I jolted when she touched my arm and looked up to find her and her brother watching me, waiting for my answer.
“Oh, umm,” I said, glancing between them. “Yes?”
Adair smiled as if that was the answer he was hoping for.
It made me feel crappy. I’d definitely planned on hanging around the Locc late, either with Dad or in the Cadillac in the life skills room, depending on his mood, followed by some late-night boarding. Any combo of the things I’d done this weekend, really.
I watched them go, Adair’s mismatched gait a stark contrast to Adeline’s bouncy one. Not for the first time today, I was distracted by those dark-green scrubs on Adair. Unlike the baggy clothes he hid himself under outside of work, the scrubs molded to his body.
After seeing him naked, simple scrubs shouldn’t be such headline material, but my eyes disagreed.
Once they disappeared from view, I sucked in a deep breath and pulled my gaze from the door.
And immediately regretted it.
Liem was looking right at me, doing the only thing worse than smiling knowingly.
He was tryingnotto smile.
A second later, my phone vibrated under my leg.
I didn’t check it.
It vibrated again. And again.
Liem gave me his sad eyes.
I closed mine against their power, took another deep breath, and reached for my phone.
Liem
If I drew your portrait right now, I’d call it “Hot for Doctor”
You’ve been holding out on me
Woof
I locked my phone and glanced up warily.
Cody was leaning toward Liem with a tiny smirk on his face as he looked down at the phone.
I scowled at the pair of them when they looked at me, but then I relaxed my expression after a few seconds, letting the humor show on my face.
Yeah, Adair Jacks was hot. The only person who was unaware of this was Adair.
Which, unfortunately, only made him hotter.
Dad slid a napkin over to me with aTic-Tac-Toeboard drawn on it, then handed me a crayon.
I wasn’t even sure if Dad still realized it was my birthday, but this was enough for me. More than I expected.
Everything else fell away as we played, his smack talk so familiar, so comforting, that I found my smiles coming easier. Ari leaned over and whispered in my ear to meet her in the courtyard when I was done, and I nodded.
Then she left, and the rest of the table cleared out after her, leaving just us.
By the time we’d exhausted the game, we’d made a serious dent in Live Oak’s napkin supply.
I didn’t see Adeline or Adair when I walked Dad back to his apartment, but this time, it wasn’t intentional. Dad was more than ready for his nap, so I helped him wash up and get into bed quickly before leaving him to it.
