Zane & Lucky’s First Christmas (Forever Love #3.5)(6)
Author: J.S. Cooper

“Okay, okay. I’ll call.” I turned away from him and pulled out my phone. I stared at it for a few seconds before pressing the numbers into the phone. I held my breath as the phone rang, and I could feel the disappointment seeping out of my pores as it kept ringing. I was about to hang up, when she answered the phone.

“Hello,” her voice was soft and my heart ached at the sound of it.

“Robin!” I said brightly and too eagerly. I stifled a groan.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” I answered and then there was a moment of silence. “How are you?”

“Fine.”

“I tried calling you a few.”

“I was busy.” She said abruptly.

“I see.” I bit my lip, unsure of what to say next. “So Zane and I were about to order pizza and I was wondering if you would like to come over and share some with us.”

“Really? It’s 8pm.” I could tell she was feeling feisty by the tone in her voice.

“Yeah, we’re having a late dinner.”

“Am I the dinner?”

“What?” I frowned into the phone.

“You call me out of the blue at 8pm at night and ask if I want to come over for dinner. And I want to know if I’m the dinner. Is this a booty call?”

“Of course it’s.”

“Of course, if it is, you wouldn’t tell me. I’d be the last one to know, right?”

“Robin, this is not a booty call.” I sighed. “Honestly, I think a booty call would be if I had called you at midnight. And then I wouldn’t ask you to come over for pizza.”

“Oh, you’d ask me to come over for some dick.”

“Uhm,” I tried not to laugh. I knew that she hadn’t intended to be funny, but for reason I couldn’t stop myself from finding her last statement really funny. “If you want to.”

“What?” she screeched, and I knew she was surprised at what I had said. But I was too tired to mess around anymore. Either she liked me or she didn’t. Either way, I wasn’t going to play games.

“If you want to come over for some pizza, then that’s fine. If you want to come over for some dick, preferably my dick, then that is also fine. Big Noah was talking to me the other day and he did tell me that he misses you, so I’m sure you would be very welcome.”

“You’re an ass**le.”

“I’ve been told that once or twice.”

“You’re possibly the biggest ass**le I know.” She continued.

“Big Noah just told me that he wouldn’t mind exploring your ass**le.” I joked and the phone went silent. “Sorry, Robin. I didn’t mean that. It was a bad joke. I have a problem of joking at the most inappropriate times.”

“Yes, you do.” Robin gasped and then burst out laughing and my heart soared with hope at the sound of her giggles.

“Let me make it up to you. Whatever you want on your pizza is all yours. I’ll even buy you your own.”

“I don’t know.” She hesitated.

“Please.” I begged. “I miss you.”

“I guess.” She sighed. “But I’m not staying over.”

“Fine.” I grinned into the phone. “You don’t have to stay over.”

“Big Noah better not try and beg me.” She laughed. “’Cause I’ll tell him no, too.”

“To his face?”

“You wish.”

“More like he does.” I shifted my legs as I felt big Noah awakening at the possibility of coming out for the night.

“Big Noah and small Noah both wish.” She giggled. “Though, I don’t know which one is in charge of the other.”

“No fair.” I groaned, because at that moment, I wasn’t sure either. “Anyways, I’m going to hang up now, so that you can come over before you change your mind.”

“Scaredy-cat,” she laughed. “I’m not a flake, you know.”

“Uh huh.”

“Okay, I’m just going to go brush my hair and I’ll be over.”

“Don’t forget your toothbrush.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” I said quickly. “See you soon.”

“Wait, Noah.” She almost screamed into the phone.

“Yes.” I held my breath, wondering if she had been playing me, trying to get my hopes up before changing her mind.

“Pepperoni and jalapenos please.”

“Huh?”

“On the pizza.”

“Oh, yeah,” I laughed.

“There are going to be pizzas, right?”

“Of course.” I answered quickly, hoping her mind didn’t start jumping to conclusions.

“Okay, I guess—”

“I gotta go.” I said hurriedly. “See you soon.” And then I hung up. There was no way I was going to give her the option to change her mind. I stood there for a few minutes with a huge grin on my face and happiness in my heart as I realized that she was definitely coming. But that wasn’t the reason for my thudding heart and hopeful mindset. That was because she had sounded like she was open to really giving me another chance to make it up to her. It was crazy that I cared about her so much; we barely knew each other, but I already felt so connected to her. I knew that if I didn’t try to make things right with us, I would lose her. Scratch that, I needed to make things better than right. I needed her to give me a new chance, a fresh chance. Because I had a feeling that if she did that, things would work out for the best.

***

Ding dong. I ran to the door excitedly, only pausing to take a breath before I opened it nonchalantly.

“Hey,” I smiled, expecting to see Robin on the other side of the door.

“Hey, bro. What’s up?” Leonardo’s handsome mug grinned back at me before he reached over and gave me a brotherly hug.

“Leo,” I hugged him back and tried not to show my disappointment. “How are you?”

“I’m good, but I want to hear everything.” He stared at me and laughed. “Look at you all buff, I see you’ve been working out a lot more.”

“Well, you know.” I laughed as I let him in, and we walked to the living room. “There’s not much to do when you’re in hiding.” I looked over at my brother’s best friend and chuckled before becoming serious. “It was hard being away.”

“I bet.” He gave me a look. “We thought you were dead.”