He wants so badly to roll his eyes at the scene in front of him. I flip him the bird.
“You’re wearing a shirt,” Mesa whispers to me and softly places her palm on my forehead to check for a fever. “Everything okay?”
I shake my head with a smirk. “Smartass.”
She straightens her back, proud of her little joke, then turns away from me again. The girls start chatting while I lean forward. My right hand is keeping Mesa steady at her hip, andmy left reaches for a pile of cards. It doesn’t take long for me to notice both Warren and Gage joining in on Heston’s staring.
They’re all looking at me like I just ate a handful of live worms. Have they never seen a girl use a guy’s leg when there are no chairs left? Mesa and I are comfortable around each other, and I don’t see what the big deal is.
“What?” I scoff, tossing the soggy cards in my hand back to the table once I realize someone definitely spilled their drink on them.
The guys don’t answer me because Mesa spins on my knee until both of her legs are between mine again. She leans toward my chest, holds her phone in front of us, and I look down at the screen to see a picture of a shelf and several plants on the floor of her living room.
“I completely forgot to show you this disaster,” she says.
I throw my head back in a laugh, and she softly nudges my ribs with her elbow.
“How the hell did you manage that again?” I ask.
“I swear the last time I put it back up, my work was rock solid. The shelf is possessed or something.”
This is the third time in as many weeks that thing has failed to stay secured to the wall. She did her best to rig it back up each time, but I think I’m going to have to go repair the old holes and then try to find the studs for her.
“I’ll fix it for you.”
Mesa leans away from my chest. “Thanks, T.”
All three guys are trying not to laugh, and I want to stick around for their teasing like I want to use a chunk of cactus for a loofah.
“You wanna go inside and get into some good trouble or stay out here?” I ask Mesa.
She pinches the brim of my hat between her fingers and thumb to straighten it. I almost take it off and put it on her headjust to see how big it is on her and make her laugh. But that’s just my wild side begging to be set free on a night like this.
I like doing things I’m not supposed to do. Things like putting my cowboy hat on a girl like her. It’s a claim—one I have no business making.
Just to be safe, I ignore my bad habit of chasing mischief and keep it on.
“Inside,” she answers with an adventurous gleam in her eye.
If she’d rather stay out here and chill, I wouldn’t have had any problem with that. But two hours later, as I try to pull her down from where she’s standing on the pool table, I can’t help but love the fact that this was her choice instead.
She has a wild side that begs to be set free, too. Although at this moment, her eyes have grown tired. My social battery is running out, and I’m surprised Heston hasn’t shut this whole thing down yet.
With my hands around Mesa’s hips, I attempt to bring her back to the ground. Instead of going along with it, she grabs my shoulders and spins me around to face away from her so that she can hop on my back.
I shake my head with an amused laugh. The crowd has died down significantly, but the few pods of people remaining give us a look as I weave through them toward the hallway. Her arms loop around my neck, and I hook my hands around the backs of her knees.
“What happened to your shoes?” I ask.
She wiggles her white painted toes, making the dainty ankle bracelet on her right foot shimmer.
“They were hurting me. I left them in your closet when I stole your hoodie a while ago.”
When I make it to my room and close the door, I back up to the bed and let her flop backward. She bounces off the mattresswith a giggle and wastes no time pulling back the covers to snuggle in.
The angel on my shoulder reminds me that having her sleep in the loft would probably be morefriend-like. I tell it to fuck right off.
“I won’t make it weird if you don’t,” she says sleepily, reading my mind.
