Eighteen

Jack

I didn't know who that bitch Becky was, but I didn't like the way she looked at Hudson. It was obvious to me he was trying to be nice and let her down easy, but it was also very clear to me that she was not going to stop unless he was blunt with her, and when he explained she'd been doing this for years it pissed me off.

No meant no, and she needed to learn some boundaries and I was just the person to put her in her place. Hudson hadn't stopped smiling since we'd left his house, so I didn't get the feeling he minded anything I'd said to her. Hopefully now she understood exactly where she stood with him because for the first time ever, I was jealous, and I didn't like it one little bit. We were a few miles down the road when just the thought of her pissed me off again.

"What's wrong?" Hudson asked as I sat there stewing.

"Nothing," I said, and crossed my arms. I knew he wasn't convinced.

"Nothing?" he repeated back to me.

Finally, I huffed out a breath I couldn't control. "I am not a jealous person, let me just make that clear. But something in the way she squeezed in close to you really pissed me off," I blurted out.

"Becky?"

"Fuck yes Becky."

"Don't worry, we don't need to see her again," Hudson said, and smiled at me.

"Oh, we're going to see her. We're going to make sure we get back to your house at least every two weeks and that she sees us together each and every time." I knew it was a huge overreaction, but I couldn't seem to get it under control.

He grinned then, and I knew it hit him how serious I was. "You're enjoying this."

"Maybe a little. I've never had someone be jealous of me," he said, and smiled even bigger.

"I wasn't jealous of you, I was jealous of her, or—I don't even know. She pissed me off, okay?" I took a deep breath and tried to calm down, but I was still pissed.

"Babe, there's nothing to be jealous of. I don't want her," Hudson said, and after reaching for my hand, he kissed the back of it before holding it on top of his leg. "I want you."

I folded like a cheap chair and now it was me grinning again. The way he spoke to me made me want him to say more, and I'd never had a guy call me babe before. I mean Isaac did, but that was more because we'd grown up together and thought it was cool to call each other a pet name. Hudson calling me babe was way different. "You called me babe," I managed to murmur.

"I guess I did, is that okay?" he asked and looked a little unsure.

"I like it," I admitted. "And yes, it's okay. Only maybe not around Isaac or I'll never hear the end of it."

"Who's Isaac?" Hudson asked.

Sooner or later, we'd need to have this talk but right now I'd had enough of worrying about other people. We weren't even together and here I sat making a big deal of his neighbor who he obviously was not interested in. "Just a friend," I said, and hoped he didn't press because I didn't really want to explain that we were fuckbuddies.

He gave me a knowing smile, but he didn't press me for more, and didn't seem to care. Maybe he wasn't the jealous type, hell I didn't know I was the jealous type until twenty minutes ago. "Was there anything you needed before we leave the city?" he asked.

I took a deep breath and blew it out and admitted I was overreacting about every freaking thing, and I would have sworn that Hudson knew exactly what was happening and was enjoying every little over-stimulated response I gave. "No. Let's just stop at the grocery store then head home. I need to do some laundry for the week," I mumbled that last part.

"You can bring your laundry over and do it at the house if you want," he offered.

"Really?" I asked and tried to imagine us just hanging out at Jonas's house.

"Sure, I mean if you want to." He looked unsure, and I hated that I'd made him feel that way when deep inside my inner voice was screaming yes.

"Can we watch a movie?" I asked for no other reason that I really wasn't ready for this day to end.

"Sure, I don't know if my parents have anything other than the local stations but we can check it out."

"They have almost every streaming service. Your dad is a little addicted to sports and your mom likes to watch movies at home as much as she does at the theater."

He glanced at me then, and there was that look he seemed to have a lot. Fear and a little bit of want all rolled into one. "Good to know." He took an offramp into Woodland and drove up to the local Walmart. "Is this, okay? I figure they have anything we'll need."

"This is great. There're a few things I need to get too so this is perfect." I wasn't lying. I rarely left town and usually ordered online, but I needed a pair of jeans and some new socks, so this worked out great. "Plus, if I buy groceries here it'll be about half of what it is in town."

"Oh my god, I was shocked. I knew their prices were higher, but they're a lot higher."

"Yeah, Greg likes to push it as much as he can," I said, and knew for a fact it was true. Isaac worked there stocking and Greg liked to brag about how much he was fleecing the townsfolk.

"I think I'll plan a trip here twice a month," Hudson said and chose a cart.

We walked in together and immediately both of us were grabbing different items to add. We had similar tastes in food, or maybe we were both out of the same things at home. Either way it was fun to shop with him but when I thought about it, I hadn't ever grocery shopped with any guy after we'd fucked. I was breaking new ground, it seemed. He led us over to the personal care aisle where he bought some shampoo. I grabbed a box of condoms and a bottle of lube and threw it in the basket. He looked at it before looking at me.

"What? It's too expensive in town and I don't want to run out," I said with a shrug.

"Definitely wouldn't want you to run out," he said, and grabbed a box and a bottle of his own. "Might as well stock up myself."

"Well, this has been fun, but I think I might be ready to go," I said, making him laugh before he hurried to the nearest checkout aisle. "In a hurry?"

"Yeah, we've got laundry to do, a movie to watch, and—things to do." Then he winked, and goddammit I couldn't wait to get out of here either. There was definitely something going on with me, or him, or possibly both of us.