“Seven sound good?”
“Sure. I’ll see y’all then.”
Jeff walked in the front door and slammed it. Jack lifted his brows and took that as his sign to get on out while the getting was good.
When Jeff stormed by me and went straight into the kitchen, I knew something was wrong.
“How was the graduation?”
He reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. “Fucking great. Just fucking great.”
Okay. What in the hell crawled into his cornflakes?
“What’s going on? Please tell me your mom didn’t show up.”
He looked at me, confused. “What? No, no, she didn’t show up. The graduation was perfect. It was the fucking dinner afterward that sucked. I swear to God, I want to wring Ari’s neck!”
Jeff quickly finished off a beer.
“You’re going to get wasted before Ellie even gets here. What did Ari do?”
He scoffed. “What doesn’t she do? She never shuts the hell up for one thing. I wanted to reach across the table and shove a piece of bread in her damn mouth. Then that prick showed up, and all he did was flirt with her over dinner, and she flirted right back. It made me sick.”
Ah, so now we get to the big picture.
“Who was this prick who showed up?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know who the fuck he was. Some asshole she dated for a bit in high school. He was having dinner with his family at the same restaurant. He sure didn’t have any manners, since he practically sat with us the whole time and left his family sitting there waiting on him to come back.”
“Okay, so what exactly did Ari do that has you so angry with her?”
Jeff took another beer out and cracked it open.
Holy shit. He had it bad for Ari. Why in the hell couldn’t he admit it?
His hand went through his hair as he let out a laugh. “I pulled Ari aside and told her how I thought it was inappropriate for her to be flirting with the guy so openly in front of her parents.”
My eyes nearly popped out of my head. “Only knowing Ari a few days, I’m going to guess that probably pissed her off. What the heck, Jeff? She’s not your girlfriend.”
He threw his head back and laughed even harder. I didn’t know what he thought was so funny. Stupid idiot.
“Funny, she said the same damn thing. Of course that was after she called me every damn name in the book and told me I was a spineless, dickless prick and she didn’t go for guys like me. Bitch!”
Wow. Talk about your sexual tension.
“Jeff, why can’t you just admit you have feelings for Ari? It sure would make things easier on you, her, and Ellie.”
He looked straight at me and smiled. It didn’t reach his eyes. It was more of a surrendering smile. Like the fight in him to keep Ari at arm’s length was wearing him down.
“I need to focus on Ellie right now. She can’t lose her friendship with Ari, and I don’t have time to jack around with some baby drama queen who obviously needs way too much attention to keep her happy. Let her little high school prick friend do that.”
He didn’t mean a damn word he had just spewed out. And what in the hell did he mean Ellie couldn’t lose her friendship with Ari?
“I need to go jump in the shower before Ellie and her friends get here. I told them to come anytime after seven.” He headed toward the hall but stopped and looked at me. His face filled with regret.
Ah hell. What did he do?
“I also called Rebecca and invited her and some of her friends. Told her it was Ellie’s graduation party. Do me a favor and keep your eye on Ellie and her friends tonight. I don’t want any of these jackasses trying something with any of them. I already gave Ellie the lecture about taking any drinks from anyone.” He ran his hands through his hair. He was second-guessing everything, especially inviting Rebecca here. They would be jealous of Ellie and her friends, and Jeff had to have known that.