I squeezed her hand. “I’ll figure out a way to talk us out of it, smooth it all over.”
Her shoulders relaxed, and she gave me a smile. “Okay.”
I smiled back, happy I had been able to easily reassure her. She trusted me, and that thought alone made my pride swell.
The girls and Ryan left so Olivia could ask us our questions, and then we switched so they could be asked their questions, all of us having a chance to write down our answers.
“We’re going to start with the questions we asked Rush, Slate, and Brayden,” Olivia said, glancing at her notecards before looking at Scarlet, Isla, and Ryan. “When we asked them what your guilty pleasure was, what did they say?”
Scarlet went first, turning her card over to show her answer,eating ice cream in bed.
“Ah, dang it. I knew that,” Rush groaned, turning over his card that readdrooling over the guys on Bridgerton.
“That’s true though,” Scarlet said, pointing at Rush’s card. “What can I say? I have too many guilty pleasures.”
A few of us chuckled at Scarlet’s response.
It was now Isla’s turn to show what she had written down. She bit her lip and turned her card over. When I read the one word she had written, I let out a loud laugh. In all caps was the wordSLATE.
Her cheeks were dusted with a light pink and before she could feel too embarrassed, I turned my card over that read,ME.
As soon as she saw what I’d put down, she laughed too. “I guess it’s not really a secret.”
I kissed her on the cheek. “I don’t want it to be.” Pulling back to see her shaking her head at me but still smiling, I wasn’t sure at that moment if what I had said was the truth or me acting like the doting boyfriend.
A prickly sensation of fear ran over my skin. It couldn’t have been the truth. Yes, I liked the idea of Isla finding me attractive, but did I truly want people to know she was mine? For reals?
No. No, it had to be my acting skills coming out. I was just getting really good at this couple thing because we’d been doing it so long. Shaking off these thoughts, I focused on hearing what Ryan had put down.
Ryan had written down that his guilty pleasure wasenjoying the company of women, but Brayden’s answer didn’t match. He’d written that Ryanstill slept with a teddy bear.
Ryan’s face turned red. “You’re such a jerk. I can’t believe you’d tell everyone about Mr. Snuggly.”
I tried not to laugh at the name of his stuffed bear but wasn’t able to quite hold it in. I could tell the rest of the room was trying to hold it together, but laughter could still be heard.
“What?” Brayden asked, clearly not caring that he’d embarrassed his friend and teammate. “If you don’t want people knowing about it, get rid of it.”
Ryan stood up, throwing his cards on the floor. “I’m outta here. I’m not going to sit here and deal with this jackass any longer.” He headed toward the door but paused, looking over his shoulder. “Sorry to leave early, Olivia.” Then he walked out the door, slamming it behind him.
Olivia gave a pointed look at Brayden, and he looked down, like he knew he’d been a jerk. “Let’s move on,” Olivia said. “The next question was fill-in-the-blank. When my partner wakes up in the morning I am likely to find hisblankon myblank.”
Scarlet and Rush both got the same answer of findinghis hands on her breasts, which had Scarlet screaming and throwing her arms around Rush in her excitement at having given the same answer.
It was our turn next, and technically we’d never slept over with one another, so I didn’t really know the answer to this one, but I had guessed where they would probably have ended up.
Isla had written downhis hands on my butt.
Bingo—we had another correct answer.
Turning over my card to show her, she said, “That was an easy one.”
I chuckled. We both knew how much I loved her butt.
Brayden had left the game and headed into the kitchen to eat, so we moved on to the next question.
“Okay, question number three. Your idea of a perfect date would be…a movie at home, a night out on the town, attending a concert, or trying out a new restaurant?”
Rush had put that Scarlet’s perfect date would bea night out on the town, but she’d written downa movie at home.
