Read Justin for Free Online

ready?”
    “ I guess so.” She’d eaten, but she could get an appetizer and a soft drink.
    He looked around her apartment. “Did you have a good time with your family today?”
    “ Yeah, I did. What did you do?”
    He smiled. “I went to see my grandmother and let her beat me at cribbage.”
    “ Cribbage?”
    “ It’s a card game with this board you use to count points on. It’s kind of weird, but my grandmother taught me when I was little.”
    “ Was her boyfriend there?”
    He laughed. “She won’t tell me which one he is, but I think so. There were a couple of old men giving her the eye. It’s so cute.”
    She locked her door and preceded him down the stairs. “Where are we going?”
    “ Mexican. Are you hungry?”
    “ Not terribly. I ate dinner with my parents at three. I’ll just get a dessert or an appetizer or something.”
    He reached over and squeezed her hand. “Thanks for being willing to come with me. Cody seems really nervous about this woman. He hasn’t been nervous about a date since our sophomore year at UTA. He figured he could buy girls after that.”
    “ Buy them?”
    Justin shrugged. “We’ve all had our share of women wanting to date us just because of our money.”
    She sighed softly. “That’s really sad.” She looked down at his hand which was still covering hers. “I’ve never met Cody, but I’ve seen him at the office once or twice. He seems to have a lot going for him.”
    “ Don’t get any ideas. I’m not fighting him over another woman.”
    What was that supposed to mean? “You’ve fought over a woman before?”
    “ Our freshman year we had a crush on the same girl. Of course, she told us we were both a couple of geeks, and she had better things to do.”
    “ That’s terrible!”
    Justin laughed. “No, we were geeks. I was the stereotypical nerd in ugly glasses who couldn’t dress like a normal college kid to save my life. Cody walked around telling everyone about the stats of his favorite ball players whether they cared or not. We weren’t as nerdy as Steven, but we were pretty bad.”
    She looked over at him watching his profile. “That’s hard to believe. I mean, you certainly don’t seem like a nerd now.”
    “ We all figured out how to hide our inner nerds. I had Lasik and had someone teach me how to dress. I still hire someone to buy my clothes for me.” He grinned at her. “If left to my own devices I revert back to some pretty nerdy stuff. I never shop for myself anymore.”
    They walked into the restaurant and were shown to a table. Cody was already sitting with a pretty blue-eyed brunette. She looked like she was around thirty, and had a nice tan.
    Sarah slid into the booth first and Justin slid in next to her. The booth was small, and they were touching from shoulder to knee. She smiled at the woman across the table from her. “Hi, I’m Sarah.”
    “ I’m Amber.”
    “ It’s nice to meet you.”
    “ You too.”
    The men both had their faces buried in their menus. “So how long have you and Cody been seeing each other?”
    “ We’re not really seeing each other. I’m giving him riding lessons.”
    “ Oh, okay. Is that what you do for a living?”
    Amber nodded. “I usually only teach children, but Cody insisted.”
    Sarah sighed. “I think the two of them have been too rich for too long. I don’t know about Cody, but Justin thinks he has the right to tell everyone around him what they’re going to do and just watch them fall in line.”
    “ Sounds like Cody!”
    “ How did you two meet? Did he just call and ask for lessons one day?”
    Amber blushed. “I rear ended him last weekend.”
    Sarah choked back a laugh. “Really? So he hired you to teach him to ride a horse?”
    “ Weird, huh?”
    Cody put down his menu and took a sip of his iced tea. “You know, I’m sitting right here listening to you, right?” He nodded toward Sarah in greeting, but didn’t say anything to her directly.
    Amber gave him a confused look.