Page 150 of The Game You Play (Rixon Raiders 2)

“I try,” Jason quipped back, and I stamped on his foot. He smothered a grunt.

“Your father isn’t going to like this, sweetheart.”

“I was kind of hoping you might help soften the blow.” I flashed her my best puppy-dog eyes. “But before you make any decisions, there’s probably something else you should know.”

“Oh God, you’re not pregnant, are you?”

Jason started choking beside me while Mom stared at me expectantly. And I sat there, shrinking into the chair, wondering when life got so complicated. Knowing the answer was simple.

Jason freaking Ford.

After I broke the news to Mom that I

planned on switching my business degree to animal science, and she’d had a semi-meltdown, I let Jason drag me away to give us both some space. I’d broken her heart but as he kept reassuring me, it would heal. Because that’s what hearts did. Sure, maybe they never quite got pieced back together the same way, but they would carry on beating.

“How are you feeling?” he asked me as he drove to wherever it was he was taking me.

“Sad, but mostly relieved. I’m their only child, their baby. I didn’t want to hurt them.”

“She’ll come around, I promise.” His hand splayed over my knee, rubbing gently. I covered it with my own, grateful for his reassurance.

“And my dad?”

“Him too. It might not happen overnight, it might not even happen over a few months, but it will happen.” I murmured some incoherent reply, too depressed to answer. “You deserve all your dreams, Felicity, and they will realize that one day.”

“Where are we going anyway?” I changed the subject. I wasn’t feeling in the mood, but Jason had insisted he had something to show me. I never could resist him, and I wasn’t about to start now.

When we turned off the main road out of town and took the familiar dirt path down to the lake, I groaned. “Seriously? You brought me here, now? The last thing I want to do right now is bounce on your—”

“Giles?” He cut the engine.

“Yeah?”

“Shut the fuck up and get out of the car.”

Well, okay then. Rolling my eyes, I shouldered the door and climbed out. The lake shimmered under a blanket of twinkling stars. “God, it’s so beautiful out here.”

Jason came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. “A little birdy told me you almost completed your list.”

“Almost.”

There were only three things remaining: fall asleep under the stars, get a tattoo, and go to Winter Formal with a date. Although I still wasn’t sure about getting a tattoo. It seemed so permanent.

“What if I told you, you can tick two of those things off tonight?”

“We’re going to sleep out here?” Because I was pretty sure my boyfriend didn’t have his tattoo license, and Winter Formal wasn’t for another couple of weeks.

I craned my face around to his, unable to hide my grin. “Only if you want to,” he said.

“But it’s freezing.”

“So technically, I thought we could sleep in the car, but the view is the same.”

“It’s perfect.” I brushed my lips over his. “Thank you. But that’s only one—”

Jason shoved something into my hand. I plucked open the note.

Roses are red, violets are blue