“I’m sorry. I’ll just go.” I’d just opened the door to leave when I heard him move behind me. His hand slapped against the wood, pushing the door closed. I stiffened.

“I don’t want you to go,” he murmured close to my ear, kissing the hollow behind it. “I promised you a visit to the mall.” I felt his lips curve into a smile against my skin.

“Yes, you did.”

“Let’s go then. All of a sudden, I have a craving for a blue raspberry slushie.” I looked over my shoulder and gave him a shaky smile. “Okay?” Nodding, I followed him to his Jeep.

When we got to the mall, we met Jenna and Tim in the food court. Jenna looked back and forth between us with a raised eyebrow. “Meet each other in the parking lot?” she asked.

“Sure did,” Brody answered.

“Uh-huh.” Jenna looked at Brody, who was doing a much better job of keeping a straight face than I was.

“The ease with which you’re able to lie is scary, Ace,” I whispered to Brody as we walked from the table to get our slushies.

“What? I wasn’t lying. We did meet in the parking lot. You got out of my Jeep and I met you at the door in the parking lot.”

I laughed. “Okay. Whatever you say.” He reached down and took my hand, folding it in his. I looked down at our intertwined hands.

“Sorry.” He started to let go and I squeezed his hand, holding it in place. We stood in line holding hands and not really caring who might see. When it came time for us to order, Brody ordered two blue raspberry slushies.

When he tried to let go of my hand, I tightened my grip on his. He bent down to my ear and whispered, “I love holding your hand. I really do. You have no idea how much. But I need my hand back so I can pay.”

I shook my head, and he chuckled. “I thought of that already.” I fished in my back pocket, pulled out a twenty, and handed it to the clerk. “See, no reason for you to let go.” I smiled and bumped my hip into him.

“I love how your mind works.” He kissed my temple, and I shivered. “That shiver had nothing to do with your slushie.” Brody smirked.

“Pretty sure of your skills aren’t you, Ace?”

“When your body does that, yeah, I am.”

If he only knew that little shiver isn’t even half of what my body is doing right now.

The four of us sat at a table in the middle of the food court, eating soft pretzels and drinking slushies. We joked and laughed for nearly two hours. I was amazed at how easily Brody fit in with Tim and Jenna, in a way Jaden never had. In fact, Jaden had never tried to fit in with my friends. It was expected that I make the effort to fit in with his friends. They were the only people that mattered in Jaden’s world—other than himself, of course.

We finally left the food court. Brody and Tim got sidetracked by a music store and Jenna by a makeup counter. While they were preoccupied, I made my way to the T-shirt Factory.

It was a small store filled with racks of T-shirts. Some already had sayings and jokes printed on them, and some were left blank for the customer to design. A person could get something as simple as a saying on the shirt, to something as complex as a drawing or logo. If you could think it up, Mr. Rafferty could get it on a shirt. The walls were covered in samples of T-shirts that he’d made. One of my designs was even hanging up.

Mr. Rafferty smiled when he saw me. “Back for another one, huh Willow? I swear you keep me in business.” He chuckled.

“Yeah, just can’t get enough.”

“Nice shiner. Everything okay?”

I raised my fingers to my eye. I’d almost forgotten about it. Glancing over at Mr. Rafferty, who was probably my grandfather’s age and looked like a bald Santa Clause, I shrugged a shoulder and said, “Just took an elbow in gym class.”

“Gotta watch out for those stray elbows. Let me know when you’re ready.”

“Actually, I’m ready. I want to get a long-sleeved shirt in this burgundy color with this printed on the front.” I handed him a piece of paper.

He read it and glanced at me. “Okay. I don’t get it, but I don’t get much of what you kids want these days.” Shaking his head, he walked to the back of the store. “Give me fifteen minutes,” he called over his shoulder.

“Thanks. I’ll be back.”

I found Jenna, Tim, and Brody sitting on a bench outside the music store. “Hey, where were you?” Brody asked, walking over and taking my hand.

“I know where she was. The T-shirt Factory. Right, Willow?” Jenna smiled.

“Yeah. I have to go back in fifteen minutes.”

“Why didn’t you let us go with you?” Brody look down at me.

“Because I don’t want you to know what it’s says until it’s done.”

Brody quirked an eyebrow at me and smirked. “Should we be alone?”

I laughed. “No, Ace. Nice try though.”

After I picked up my shirt, Jenna and Tim followed us to Brody’s Jeep. Jenna forgot what part of the lot she’d parked in, and Brody offered to drive her around until she found her car.

“I thought you were paying attention, Tim,” Jenna snapped as we walked to the Jeep.

“You drove. You should have been watching where you parked.” Tim rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I was driving. That means you weren’t doing anything but riding, so you had less to do. That means you should be able to remember where the car is.” Jenna threw up her arms and let out a frustrated breath.

“They’re a match made in Heaven,” I whispered to Brody. He laughed. Jenna and Tim rolled their eyes at me.

“Show us your shirt,” Jenna said when we reached the Jeep.

“Not now.” I shoved the bag under my arm.

“Yeah, I want to see it,” Brody said.

“I don’t want you to see it until I’m wearing it, and there’s nowhere to change here. I’ll wear it to school tomorrow.”

“So change in the Jeep. The windows are tinted,” Jenna said. I looked at her with my mouth open. “What?” She shrugged. “They won’t look.” She waved her hand at Brody and Tim.

“Yeah, Willow, change in the Jeep.” Brody’s blue eyes sparkled with a hint of a dare as he let his keys fall from his hand and dangle from his fingers in front of me. “I won’t look. Much.”

I glanced at the windows and back at the three of them. Jenna’s eyebrows were raised; she was completely daring me to do it. Tim looked bored. If it didn’t have to do with chess, it really didn’t get him going. And Brody looked amused.

“Fine. Give me those.” I swiped the keys from Brody. “You better not look.” I pointed at him.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

I climbed in the back of the Jeep and quickly switched from one shirt to the other, smoothing the new one in place before getting out of the SUV. “Okay.”

I felt a little stupid standing in the middle of the parking lot while three people read words plastered across my boobs, but there I was.

Brody laughed as soon as he saw me. Jenna and Tim looked at me and said, “Huh?” in unison.

“‘Movies in the back of Jeeps do it better.’ What the hell does that mean?” Jenna said, looking at the back of the T-shirt for the punch line.

“Just an inside joke,” I said, biting my bottom lip to keep from laughing.

Jenna looked at my face, which I’m sure was beet red, and then at Brody, who was still laughing. “Uh-huh. Inside joke. Nice color. Really matches Brody’s Jeep.” She pointed between my shirt and the Jeep.

Brody doubled over with laughter.

Tuesday. I woke up to my phone chiming that I had a text message. Groaning, I pulled my quilt over my head. I still had twenty minutes before my alarm was set to go off. I’d just started drifting back to sleep when my phone chimed a second time. I flipped the quilt off and grabbed my phone. Whoever was texting me was not going to like my response. Then I read the name and smiled. Except him. For him, I’d make an exception.