The first of Olivia’s players arrived, so I opened the door for them and then retreated to the stockroom to update inventory while the group got down to business.
I’d gone weeks from my first taste of Eden until seeing her again, then even longer before I finally had her in my bed—I could handle waiting a few days to find out what she had in store for me, for us.
Knowing Eden, it would be paradise for us both.
Chapter Twenty
Eden
“Please,please,please!”
I glared at Adelaide, who was draped dramatically over the checkout counter. “Is there any way to undo three decades of caving to your whining?”
“Sadly, no,” she replied. “Aside from doing what I ask.”
“I have no desire to play Dungeons & Dragons, Addie. I’m not into role-playing, end of story.”
“Ever? Not even with Milo?”
The singsong words inspired a number of dirty thoughts, but I held strong. If I couldn’t manage to offer Milo pretty words when he was being ultrasweet, there was no way I could play a character infront of strangers.
“Not like that. Look, if it won’t be too awkward, I’ll come next week and hang out with Milo during the game, but I’m not going to join it, Addie. That’s my final offer.”
“I’ll take it.” She bounced upright and beamed at me. “Though you really do need a life outside of the store and banging Milo’s brains out.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and muttered, “Adelaide.”
“Well, it’s true. I’ve always had to drag you out of the house, but now that Liv and I are a thing, I feel like I’m falling down on the job.”
“Or,” I said gently, “I’m really, really happy with my life the way it currently is, and Milo respects that I don’t enjoy going out the way you do, Addie. That’s not a dig at your lifestyle, either. I don’t like bars and clubs or hanging out with strangers. You know that’s never been my scene. I’m happy you’re happy, truly I am. But I’m happy, too.”
Addie’s smile practically burned my retinas, and I had about two seconds to brace before she threw her arms around me. My parents had avoided public displays of affection like the plague; the fact that I tolerated them at all was owed solely to Addie and her family. I wrapped her up in a hug until the bell over the door chimed.
“Sorry, should I come back?” Milo called. We had a lunch date scheduled, so he came in bearing brown paper bags of takeout.
“No!” Addie leapt away, squeezed my hands one last time, and grabbed her purse off the counter. “I’m just heading out. Toodles!”
I rolled my eyes as we watched her saunter out of the store, but then Milo set the bags on the counter and slid one hand around the small of my back to pull me toward him.
“Good afternoon,” he murmured. “Everything okay with you two?”
“I just agreed to hang out during the game on Tuesday. She’s been begging me all day to join in, but after her reaction just now, I’m guessing I’ve been played. Again.”
He raised a brow. “So all she really wanted was you to be there during the game?”
“Seems that way. She’s convinced I’m a hermit and it’s her job to lure me out of my cave.”
“There’s a lot to be said for chilling in a cave, as long as the cave is my bed.”
I laughed, but he was absolutely right. “I guess if I have you to keep me company, it won’t be too awkward. Are they going to do voices and stuff?”
“Some of them might. Liv only tends to do them here or there for side characters, but I don’t know all of her new players except Addie and Lucas, the bartender from The Mermaid.”
I nodded, biting my lip until Milo gently freed it with his thumb.
“We’ll have fun, and if you don’t, I’ll take you home. But we can always slip away to a dark corner of the store and make out,” he offered, smiling down at me.
“Now, that idea has some merit.”
