Playing for Keeps(49)

So for now he'd grit his teeth and fight against the urge to jump her every time he saw her. His little grasshopper wanted to stick with foreplay so that's exactly what he was going to do. As long as she kept doing that unbelieving erotic thing with her tongue and teeth along the ridge of his-

"I'm surprised he's not panting after her right now," Mitch said, yanking Jason away from his thoughts of Haley, naked, bending over.... He shifted uncomfortably in his seat as discretely as possible.

"We don't spend every minute of the day together," Jason shot back.

Mitch shrugged. "Pretty much."

"Well, I'm not with her right now, am I?" Jason snapped back.

"Probably because she didn't want you with her," Mitch said, snagging another beer. "She's probably getting sick of you."

Jason snorted. Then for good measure he snorted again. His little grasshopper wasn't getting sick of him. He was damn sure of that. She absolutely adored him, loved him. He knew it even if the stubborn woman hadn't said it yet, but she would. Then he'd tell her how much he loved her, but only after she told him because he really didn't want to feel like an idiot saying it first. He'd never said it before and had absolutely no idea how to go about doing it now. So, the safe plan was to wait until Haley said it. He had absolutely no doubt that she'd say it soon since there was no doubt in his mind that she loved him.

No, the reason he was hanging out with the guys today wasn't because she was getting sick of him. It was quite simple. He was banned from going yard sale hopping with her for one year. Not that he cared, he didn't. It did seem a little unfair to him that's all. It's not like he intentionally went out of his way to embarrass Haley. Those things just seemed to happen to those around him. Most accepted that little fact of life, but that hadn't stopped Haley from banning him.

You tell one or six people that the stuff they were trying to hawk on their front lawns was crap and all of a sudden he's banned. Well, that and the box of antique dishes that he broke might have had something to do with it. He didn't know why the guy was pissed. He gave him the fifty bucks for it. He should be the one that was mad after all he was the one who was out fifty bucks for a set of broken girly dishes.

"I bet Haley's off with another guy right now-Ow! What the hell?" Mitch whined as he rubbed the nasty looking red spot on his forehead that would no doubt be a noticeable bump by morning.

Brad sighed as he picked up Jason's half empty can of beer that rolled to a stop by his feet. He poured the rest of the beer onto the lawn as he shook his head in disbelief. "You knew better," he told a sulking Mitch.

"I was just kidding!"

Brad shrugged.

"That's fucked up!"

"Don't talk about my little grasshopper," Jason simply said. The man should be happy that all he did was throw his beer at him.

Mitch grabbed a handful of ice from the bucket and pressed it against his forehead. "She's not even that beautiful," he muttered quietly to himself.

Jason was out of his chair and lunging for the little bastard before the last syllable left his mouth. Brad being Brad, dropped his beer and jumped between the two men seconds before Jason would have slammed into him. All three men went tumbling off the deck to the ground with Brad doing his best to keep a very pissed off Jason from killing Mitch.

"Get him off me!" Mitch screamed like a girl as he tried frantically to crawl away. With Brad on his back trying his best to hold him back, Jason lunged and managed to grab Mitch's leg and proceeded to drag the man to him so he could beat the shit out of him.

"For fuck sake, take it back!" Brad yelled as he struggled to restrain Jason.

"Aaah!" Mitch screamed as he was dragged inch by inch towards a future in a body cast. He tried to dig his nails into the lawn to no avail.

"I didn't mean it like that! She's hot! Insanely beautiful! I just meant that you've dated really beautiful women before and you've never acted like this before! Oh my god, don't kill me!" The words rush out of Mitch's mouth, ending on a squeal as Jason dragged him beneath him and flipped him over with a fist raised and ready.

Mitch held his hands out palms out trying to get Jason to stop. "I swear to god I didn't mean it! I love her!" At Jason's growl of anger Mitch rushed to continue. "Not like that! I love her like a friend! I think she's great! I swear I didn't mean it!"

"I told you not to tease him about her," Brad groaned as he tried to pull Jason off the man, but Jason outweighed him by a good thirty pounds of muscle. He watched his friend through narrowed slits as he fought back the urge to beat the shit out of him. This was one of his oldest friends and part of him knew the man was only giving him shit, but he didn't allow anyone to talk about or treat his little grasshopper with anything but respect.