“Oh my God. You should have seen your face.” He glances at Jaxon like he wants to share the joke, but Jaxon still won’t even look at him. What seems like sadness creeps into Flint’s gaze, but he hides it with a big, goofy grin so quickly that I can’t help wondering if I saw it at all.
“You’re so mean!” I tell Flint and elbow him in the side. “How could you do that to me?” I turn to Jaxon. “Is Damasen even really a giant?”
“Yes, he’s a giant. But no, he doesn’t eat people.” He pauses, then finally glances at Flint. “Anymore.”
“Anymore?” I recoil in horror, at least until I see a tiny gleam in the corner of Jaxon’s eye. “Oh my God! That was totally uncool. Why are you two messing with me like that?”
“I thought that was my job as your boyfriend,” Jaxon tells me, but he’s smiling when he says it.
“To freak me out?”
“To tease you.” He reaches up, wraps one of my curls around his finger.
“Pretty sure he’s just looking to make a point, Grace.” Flint drapes a nonchalant arm around my shoulders and gives Jaxon a look that even I know is provoking as hell. “He wasn’t happy to find out you might let me take you for a ride.”
“Flint!” My mouth drops open for the second time in as many minutes. “Why would you say it like that?” I whirl to Jaxon. “He means dragon. I might ride his dragon!”
Flint waggles his brows. “Exactly.”
I’m so embarrassed by my unintentional double entendre that I’m sure my face is beet red. “Flint! Stop!”
I don’t have a chance to get him to clarify, though, because quick as a lightning strike, Jaxon lashes out…and punches Flint right in the mouth.
13
Sucker Punch Me
One More Time
For several long seconds, the whole world seems to go in slow motion.
Flint’s head slams back on his neck, so hard that he stumbles away several steps.
In the meantime, Jaxon lowers his arm and tilts his head just a little, eyes narrowed on Flint while he waits to see what his former best friend decides to do.
And I just stand there in the middle of the two of them, head swiveling back and forth as I try to figure out what I’m supposed to do next. Yell at Jaxon? Yell at Flint? Walk away and let the two of them kill each other because, seriously? Testosterone, ugh.
Before I can make a decision one way or the other, Flint rights himself. I hold my breath, expecting him to launch at Jaxon right here in the middle of the hallway. But, as usual, he surprises me. Instead of lashing out with hands or fists or fire, he just reaches up and rubs the blood off his lower lip as he stares Jaxon down, a wicked gleam in his eyes that I can’t quite identify.
And when he does finally speak, his words are as unexpected as the rest of his reaction. “You surprise me, Vega. You never used to be one to go for the sucker punch.”
Jaxon just raises an eyebrow. “Perhaps you should look up that definition, Montgomery. It’s not a sucker punch when you know it’s coming. And deliberately provoke it.”
Flint laughs, but he doesn’t look away. Neither does Jaxon, who matches him look for look. There are so many undercurrents between these two big guys, I feel like I might get sucked under, too. I stand here, trying to understand what’s really going on, what I missed. Because I definitely missed something. And then I decide that I don’t actually care. If the two of them want to go around beating their chests and each other, I’m not going to stop them. But I’m sure as hell not going to watch, either.
“You know what? While you two figure out whatever this is”—I wave an arm back and forth between them—“I’m going to go finish my assignment. I’ll find you later to return your phone, Flint.”
I turn to walk away without saying anything specific to Jaxon, which apparently is what finally gets his attention. He catches up with me and stops my indignant march by wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me in to his side. “You don’t need to borrow his phone anymore,” he tells me, lips against my ear.
It’s the wrong thing to say to me right now, and the look I give him says exactly that. “I’m borrowing his phone, Jaxon, not ‘riding his dragon.’” I use exaggerated air quotes to highlight just how ridiculous this whole thing is. “It’s no big deal.”
Jaxon sighs. “I don’t care if you use Flint’s phone or not. I just thought you might want to use your own instead.” He uses his free hand to pull a phone from the front pocket of his backpack, then holds it out to me.
I look from him to the phone and back again. “That’s not my phone. Mine is in a beach case, and it…” I stop talking as the truth hits me. “Wait a minute. Are you saying you bought me a new phone?”
He gives me an “obviously” kind of look.
“When? I’ve been trying to figure out how to find one when we live in the middle of nowhere, and you not only managed to get me one in an hour, you did it while you were taking a midterm? How is that even possible?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I’ve been here longer? I know all the tricks?”
“Obviously. But you could have just taught me your trick. Then I could have gotten my own phone.”
“I don’t mind buying you a phone, Grace. Consider it a welcome-home present.”
“You already got me a welcome-home present. You.” I rest my head on his shoulder, bury my nose against his strong, warm throat as I try to figure out what I want to say. He still smells like oranges and fresh water, and as I breathe him in, it calms the anxiety in my stomach that I didn’t even know was there.
“I guess I don’t want you to feel like you’ve got to buy me things. Because you don’t.” I pull away just enough to look into his eyes. “You know that, right?”
He shakes his head, gives me a confused look. “O-kay.”
Flint is still within earshot—and probably watching us walk away—so Jaxon pulls me into an alcove a few feet ahead. “What brought this on?”
I search for the right words as it strikes me again how little we actually know each other. “I wasn’t raised to spend money like you. The pendant and now—” I glance down at the phone still in his hand. “A brand-new, latest-edition iPhone. It’s a lot, and I just don’t want you to think I’m with you because of what you can buy me.”
“There’s a lot to unpack in that sentence, so I’m going to need a couple of minutes to unravel it all. But first—” He slips the new phone into my jacket pocket, then takes Flint’s out of my unresisting hand and leans out of the alcove into the hallway again.