“Let them be happy, Haley. It’s their wedding week,” Ellie scolds.
“Yeah. Put that sour look away and try to smile for once,” I say, causing her to shoot me a death glare.
“You mean the look you had this morning when you couldn’t find your shoe?”
“Well, maybe if someone didn’t throw it off the balcony—” I say sharply, glaring at the culprit.
“I thought I saw a bug. I was saving you. You should be a little more grateful, honestly,” Holland says, rolling his eyes.
“Grateful? You lost my shoe! Those were my favorite shoes, too.”
“My bad for trying to help,” he replies, throwing his hands up in mock surrender.
“You could have just thrown it at the wall. You didn’t have to shoot it out the freaking window!”
“So my aim was a little off, sue me.”
“Yeah, well your aim's as bad as your sense of direction,” I tell him, crossing my arms over my chest. Our friends have now gathered around us and are looking at us as if we have three heads. I don’t blame them; this argument is ridiculous.
“Did I not get us here?” he asks, gesturing to the fountain.
“Okay,” Ryker cuts in with a laugh, trying to diffuse the moment. “Let’s all remember we’re in the Eternal City. Can we be... less eternal enemies?”
I step past Holland, bumping his shoulder harder than necessary.
“You’re right. I can’t argue with him. His brain is too small to understand anything anyway.”
Holland’s eyes narrow, his lips twitching.
“You know what?” Holland growls, stepping forward suddenly and pushes me, causing me to stumble back. Before I can catch myself, I’m splashing into the fountain.
With a grin and absolutely no remorse, Holland breaks into a cackle. Ellie and Gwen are looking on in horror, while Mason laughs hysterically and Haley looks like this is the most excitement she’s had on this entire trip.
“Well, so much for that,” Ryker says.
“I am going to kill you!” I shriek, water dripping off of me as I clamber out of the water. My clothes cling to me like saran wrap. “Are you insane?!”
“You were overheating. Thought you could use a cool down.”
Dripping, I walk over to Holland who is still laughing as if he is the most hilarious person on the planet. I am seriously going to murder him. Did he think this was going to make me want him more? What exactly did he think he was going to accomplish by pushing me into a freaking fountain?!
“This,” I say, water dripping down my face as I shove my finger into Holland’s chest, “is war.”
Holland grins. “Looking forward to it.”
Chapter 32
Holland
Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have pushed her into the fountain. That was probably not the best thing to do. I’m man enough to admit my wrongdoings. However, I wasn’t exactly thinking when I did it.
She just looked so hot while she argued with me and I was so fucking turned on that I needed to get her away from me before I took her right there in front of everyone. It was like I couldn’t control myself. She was there and I saw the fountain and my brain said ‘push her’, so I did.
Looking back at it, that was probably a mistake. Okay, it was a mistake. Except, the way she’s looking at me as we walk toward the Spanish Steps ismaking me think it wasn’t. How can she be so fucking sexy when she’s this pissed off?
Lainey squelches with every step as she stomps angrily beside me.
Swallowing my pride, I decide that apologizing might be the best course of action here.
