She bit her lip and looked back and forth between the two of them. Her nose scrunched, and she cleared her throat. “Jasper’s also… We’re seeing each other.”
Cal’s grip instantly tightened and his sharp, brown-eyed gaze collided with Jasper’s. “Panic station. What?”
Jasper was confused for a second, but then he remembered what Hollyn had said about Cal’s verbal tics. Jasper cleared his throat. “I’m the boyfriend.”
Cal’s shoulder lifted in a little jerky motion, and he gave Hollyn a quick questioning look, but then pasted on a smile. He released Jasper’s hand. “Oh. That’s cool. Wait. Are you the coffee guy?”
“Cal,” Hollyn complained.
Jasper’s brows lifted. Hollyn had talked about him to Cal? “Ah, well, I do pour coffee at WorkAround, so I guess yes, I could be the coffee guy.”
Hollyn looked sheepish. “I may have mentioned to Cal how I freaked out on you that first day. I didn’t know your name then. Hence, coffee guy.”
Cal gave him a second, more critical look. “Yeah, she hasn’t mentioned you since. Rolling stone. Rolling stone. At all.”
A dig. Nice. Well, this was going to be a fun night. Jasper smiled. “Well, you know how things are when it’s new. You want to keep it just between the two of you for a while.” He gave Hollyn his best we’ve-got-a-secret look that made her blush. “But I’m glad I finally get to meet her best buddy.”
Cal’s lip curled, a knowing look in his eye. The guy hadn’t missed the subtle message the word buddy implied. “Well, panic panic station.” He grimaced. “If she didn’t mention it, I have Tourette’s. I can’t control these rolling stone extra words.”
Cal’s verbal tics were almost in the cadence of a sneeze, sharp and sudden. Also, the more he talked, the more Jasper’s ear kind of skipped over them, editing them out, because they sounded different from the rest of his words. “She mentioned it. No worries.”
Hollyn gave Cal an affectionate look and bumped her shoulder into his. “Onstage, it all goes away, though. He’s freaking amazing with his band. I’m hoping it’s going to be the same effect for me on video.”
Cal looked down at her with an adoring smile. “You’re going to hella good nail it, Tate.”
Jasper couldn’t stay irritated with the guy for long. Clearly, he cared for Hollyn and wanted what was best for her. If Cal was feeling protective of his friend, then Jasper would just have to win him over, show him that he wasn’t going to hurt Hollyn. “We’re working on it. We did a little camera work already, and she was very smooth.”
Hollyn’s gaze darted to Jasper’s, startled, and her cheeks went full red. Jasper bit his lip. He hadn’t meant any double entendre with the word smooth, but now that she had read that into it, he couldn’t help the little jolt of heat that went through him. Hollyn had been smooth—and hot and slick and tight.
She cleared her throat, breaking him from his racy thoughts. “I think it’s time to get out of here. Y’all ready?”
Jasper surreptitiously adjusted the fly of his jeans and stepped next to Hollyn, offering his arm. “Lead the way, gorgeous.”
Hollyn slipped her arm into his, a little shiver going through him at the feel of her, and they headed out.
Cal followed behind and said something under his breath that Jasper didn’t catch.
* * *
The Gee-N-Oh club was buzzing with conversation and music, the air thick with the scent of perfume, sweat, and alcohol as Hollyn scooted into a curved booth, ending up sandwiched between Cal and Jasper. A blanket of awareness and awkwardness wrapped around her as they got situated. The walk over to the club had been fine, but there was some weird vibe going on between Jasper and Cal, and she had no idea what that was about. Penises, she suspected. They were usually to blame. Why had she thought this was a good idea?
A dark-haired guy with no shirt and tight red pants with suspenders sidled up to the table before they’d even settled in. He leaned in, his glittery eye shadow catching the light. “What can I get you beautiful people?”
“The house IPA,” Jasper said.
Cal looked over the photo menu on the table. “The high-octane daiquiri.”
The waiter turned his eyes on her. “And you, sweetie?”
She leaned over to see the menu. Was there one that cured awkwardness? She picked the biggest and the prettiest. “Um, that one.”
“A Cat 5 hurricane for the lady,” the waiter said and then glided off, dodging the crowd like they weren’t even there.
“A hurricane,” Jasper said with a sly grin. “You’re going for it tonight, huh?”
“I’ve always wanted to try one,” she said, only half lying.
“I guess she thinks rolling stone we’re going to be boring company,” Cal said with a smirk. “She wants to hella good get smashed.”
“Says the dude who ordered a drink with the words ‘high octane’ in its name,” she said, arching a brow at Cal.
“I can handle my liquor,” he said. “You, on the other hand—”
She quickly pressed her fingers over his mouth. “No embarrassing teen stories for Jasper. You will not do that to me.”
Jasper leaned forward on his forearms. “Well, now I have to know.”
She lowered her hand and looked at Jasper, shaking her head. “No way.”
“Let’s just say,” Cal said, “someone hella good found out that for some people, liquor can panic station quiet tics and decided to test the theory when she was fifteen with hella hella shots from my dad’s whiskey stash. This experiment may have ended up with someone swimming in her underwear in my neighbor’s pool and then throwing up on their poor dog when he tried to alert them about the trespassing teenagers. Poor Boris was traumatized for life.”
Hollyn put her hands over her face and sank back against the booth. “You’re dead to me, Cal. He’s totally lying, Jasper. Don’t believe a word he says.”
Jasper laughed and squeezed her knee. “Did you get arrested for animal cruelty?”
She dropped her hands and gave him a deadly look.
Jasper bit his lip, clearly enjoying teasing her.
“The neighbors. Hella rolling stone. Didn’t call the cops. But we had to hella give the dog a bath in the middle of the night.”
“And Mr. Redmond saw me in my bra and underwear. So, there was no looking him in the eye ever again,” she added.
“But she wasn’t ticcing,” Cal announced, clearly pleased with himself. “Experiment successful.”