Just Jelly Beans and Jealousy by Tammy Falkner Page B

broad shoulders fill the
doorway. He steps back and his girlfriend, Emily, walks through the
door before him.
    “Jesus Christ,” Logan says. Logan’s deaf, but
he lost his hearing when he was thirteen so he has really great
speech. He’s also very intuitive, and he’s really good at reading
situations. “You could cut the tension in here with a knife,” he
says. He looks back and forth between Lacey and me. His eyes land
on me, and I assume he sees me floundering when he cracks a smile.
“Did you cut the cheese, dude?” he asks. “Because she looks like
you did something that tilted her world on its side.”
    Lacey arches a brow at me as if she’s tossing
the ball into my court. I can lob it back or I can choose to let it
lie there. “Something like that,” I say, but I’m looking at her and
not at him. I see Emily translate for him in sign language out of
the corner of my eye. “Sorry,” I murmur. Usually I’m more careful
about facing him when I talk, but I wanted to watch Lacey’s face.
Her cheeks are rosy, and she’s shuffling her feet. I want to rewind
and go back to where we were before Friday burst into the room.
    “You look really pretty,” Logan says to
Lacey.
    “Thank you,” she murmurs.
    She’s fucking gorgeous. Pretty doesn’t begin
to describe how wonderful she is. She’s witty and she’s smart and
she’s… She’s not mine.
    “I’m going to go do my laundry,” I say. I
need to get the fuck out of here.
    “A likely excuse,” Friday says. But the smile
on her face dies when I scowl at her. She’s questioning me without
saying a word, and I can’t answer her.
    “I’ll go with you,” Logan says as he gets to
his feet. He leans over and kisses Emily on the forehead, and she
grabs his shirt, fisting her hand in the fabric and pulling him
down so he can kiss her for real. “I’ll be back in a little bit,”
Logan tells her.
    She nods, and Logan opens the door so I can
follow him out. My gut tells me not to leave this unfinished.
    “Wait,” Lacey calls.
    I turn back, filled with hope. Does she want
me to stay? We could kick everyone out and go back to what we were
doing. I could kiss the girl that I want more than anything or
anyone. I could make her mine. I could pour my heart out to her. I
could tell her that I love her and always will. “What?” I ask
quietly.
    “Are you coming to my booth?” she asks. “For
the results of the contest?”
    And watch another man kiss her? I don’t think
so. “I have a lot of laundry to do,” I say.
    She inhales quickly and blinks even faster.
“Are you going to meet us for dinner after?” she asks, her voice
quivering.
    “Where are you going?” If I go, I’ll have to
see her with her lipstick sucked off her face, and I really don’t
want to.
    She picks up a sticky pad and writes
something down. I take it from her hand, which is shaking ever so
slightly. “Are you all right?”
    She nods, looking everywhere but at me. “I’ll
see you at dinner,” she says.
    I shove the note into my pocket, not even
bothering to look at it.
    I motion to Logan, and he precedes me out the
door. I follow, closing it behind me softly. I want to slam it, but
I don’t want her to know how I’m feeling.
    “What the fuck happened between you two?”
Logan asks as soon as the door closes.
    I shrug. Logan is famous for his shrugs. He
should accept mine. But he doesn’t. Instead, he punches me in the
shoulder.
    Shit, that hurt. “What the fuck?” I ask.
    “What happened?” he asks. He looks straight
into my eyes.
    “Nothing,” I say. I shake my head. “Not a
fucking thing.”
    “Dude, you had a pillow shoved in your lap,
and you were getting off her bed when we walked in. Something
happened.” He shoves my shoulder, almost knocking me over. Logan’s
a big boy. A little bigger than me, and I’m a big guy. “Not to
mention that she looked like she’d just been fucked.”
    I stop and turn to face him. I lay both lands
flat on his chest and