“I …” It seemed she was at a loss for words, too. After what felt like way too long, she finally found her tongue again. “Thank you. So do you!”
Hailey took that opportunity to let her eyes drift over Avery’s body, trying not to outright ogle him, but taking him in enough to show she really meant the compliment.
They spent the rest of the cocktail hour grazing the different food stations. The seafood station was unreal and they stuffed their faces with as much as they could. Free seafood just didn’t happen often.
Although, was it really free after she paid for the hotel room, the dress, the makeup and hair, the bachelorette party… Yeah, she was going to eat all the seafood.
Hailey and Avery made a couple more trips to the bar and she was finally starting to feel a little more like herself when she got a nice buzz going.
When she reached a bowl full of black olives, she tried to talk herself out of following her impulses.
Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it.
She was doing it. She put an olive on the end of each of her fingers on one hand before turning back to Avery.
“I’m the olive master!” she said with a growl and a big dumb smile on her face, flexing her fingers to showoff her super classy accessories.
“Thank goodness. These olives were getting out of hand and they need to be domesticated immediately!” She loved it when Avery joked around with her. If this was Gage, he would have literally just walked away.
She started eating the olives off of each of her fingers when Avery asked if he could have one. Hailey held out her hand and told him to pick one.
What she did not expect was Avery to lightly grab her wrist and bite the olive off her pinky finger.
Hailey was frozen and didn’t think she would ever move again, holding eye contact with Avery.
“I have defeated the olive master!” he said to pull her out of her trance and make her laugh.
She loved being able to joke around with Avery. It’s why they got along so well over the years. Not so many people encouraged her silliness, but he matched it.
Hailey put on a surprised face and said, “How could you? That was the baby olive’s mother!”
They just laughed and let the moment pass. Was he just playing around with her or was that … flirting? Who the hell knew? Well, he probably did, but Hailey wasn’t about to ask, so she finished off the olives.
Then, to distract herself, she reached into her mini clutch for her chapstick. Bridget got each of the women in the bridal party a fancy one with their names etched onto the outside, but when she reached into it all shefound was her phone.
“Dammit!” She let out a breath of frustration and tried to let it go, but when she looked back up and saw Avery grinning at her she was thrown off.
“What’s that look for?”
“You lost your chapstick, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I did.” Hailey looked down at her feet for a moment. She was used to Gage teasing her all the time and making her feel a bit worthless for losing chapsticks all the time, but she didn’t expect to get it from Avery.
While she was looking down, she noticed Avery reach his hand into his pocket and then he held it out to her. Sitting on his palm was a brand new tube of cherry chapstick.
Her eyes darted away from his hand back to his face where his grin was now a full smile.
“I had a feeling you might need backups so I came prepared.”
Hailey could do nothing but gape at Avery. Who was this man and how was he standing here in front of her offering her something so thoughtful? She was floored. And sure, it’s not like it was some super fancy gift, but it was all she needed.
She managed to get her brain to function again and managed to utter, “Prepared?”
“Yeah, I bought a three-pack in case you need another one later.”
Oh my God, I could kiss this man.
Hailey clenched her fists for a moment just to make sure her limbs were still solid because she had a sudden fear that she was actually melting.
