CEDAR CREEK SERIES

Dylan

“Wake up princess.” Cam was sitting on the edge of my bed. 

“What time is it?” I groaned searching for my phone. I had a text from Jax but there was no way I was opening it with Cam next to me.

“11. And you gotta get your ass up. Mom’s coming home today and she wants us to have lunch with her.” Of course she did, and of course she had no common courtesy to give us a heads up. “Get up and get ready we leave in an hour.”

As soon as he closed the door I opened my phone to see a text from Jax at 4 this morning.

Red, you are on my mind. A smarter man would never say no to you. 

“Can you try to look less pissed off?” Carter said pulling into the beach club about an hour out of town. It was members only and Mom liked to have most of her events here.

“I’m sorry if I’m not thrilled that you guys ambushed me into a lunch that I don’t want to be at.” I rolled my eyes at him. Cam was always trying to play peacemaker between us.

“Cam!” My mom pulled Cam into a hug and pulled back smiling at me. She was beautiful once but in my opinion she had too much plastic surgery and her face no longer moved.

“Mom,” I eeked out hugging my mom.

“Dylan, this is Kent.” She pointed to a man at least 15 years older than her standing awkwardly across the lot. I waved before following them inside.

“So Dylan, what’s your plan this summer?” My mom asked as we dug into our salads.

“I don’t have one. I am just regrouping right now.” She didn’t call me when my freak out happened, in fact she only ever called me when she needed something.

“Dyl’s had a rough few months.” Cam said squeezing my hand.

“Right, we saw the diva fit.” My mom said looking at Kent and rolling her eyes. “You should control your emotions better.”

“Thanks mom.” I started downing my wine as she and Kent had their own conversation and Cam was just downing his food. It’s like if he finished quickly we could just leave.

“What do you think Dylan?” I snapped out of my daze and realized I missed a question.

“Can you come to Mom’s charity dinner in a few weeks?” Cam asked.

“Uh, yeah probably send me the dates.”

“And bring your boyfriend, the hot shot will bring in loads of money.” Kent said not looking at me. I looked at Cam and he shrugged. The rest of lunch was small talk and mostly Kent and my mom talking. Cam and I excused ourselves as they went to the spa and I couldn’t run out of there fast enough.

After lunch I hung out at Cam’s and by 10 everyone was over pregaming. Tommy came home and sat on the opposite side of the room and I decided to head over and try and make some kind of peace with him.

“Hey Tom, can we talk?” I asked standing next to him trying to avoid sitting.

“I knew you couldn’t avoid me forever.” He put his arm around my waist and I instantly tensed. I didn’t want Tommy to touch me ever again but I didn’t want to spend the whole summer avoiding him either.

“Tommy.” I smiled, pulling his hand off my ass. “I just want to say that I hope we can be friends and put whatever happened the last time you were in LA behind us?”

“Why did you freak out  like that? Carter freaked on me.” As if he wasn’t being his typical ass self the whole night.

“I didn’t freak you were being an ass.” I spat out a little rougher than I meant.

“Dylan, I was drunk but I saw you freak out, I didn’t do anything that bad to you.” He would never take responsibility, I did freak out a little much but I would never tell him why.

“Okay Tom, whatever you say. I hope we can be friends.” I said rolling my eyes.

“Tommy has enough friends,” Greer said pulling me up from the spot I was in.  I was grateful Greer pulled me into the living room and we piled onto the couch with the other girls. Tommy headed into the kitchen with the guys.

“You gonna tell us what happened last night?” Greer asked handing me a drink she had made. 

“What happened last night?” Maddie asked. 

“When I left the parking lot she was talking to the one and only Jackson Evans.” I actually blushed, I didn’t want everyone to know about my secret mission. 

“The hot bartender?” Caroline asked.

“Oh what I would do for one night with Jax.” Maddie said blushing, shocking all of us. Maddie was a good girl I never heard of her hooking up with anyone.

“Maddie!” Greer screeched smacking her thigh.

“What?!” Maddie asked blushing even harder now that the guys were staring at us too.

“I just always thought you were miss innocent.” I shrugged smiling at her confession.

“I would forget that for one night for Jax Evans,” she smiled into her cup as she finished her drink.

“Wouldn’t we all? He was the God of our high school but he only hooked up with college girls.” Greer told Caroline. “So anyways what happened?”

“We didn’t hook up last night. I offered and he said no. Said it was too complicated.” I shrugged pretending it didn’t bother me and that I didn’t instantly get wet just from him touching my hips. 

“Jax? Said no to someone? And that someone was YOU?” Maddie gasped pouring more shots. 

“Complicated, why?” Greer demanded. 

“I don’t know. I assume Tommy but like I don’t give a fuck about Tommy. I just want to jump that man’s bones so bad.” I said honestly and hopefully not loud enough that any of the guys in the kitchen heard me. 

“Oh my god! I’m dying. No, wait. Yep, I’m dying! Holy Shit! You and Jax but he’s so-“ Greer gushed. 

“I know!”

“And you’re so not-“ Maddie said. 

“I know!”

“Well now what?” Caroline asked. 

I thought about it for a minute. Now what? I wanted answers. I didn’t want to play a game with the man I had been crushing on my entire life. 

“Now? Now we go get her so hot and drive him crazy! Come on!” Maddie pulled my hand and we ran downstairs to her apartment with a mission to get as sexy as humanly possible. Not even sexy, slutty. If Jax Evans didn’t want to fuck me I was going to pull out all of the stops and make it hurt to say no to me. And I was going home with someone tonight no matter what I just hoped to Godit would be him.