I’d much rather be with you.
Would you? Even after I made a fool of myself earlier?
Especially after you were being adorable.
That was psychotic, not adorable.
My phone begins to ring, Holt’s contact photo filling my screen. I snapped a pic of him in his cowboy hat after dinner at his parents’ house. Gage caught me taking it, but he just winked and got in his car.
“Is this when you tell me I need to seek help?” I answer.
Holt barks out a laugh. “No, this is when I tell you that I miss you.”
“Charmer.”
“What can I say? A high five gets me hot.”
I groan as Holt continues to laugh at me. “I’m never going to live that down, am I?”
“Probably not. You want to tell me what happened there?”
“I panicked, okay? We established that we’d tell people we’re dating, but we never discussed public affection. I wasn’t sure what you were okay with doing in front of Gwen, so I did the first thing I could think of.”
“Well, I think I’m good with doing anything in front of people as long as our clothes stay on.”
“Hmm. That’s still a wide range of options to work with. You’re cool with dry humping in front of people? I don’t want to brag, but I could make you come in your pants like a teenager.”
“Fuck,” Holt grunts. “Getting a boner in my office was not on my list of things to do today.”
“You want some help with that?”
“Yes. No. I’ve got to finish prepping for my case. But you better make this up to me some other time.”
“You started it with your ‘anything goes with clothes on’ comment.”
“You escalated it with your dry-humping skills,” Holt fires back. I love verbally sparring with him.
“Okay, fair. How about I promise to show you my skills if you call me tonight after your friends leave?”
“Deal. And just for the record, I’m good with hugging, kissing, holding hands, just about anything short of scandalous in public.”
“That works for me too, Cowboy. I’ll talk to you later?”
“Yeah, we’ll talk later.”
We say goodbye, and I put my phone on the table.
“Look at that goofy grin on her face.” Gwen’s voice startles me. She comes into the kitchen with Farrah on her heels. They drop enough bags of takeout onto the counter to feed an army.
“I thought Farrah could join our celebration. That okay with you?”
I close my laptop and organize my work stuff into a small pile off to the side. “That’s perfect. What did you get?”
“A little bit of everything,” Farrah answers. “We thought showcasing all that Pine Creek Falls has to offer would be the perfect way to celebrate your move.”
Gwen grimaces. “Although if you don’t like half the stuff we got, you might change your mind.”
“I could live off of Gage’s pastries, Marcie’s fries, and the diner’s burgers. Not to mention coffee at the Grind. I think I’m covered all the way around.”
