“Alright.” Malcolm hops to his feet and swats my shoulder. “I will pick you up at five.” Then he starts doing someStayin’ Alivemoves and singing,“We’re goin’ dancin’. Dancin’,”in an obnoxiously high-pitched voice all the way out the door.
Chapter 4
Take A Chill Pill Fangirl
Charlie
I feel like Ijust mainlined Sudafed. No joke. I am so amped up right now, I’m practically vibrating, and my heart is pumping so fast, I’m liable to have a coronary before Ryan even arrives. Emma, Stella and I are sitting in one of the big circular booths at the Burger Shack, waiting for the guys to show up and I’m kind of, sort of, freaking out. I don’t even realize that I’m nervously tapping my foot until Emma sets a hand on my leg to stop me. “You need to chill, Charlie.”
Stella, who’s sitting on Emma’s other side, gives me a sympathetic look and says, “You have nothing to be worried about. I’m telling you, he likes you. Tell her Emma.”
“He likes you.”
I don’t believe them, but I nod anyway. Emma removes her hand from my leg, and my foot resumes tapping.
Emma blows out an exacerbated breath, places her hands on either side of my face and turns my head, so I’m forced to meet her eyes. “Listen to me,” she says. “You look freaking fabulous and he’s going to lose his shit when he sees you. What you don’t want to do is start fangirling on him, okay? Just be yourself. If he isn’t blown away by how smart and amazing you are, he doesn’t deserve you, got it?”
I nod, more emphatically this time. She’s right. I know she’s right, but I can’t help but feel like I’m at some pivotal point here. Like, how tonight goes will determine whether or not anything happens with us. And I really want things to happen with us—sexy things. Lots and lots of sexy things. Simply thinking about it sets my lady parts a tingling.
I take a deep breath. I’ve got this. I think.
“They’re here,” Stella says only loud enough for me and Emma to hear.
I glance up, and my stomach drops into my feet. That is one sexy trio of men. And we’re not the only women who’ve noticed. Pretty much every warm-blooded female, and a few of the males, in the restaurant are watching their approach with barely contained lust. I can’t blame them. The guys are about as different as can be, but each super-hot in their own way. With his copper skin, dark hair and eyes, Jacob’s got that whole smoldering Latino thing going on. You know? The look that makes women want to throw their panties at him. Malcolm’s got a face that could have stepped off the cover of GQ magazine, if he wasn’t wearing his football jersey with basketball shorts. Then there’s Ryan, who’s like every bad boy fantasy I’ve ever had all rolled into what seems to be an incredibly nice guy. He’s got his hair pulled back tonight, making his gorgeous blue eyes pop even more. He’s wearing a plain black T-shirt that fit’s his lean muscular body like a fucking glove and shows off thespectacular tattoos that run from his wrist, and up his arms, before disappearing under his sleeves.
Damn. I really want to see how far those tattoos go.
Emma swats my leg and whispers through a toothy smile. “You’re fangirling. Take it down a notch.”
Shit. She’s right. I’m smiling at the guy like he’s freaking Santa Claus. I clear my throat and try to act cool. Unfortunately, all of that goes straight out the window when Ryan slides in next to me. “Hey,” I say, nerves making me sound like Minnie Mouse.
Ryan doesn’t seem to notice. He gives me a warm smile and asks, “How are you doing?” His silky-smooth voice might as well be foreplay because my panties are immediately soaked. My face heats with embarrassment, which is stupid because there’s absolutely no way he could know how my body reacts to him, but I can’t help it.
Wait, did I answer him? Shit.
“Uh, I’m sorry. I’m… uh… good. Good. How are you?” Ugh. He’s going to think I’m a moron if I keep this up.
His eyes dance with humor but he doesn’t call me out on my humiliating stupidity, simply replies that he’s good and opens the menu.
I follow suit and open my menu, patting myself on the back for picking out what I wanted before the boys arrived because there is no way I can think clearly enough right now to comprehend anything I’m reading. I mean, his leg is literally millimeters from mine.
MILLIMETERS!
All it would take is a tiny little shift and—
His thigh touches feather-light against mine, sending an electric charge zinging up my leg and into my stomach where it sets off about a billion very pissed-off butterflies. My whole body stiffens. Shit. What do I do now? Was it an accident or did he do it on purpose? If he did it on purpose, that means he’ll want meto press my leg back against his. But if it was an accident and I press my leg into his, and he shifts away, I very well may die of mortification. But if he did it on purpose and I don’t do it back, he may think I’m not interested and—
“Ow,” I say, rubbing my rib where Emma jabbed her elbow into me. “What?”
She raises her brows and turns her head. I follow her line of sight to the server, in her yellow Burger Barn T-shirt, standing at the opposite end of the table waiting for my order. Everyone is staring at me with knowing looks on their faces, and I really wish I could melt into the vinyl seat cushions. “I’ll have the teriyaki burger with fries and a diet Coke, please.” Whew. At least I managed that part without looking like a complete dumbass.
The server nods and moves on to Ryan, then Malcolm, before leaving to place our orders.
Ryan leans into me a bit, pressing his leg more firmly against mine, but not touching anywhere else. “You ordered a teriyaki burger?” he asks wriggling his nose.
“Uh, yeah,” I say, feeling a bit more settled for having something to be snarky about. “It’s the best thing on the menu.”
“But it has pineapples on it.”
