Page 55 of His Temptation

Chapter 13

Cason

“Look, man,” Ryan said as we sat at Hooters that Friday night waiting on our food. “I thought a lot about what you said, and you’re right. It’s not fair for me to treat Lexi like that. I’m sorry for getting pissed at you about it when you tried to knock some sense into me.”

“Oh.” My stomach growled as a platter of food passed, going to another table. Ryan had picked me up that evening, and we’d gone to Hooters for dinner—I loved their wings, and he liked to check out the waitresses in their little shorts. “That was over a week ago. I’d already forgotten about it.”

“Well, I haven’t,” he said, smoothing a hand over the top of his black hair. God, he got that from Emery. “It’s been on my mind a lot. You’re like my goddamn conscience. My Jiminy Cricket.”

“I’m your conscience?”

“Yeah.” He smiled. “You have a way of making me see things the way they should be. Like, if the tables were reversed and Lexi was stringing me along, talking to a bunch of other guys, I would’ve been hurt too.”

“Did you break up with her?” I asked, my mouth watering as I saw the waitress carrying my wings to our table.

“Here you go, boys,” Brittany, the waitress, said as she gave us the food. “Anything else I can get for you?”

“No, thanks,” I said.

“You have the hots for the Hooters girl?” Ryan asked after she walked away, mistaking my politeness for flirting.

“No, I don’t.” I had to force myself not to roll my eyes. “Now back to the question. Did you break up with Lexi?”

Ryan stole a wing off my plate. “Nope. But I stopped talking to the other girls.”

“Really?” I let one slide, but if he stole a second, I’d have to fight him to the death. “You must like her, then. More than just sex.”

“Maybe.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. She’s fun to be around, and she’s hot. I’m not ready to end things. If I have to stop talking to those girls to keep her happy for now, it’s not that bad.”

“Well, I’m proud of you,” I said, before biting into a delicious wing. My taste buds were doing victory laps on my tongue.

“Proud of me for being a decent person?” he asked, snorting. “You crack me up, Cas. It’s okay. You can call me an asshole. I deserve it.”

I shook my head. “You saw your mistake and corrected it. Total non-asshole behavior. Gold star.”

Ryan laughed. “Thanks. I’m really glad we became friends. Just sucks that it took us so long to finally start talking.”

We’d gone to the same school since middle school, but we’d never talked. Ryan had been in the popular crowd while I had kind of breezed by unnoticed. Then, we’d had a math class together sophomore year, and Ryan had been struggling to pass. Before the big test at the end of the year, I had offered to help him study. A friendship had built from there. He had convinced me to try out for baseball and football that summer, and starting junior year, I was into sports and finding myself with more friends than I knew what to do with.

“We’re friends now. That’s what matters.” I held up a wing for a toast. “Huzzah.”

Ryan grabbed a fry and touched the piece of chicken, echoing, “Huzzah.”

We were such idiots, but it was why we got along so well. Ryan was like a brother to me. Keeping a secret from him was torture. I looked at him and remembered fucking his dad just that morning. He’d hate me if he knew the truth.

I’m a horrible friend.

The guilt was going to eat me alive.

“Hey, you cool?” Ryan asked, dipping his fry in ketchup before eating it.

“Yeah.” I forced a smile. “Just a long day at work.”

Which wasn’t exactly a lie. We’d been crazy busy that day with the huge blowout summer sale. Everyone and their brother had come in looking for discounted stuff.

“My day was interesting too,” he said, dropping his gaze. He seemed to do that when he was about to spill something deep. “I had lunch with my dad.”

If I hadn’t just shoved a wing into my mouth, I would’ve dropped the damn thing. I hadnotbeen expecting that.