She shoves my bicep. “You suck. Those are great ideas.”
“Right,” I say sarcastically.
She rolls her eyes and turns back to the movie. “I’d make the coolest celebrity,” she grumbles.
I put my arm around her shoulder, and she leans her head against my pectoral muscle. “I’m sure you would, Hollywood Princess, I’m sure you would.”
She pokes me again, and then we continue watching the movie in silence. She yawns, and I pull a blanket over us as she curls up more tightly against me. By the time the credits roll, she’s fast asleep with her arm wrapped around my middle and her head on my shoulder. I know I should wake her and take her home. But instead, I grab her phone and punch in the code she gave me once when I needed to look up something, and her phone was closest. I text her mom and tell her she’s staying because she fell asleep studying. And then I lie down and pull her alongside me. Thank God I have one of those sofas that turns into a bed, and thank God I had the foresight to pull it out earlier.
She wraps her arm more tightly around me, groaning a little in her sleep. I kiss the top of her head.
“Sleep, my little Hollywood Princess,” I coo as I turn off the lamp behind us and fall into the best night of sleep I’ve had in a very long time. My last thought as I pass out is wondering how I can stop myself from completely falling for Jocelyn. And I’m pretty sure the fleeting thought after that, as I drift into slumber, is that it’s too late, I’ve already fallen for her.
CHAPTER NINE
Jocelyn
“Mom! Val! I’m leaving!” I yell as I slide my shoes on and look around my bedroom once more, making sure I didn’t forget anything.
My mom comes out of the kitchen and gives me a hug. “Have a great vacation, sweetheart. I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
“Thanks,” I say as I try to get oxygen in my lungs from her tight squeeze. She releases me, and I suck in some air.
“Have fun, loser!” Val says from her bedroom door.
I stick out my tongue and she does the same. Mom groans. “You girls will never grow up, will you?”
Val giggles, and I grin. “Nope,” we say in unison.
“Well, be safe. Text when you land. Did you pack condoms?” she asks.
I nearly choke on my saliva. “Mom!”
“What? You’re in your mid-twenties. I’m your mom, but I’m also not oblivious to the fact that you may want to enjoy male company,” she explains.
I close my eyes and shake my head a little. “Mom, this trip is about relaxing with friends. I will definitely not be hooking up with randos.”
“Well, some of those men are single, so…” She trails off, and I open my eyes.
“And they are my friends. Just friends,” I repeat.
She puts up her hands. “OK, OK. Just make sure to have them bag it up if you suddenly decide to be more than friends. I’ve seen these men on your social media, and they are good-looking. If I were fifteen years younger…”
I groan, holding up my hand. “Please stop. Let’s pretend we never had this conversation.”
“Too late,” Val says, snickering.
I glare at her, and she bats her eyelashes and makes a pretend halo over her head with a finger.
“You should make sure Val has some too,” I say as Mom turns to her. I stick out my tongue, and Val flicks me off.
“Valentine Isabelle Martinez!!” Mom scolds.
“OK, I’m out. Bye!” I say as I hurry out the door and down the steps to a waiting party bus. Now, Hutch did say he was getting a bus limo to take us all to the airport. What I didn’t expect was a bus with “Wild Times Party Bus” painted on the side in neon letters. Hutch is standing by it and smiling at me.
“You ready?” he asks as he grabs my suitcase and hands it to the driver, who puts it in a cargo hold under the seating part of the bus.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I say as he ushers me inside.
