Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 92646 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92646 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“Oh my god, dude—shut the fuck up!”
I glance over in time to see his brows shoot up. “Whoa.”
I scrub a hand down my face and look away. Nugget barrels past my legs, so close his dark fur brushes against my legs.
“Wait.” Cash laughs awkwardly, but something in his expression shifts. “Are you into her?”
Silence.
“Shit,” he breathes, realization dawning. “You are.”
I don’t answer. Just stoop to pick up the ball, throwing it again—harder this time. Hard enough my shoulder twinges.
Because yeah.
I might be.
And he’s the last fucking person I want knowing it.
Cash whistles low. “Okay. Damn. Didn’t realize you had it bad.”
“I do not have it bad. Stop,” I say flatly. “She’s just—”
Mine.
Off-limits.
Not yours to dissect.
“Okay, okay.” He holds his hands up, backpedaling so fast he might trip over his own inflated ego. “I was just messing around. You know I run my mouth,” he fumbles. “She’s… she’s cute.”
“Please stop.”
But he doesn’t stop because he’s an idiot who doesn’t listen.
“She has… great bone structure. Like, really symmetrical or whatever. That’s a compliment, right?”
He is so annoying.
Whose idea was it to let him live here?
Nugget can stay, Cash can go.
“I mean it,” he insists. “You know how picky I am. And if I had to rate her now, I’d bump her up to an eight. No—eight-point-five. Especially with that little laugh of hers? Kind of evil, kind of cute. That’s hot.”
“Cash.” Shut up.
“Fine! You win! She’s an actual dime, okay? But I’m not into her, so don’t get all territorial.”
“She’s been here less than a week. I haven’t had time to be into her.”
Lies.
I’ve had plenty of time.
Plenty of time to memorize the way she hums when she’s brushing her teeth since I can hear her through the shared wall.
Plenty of time to notice she eats her toast diagonally.
Plenty of time to want to punch myself in the face every time I catch myself checking to see if she’s in the kitchen. Or the living room. Or to see if she has the door of her room cracked.
I’ve never worked on LEGOs this hard in my entire life.
My castle is nearly complete, that’s how much time I’ve spent in the dining room working on it.
“Is it going to be annoying living with the two of you?” my roommate muses out loud. “Like—do you flirt and shit?”
“No!” I shake my head. “Nothing like that.”
Cash removes his headband. Ruffles his own hair, then slides it back into place to tame his mane. “You are so full of shit. Do not stand here and tell me that two super attractive people living together have zero sexual tension.”
“Nope.”
“You don’t want to bone her?” He squints over at me. “Not even a little?”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
He laughs. “You’re such a fucking liar, dude.”
I glare. “Go inside, Cash.”
“Can’t. Too busy mentally planning your wedding slideshow. We can have it on the top of a ski hill—Nuggs can be your ring bearer.”
“He eats socks,” I deadpan. “You want him carrying a diamond?”
“He can be professional when the occasion calls for it.”
I cock an eyebrow. “He ate my AirPods last time you left him home with me.”
“And who’s the one who wasn’t watching him?”
“You’re so exhausting.”
Cash yawns theatrically. “I try.”
There’s a pause, filled only by Nugget’s nails skittering across the concrete and the faint, tortured squeak of the tennis ball in his jaws as he sprawls out on the ground to chew it.
“I’m just saying,” Cash adds, not even bothering to look at me. “If you don’t kiss her soon, I might do it. You know—for science. To see cause and reaction.”
I turn slowly. “You kiss her, and I’ll bury your body in the backyard.”
Cash put his hands up slowly. “Whoa. Okay, Mister Jealousy—didn’t know our roomie was off-limits.”
“She’s not off-limits,” I grind out, raking a hand through my hair. “She’s just not yours to fuck around with because you’re home and you’re bored.”
He raises both hands. “Noted. No kissing the new roommate. Man, this is just like freshman year. My roommate wouldn’t let me fuck with his sister because he didn’t trust me or whatever, except this time, you’re the one with feelings.”
Poppy is not like our sister.
And I am not in charge of her.
“I don’t have feelings.”
Cash whistles, low. “When I left at the beginning of the week, there was nothing in the dining room. Now the entire Doom village the size of Rhode Island is spread out in the dining room. We both know you build that shit when you’re stressed out and this isn’t stress—it’s a slow descent into madness.”
I have no response to that because he’s right.
My roommate grins. “All I’m saying is, maybe she’s waiting for you to make a move.”
“She’s not.”
“She was totally eyeing you up this morning. I saw her. She looked like a girl on the verge of lifting your shirt and licking pancake syrup off your stomach.”