Free Unleashed (A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance) by Emilia Kincade Page B

did.”
    “And?”
    “And it was nice.”
    “Nice, good… don’t you have better adjectives?”
    “There’s not really a word that describes it, Cass. Pleasurable, yeah. But also nice. The most important thing is that you are comfortable. If you’re not, then how can you expect to enjoy it? It’s the same with everything. Don’t worry about what to do, don’t treat it like a checklist. It’s not. Just do whatever. That’s the beauty of it.”
    I sigh. “It’s just… you know, overhearing the boys talking about it at school.”
    “Oh, fuck the boys,” Jess snaps, before we meet eyes and start grinning and giggling. “Not like that, I mean fuck what they all said. Most of them are lying, anyway. So… are you thinking of, um—”
    “No, don’t be silly. I’m going to England soon, anyway. I’ll be touring LSE’s campus with my dad after he gets back from… Vegas . At least… that was the plan. I sure hope he remembers it.”
    “Well, you might meet an English boy.”
    “Shut up.”
    “I can’t believe you got into LSE. I’m so jealous that you’re practically going to be living in London!”
    I can’t help myself. I laugh. She’s absolutely right. It is exciting. I can’t believe it myself. Living in London!
    Small , winding cobbled streets, red double-deckers, tea and crumpets, all the strange accents… basically every stereotype they play up on television here I’m about to experience… for three years, and maybe more.
    “You’re really lucky,” Jess says. “I mean, I know you worked for it, but you’re really lucky.”
    “You should come and visit me. I’ll probably be staying in a cute little townhouse or something, with housemates, and you can experience the English weather they keep talking about. We can have tea and biscuits in the back garden. What do you say?”
    Jess stalls, and I know that my invite is the kind of open-ended one that friends make to each other without any real promise. But still, I can’t help myself but ask her.
    “Maybe,” she says. “I’d love to visit. I’d love to travel.”
    “You should come. From the UK we can just take the train to Paris! And after that, we can travel around Europe if we like. It’ll be great.”
    But a heavy silence comes over us, and we both do our best not to look at each other. It’s so easy to talk about doing this or that, but in reality it’s much more complicated.
    We both realize that it’s more a talking fantasy than a working plan.
    “I should go,” she says eventually. “I’m sure Dave is waiting for me by now.”
    “Okay,” I say, voice soft.
    “I don’t know if I’ll get the chance to see you again. My dad’s got a bunch of family stuff planned all summer.”
    “Maybe you could come around for dinner one night. Or I could go to your place?”
    Jess smiles and nods. “Sure, let’s set something up. But in case I don’t see you—”
    “It’s not like I’m leaving tomorrow.”
    “In case I don’t see you,” she says, “You have a great time in England, okay? I mean it. Really try and enjoy yourself. Don’t stress so much! Anyway, I’ll see you in the last week of summer before you fly off again. We should be back from our family vacation to—” and she rolls her eyes “—Niagara Falls.”
    “Aren’t you going to be going around Canada, too?”
    “Yeah,” she says. “I really don’t want to go. I hate family vacations.”
    “Well, I’ll see you when you get back, then.”
    She gets up, and so do I, and she wraps me up in a big hug. I feel a swell of sadness in my chest, but I can’t really explain it. Maybe it’s because I feel alone, especially if I won’t get to see Jess all summer. She’s not my only friend, but probably the only one I’d meet up with over the holidays.
    “I can’t wait until you visit me in England. We’ll really have tons of fun traveling.”
    “Me too, babe,” she says. To my surprise, she plants a huge kiss on my cheek, and then leaves my