Page 52 of Tracking Wolfe

I thought back to when Rosie and Lennon were in high school. She’d had a crush on a guy in her French class. A guy who flirted with her during class but hung out with his actual girlfriend every other hour of the day. Meanwhile, one of Rosie’s good friends in the theater program had asked her to prom. At the dinner table one night, she asked the rest of us what she should do.

“If I say yes to Ethan, then what happens if Terrell breaks up with Amanda and asks me to prom?”

We’d all looked at her like she’d lost the plot. Papa had spoken first. “What are the chances of that happening, sweetheart?”

Her face had dropped. “Slim to none.”

Dad had exchanged a look with Papa, as if getting permission before speaking. “Baby, maybe if Terrell sees you out with Ethan, he’ll get jealous enough to realize what a catch you are. If so, he’ll be even more interested. If not, you didn’t miss out on having fun at the prom with a good friend.”

Was that how clueless I seemed right now?

I glanced up at Jake—the guy who’d made it clear all along that he wanted me. Who’d been nothing but kind and appreciative. Who’d kept my secret. Who’d never broken my heart.

“Yeah, okay,” I agreed. “That sounds fun.”

He smiled and nodded before moving toward the picnic table to include Shay in the conversation. “So this looks like a pretty nice guitar, yeah?” he asked her.

She nodded. “Way better than the one I had before. And it has built-in electronics!”

I pulled my camp chair around to sit in front of her so I could show her a few things. “This is called a piezo pickup. It doesn’t make it sound like an electric guitar or anything. It just amplifies the acoustics when you perform, like playing at the bar.” I began telling her how to use the controls and connect to the amp I’d noticed on their stage.

We spent a little while playing around with it. At one point, Brennan heard us and came walking over with Pup on his leash. Shay finally put her new guitar down long enough to approach the friendly cat and ask Brennan a lot of questions about her.

After taking a few photos and asking Brennan’s permission to post them and tag his account, Shay finally turned back to where Jake had been idly plucking at the new guitar’s strings.

“Can you drop me off at Teeny’s?” she asked. “I have my bag in the truck. Sorry to leave you alone on your night off.”

Brennan bounced his eyebrows at me before glancing back at Jake. “You should come to our cookout tonight. We’re making a big group dinner. The more, the merrier.”

My stomach dropped. Brennan had no idea Trace was here, that I’d already invited him to the cookout.

Jake flicked his eyes at me, unsure. “I don’t want to impose…”

Brennan continued on as if I wasn’t suddenly straddling a very awkward situation. “It’s no imposition, is it, Will? Everyone’s welcome. You just have to bring your own drinks and whatever meat you want to grill.”

I could tell he was trying to do me a solid. Trying to hook me up with a nice guy who was into me. But it was going to be a major problem.

“Um,” I began, hoping that would be enough to send Jake the message that I wasn’t super on board with it.

“That sounds great,” Jake said, flashing a big smile. “I’ll be there.”

After Brennan nodded and grinned, he grabbed Pup and headed back to his van. I stared after him until Jake leaned in and brushed his lips against my ear.

“Figured I could keep an eye on your dads’ friend. You know, make sure he doesn’t upset you or anything.” He pulled back and smiled as Shay loaded the guitar into the truck. “Hope that’s okay. I kind of feel a little… possessive about you.” He added a wink before leaning in to kiss my cheek.

My eyes immediately skipped over to the orange tent, but thankfully, the parking pad was still empty.

“You don’t need to do that,” I said. “Really. It’s fine. He’s fine. Trace is… a friend of the family.”

Why did that make it sound so lame?

Jake shrugged. “Then maybe I’ll give him another chance tonight. It’ll be like practice for meeting your real family.”

I gaped at him, but before I could figure out how to reply, he was gone.

I stared after his red taillights, wondering what he’d meant about meeting my real family. Even I wasn’t desperate enough to jump that far ahead after meeting a man only a couple of days ago.

It was nice to be wanted, but I felt like Trace’s arrival might have turbo-boosted Jake’s interest in me. And something about that didn’t sit right.