you listen when she talks, and you treat her like a fucking princess ’cause she deserves it.”

My face scrunches up, not because I can’t do that, I can, no big deal, especially if it’s for Claire, but because how the hell does Jayden know this? So I ask, “How the hell do you know this shit?”

“One, I’ve had a girlfriend successfully until she turned dumb, and two, I do everything Dad doesn’t and it seems to work.”

Jayden has always been the smarter Sinclair. “Good plan. Okay, good, I got this. So do I ask her now? Like, I don’t want anyone else having her and shit, so do I just come out and be like, ‘Hey, we’re together’?”

Jayden is looking at me like I’ve grown three more heads. “What the fuck, dude? Who are you?”