Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“He’s a friend, and you guys all remind me he’s straight.”
“If he wasn’t, would you like him?”
He shrugged again. “Not sure. Probably not. I just think he has a fabulous mouth and he’s fun to hang out with. Do you like Carter?”
“You know the answer to that,” I told him because I couldn’t lie to Cam. He’d see right through it anyway. I wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone else, though. Well, maybe Carter himself, and wasn’t that just fucking crazy?
His hand went down on my shoulder, and he squeezed. “I’m happy for you. I’ve never seen you like this. But…be careful, okay? I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I’m fine,” I shook off his concern. The last thing I wanted was to get hurt again. By now I knew Carter well enough to know he would never hurt me on purpose, but those things still happened sometimes. “You ready to go?”
“Yep.” Cam was good at letting things go.
We walked down to Fever Pitch, where we were meeting our friends. We chatted about work, and he told me how well Tyson was doing. Cam was considering giving him his own crew. Tyson was the father of Trey, a teenager who had beat cancer, and whom Lincoln had befriended. He’d gotten a job with Cam, and my brother was incredibly thankful; good workers were hard to find.
When we got inside the bar and grill on Fever Street, we saw Jude, Beau, Ash, Jace, Dax, Elliott, and Carter sitting at a table together in the back. There was an open seat beside Carter and another beside Jude, who sat across from him. I smiled as I thought about it.
“We’re late. It’s your fault,” I teased Cam.
“You’re the one who was still primping for your man when I got there.”
Ignoring him, I made my way toward our crew. Stupidly, I was wearing my glasses again because Carter had told me he liked me in them. His eyes darted up and met mine. When they did, a huge smile stretched across his face, and I felt that damn smile in my chest.
“Oh, look, the Burke Boys finally decided to show up. Oooh, I like that name. It’s cute,” Carter said, and I chuckled.
“Camden was late.”
“Sawyer is a liar,” Cam replied, sitting down beside Jude. “Did you miss me?”
“So much that I could hardly stand it,” Jude replied.
Cam winked at him. “That’s what I thought.”
I said hello to everyone as I took my seat beside Carter.
“Hey, you,” he said.
“Hey yourself.” I had the urge to lean in and kiss him, which was stupid as fuck. We weren’t in that kind of relationship, and our friends were here. I was pretty sure Carter knew it because he licked his lips and cocked a brow as if daring me.
Game on, his look seemed to say, but then Elliott called his name and asked him something about work, effectively ending the moment.
Beau and Ash spoke a bit about the program they started for LGBTQ youth in sports. It took a long time for those things to get off the ground, but it seemed to be going well.
“So…where’s that scratch on your neck from?” Dax asked, and the moment he said it, I knew he was talking to Carter. It had been an accident the last time we were fucking. We didn’t even know how it happened, but somehow it had.
“What? This?” Carter said sassily. “A really good night. You should be jelly.”
“Have you seen Jace?” Dax replied. “Nah, I don’t need to be jealous.” Then they started joking about Carter’s sexcapades, and yeah, I was a bit uncomfortable. I could tell that Carter felt the same, no one really knowing about us, or that we were really fucking around, except Cam.
It looked like Cam was about to jump in and come to our rescue, but then…fuck, I wanted to be the one to put an end to it. I could deal with feeling weird myself, but I didn’t want Carter to. “Actually, it was me who scratched him.”
Everyone at the table shut up real quick, and Carter turned to look at me with wide eyes.
I couldn’t tell if he was upset I’d said it, even though we’d talked about it, but again, it felt different now. To be safe, I added, “We were jogging the other day and had a bit of an incident with a tree branch.”
I could feel Beau’s eyes on me as if he wasn’t sure he believed me, but I didn’t care about that because Carter’s expression changed, and then I wasn’t sure if he thought I really was ashamed to be with him or not. That hadn’t been what I meant.
“It was really kinky,” Carter added, making a joke of it, and everyone laughed. Just like that, the conversation was over.
Keegan was working and came to take our orders. We all chatted and ate. I’d skipped the fries, so I plucked one off Carter’s plate, then another.