Free Irresistible by Liz Bankes Page B

celebrities easily,” but she hasn’t worked out how that could be a job yet. She’s gotten as far as trying to go on a reality show and “do stuff.” I didn’t ask what “stuff” was.
    For my “life plan,” we decided I’d use my new waitress skills to open a café somewhere cool, like Paris. It’d be niceif I could skip straight to that instead of having to go back to school first. But I suppose I can at least keep learning French.
    She was hugely excited to hear about the party in the pool house and the weird games and the random kissing. But even as I was talking about it, I noticed I wasn’t really mentioning Jamie.
    Throughout the day Gabi tried to wrestle my phone from me to text Dan. I’m not sure what she was intending to say, but she is not to be trusted to do these things on her own. Matthew was in a good mood and brought us snacks, but that’s also because he’s a bit in love with Gabi. We let him sit on the floor and watch DVDs too. When Gabi made another attempt to text Dan, Matthew said, “Can you tell him I’ve got a list of questions for him?” and got a piece of paper out of his back pocket. I couldn’t read most of it, but I could see that the first question was,
Did you take Latin?
Then Gabi and my brother collaborated, and when I got up to change the DVD, Dan was sent a message that said, Hi sexy, can you name all the kings and queens of England?
    Dan brought it up a lot on our late shift together last night. Sometimes work is slow. It wasn’t very busy, and the shift degenerated into a game of dares, which mostly involved eating things. I learned a valuable lesson: eating a teabag is not easy. It was all right for Dan, who just had to eat a flower.
    I realize I’m walking along smiling now, remembering how ridiculous he looked. I don’t care. Anyone who’s around in the park to see me must be equally crazy to be up at this time. I feel like running. All the silly stuff about whether this is a “thing” or not doesn’t matter. I like him,and he’s making my summer job fun. I start to break into a run, not caring if I look like a grinning, sprinting lunatic.
    My foot collides with something that feels like a soft branch. My main thoughts as I fly through the air and land flat on my face are:
    1) This is why it is never a good idea to run.
    2) What on earth is a “soft branch”?
    3) OW.
    I move up onto my knees and look behind me to see what I’ve tripped over.
    Jamie is sitting up and staring at me. He’s looking disheveled, and his eyes are only half-open. He’s wearing suit pants and a crumpled shirt with the collar sticking up on one side.
    “Do you mind?” he says, his voice sounding deeper than normal. “I was sleeping.”
    “On the ground, outside?”
    He widens his eyes to wake himself up. “Yes.”
    I’m pleased to find him in a similar state to me when I woke up on his sofa.
    “How did you end up out here?”
    “I had a thing.” He staggers to his feet and looks with surprise at a wine bottle clutched in his hand. “A thing with nice wine. I wish I remembered it.”
    I raise my eyebrows at him, really enjoying his pain. He shoots me a frown, but there’s a hint of a smile there.
    Jamie strolls beside me as I head to the castle. He doesn’t seem to feel the need to say anything.
    “You’re not a fan of small talk, then,” I say as the castle looms into view.
    “I’m not.” He smiles at me and we walk on in silence.
    I feel the urge to annoy him for some reason. I look over expectantly until he reacts.
    “What?” He frowns.
    “Try some small talk,” I say, like it’s something really daring.
    He sighs. “Fine. Mia, how’s your “—he waves his hand as if he cannot possibly think of anything that my life would involve—“father?”
    “Fine, I think. He lives in California. How’s yours?”
    “Deeply unhappy and extremely wealthy.”
    We continue through the grounds and start along the main driveway. He managed to wander quite a ways from