Best Friend’s Brother: Best Friend's Brother Romance Read Online Free Page B

had in the army named Nathaniel.  A friend he said reminded him of Zooey.  He told her that they had the same taste in music, and the same kind of imagination.  His friend had died on his second tour.  His tank had run over an IED, and he had died on his way for medical care.  Jakob was a pallbearer at his funeral, and even helped to fold the flag that adorned his friend’s coffin.
     
    “Oh, you would’ve loved him.  I kept telling him so much about you,” Jakob’s voice cracked a little, but if he was sad, he didn’t let it show.  He kissed Zooey then, without warning.  She remembered not ever wanting him to stop.
     
    “Where have you been all night?” Zooey got over her nerves and started to walk and talk with Jake.  There were some kids running around with sparklers.  Zooey could see that Peter had put Isaiah in his stroller and was walking around the place with a plate of food.  Her mother was still probably talking to Lauryn and Ryan.  It always amazed her that Lauryn had a friendship with Kady separate and apart from her friendship with Zooey.
     
    “I was inside helping out Carla’s dad with all that yummy food over there.  Tried the hot wings?  You should,” Jake winked at her and smiled like he was proud of himself.  Cooking was definitely a new talent.  Zooey remembered one year when the two of them tried to surprise Lauryn with a cake.  That had been a total disaster.  Jake was simply hopeless, and Zooey had no sense of time.  They ended up baking a flat hard cake that was basically inedible.  Lauryn was in love of course, and ate it happily.  She never told them that that was probably the worst stomachache she had in her life.  It didn’t matter though; it had been one of Lauryn’s favorite birthday memories.
     
    Zooey and Jakob walked and talked for a bit.  Neither one bringing up the night before, or acting on their desires.  Zooey still wasn’t sure what was on Jake’s mind, and she was too nervous to make mention of what it was she was thinking and what she had been feeling for all these years.  Jake excused himself for a bit to get more food from inside the house.
     
    “There you are!  Hi Zooey!” it was Carla.  Zooey did her best to hide her confusion when Carla walked over to her.  “I knew I saw you talking to Jake.  Did you see where he went?”
     
    For some reason, Zooey kept expecting cruelty from Carla.  But Carla was smiling at her and looking around.  Zooey told her that he had gone inside for more food, and Carla thanked her and went inside herself.
     
    Zooey made her way over to a wide oak tree by the lake and sat down.  She reminisced about high school.  If in her Sophomore year someone had told her that she would be the one making out with Jakob Savage and making nice with Carla Mennez, she would never have believed it.
     
    *
     
    Sophomore year was Zooey’s least favorite year of high school.  Her acne mixed in with her freckles, and her hair was always too long.  It was never tame enough for a ponytail, but she tried them anyway.  It was a very awkward fashion year for her too.  She would take her mother’s baggy pants from the 80s and wear them with a large unbuttoned button up shirt with another shirt underneath.  Lauryn would always tell Zooey that that was how everyone dressed 2 years before the millennium, but Zooey was going through a phase.  Everyone had the “oh no” years when it came to style and fashion, and 2008 was it for Zooey.
     
    “Wow, I am judging you.  Seriously judging you,” Carla’s voice sounded more like a whine than a voice.  If it were possible to complain about it, Carla did so, and sometimes at great length.  She and her friends were sitting on a picnic table close to the field of their high school.  Zooey was with Lauryn to give something to Jakob, and Carla just had to say something.
     
    Zooey looked down at her outfit.  She was wearing a large black t-shirt, and jeans that she had sewn