“You won’t get rid of me if I’m a shite dancer, right?”
Wrapping her arms around me, she pulls me in close. The song playing is one I don’t recognize.
“It would take a lot more than bad dancing to get rid of me.”
I drop my forehead to hers. “Have I told you that I love you?”
Layla screws up her face in thought. “Not in the last hour or so.”
“Need me to remind you again?”
She nods, biting on her lip.
“I love you, Layla.”
“I love you, Simon.” She steals a kiss from me. One that is too fucking short by my standards.
The night is still early. There’s no telling when this will end, and I’m ready to bugger off because I want to spend every second with Layla.
We haven’t given a single thought as to what happens next. We love each other. Before, we were just going to end this and no one would know differently.
Now? Now we need a plan on how to make this work. Being thousands of miles apart from Layla is too many. I don’t want to be more than a room away from her right now.
I want the woman I love by my side.
“Can we go somewhere?” Layla whispers in my ear.
“Anything for you, love.”
Linking her hand with mine, Layla and I walk out front, grabbing one of the waiting cars that Blake and Gemma arranged.
Layla rattles off an address to the driver. Her store.
Between the rehearsal and now, so much has happened that I barely processed the news when Pierce told me they actually closed her store.
Fucking Mrs. Bush.
I can’t believe they would be so petty to close her store because Layla doesn’t fit their mold of what a store owner should be.
This woman is too good for this town.
The town is quiet as we pull up in front of her store. All the lights are off, only the streetlamps casting any sort of light into the shop.
Helping Layla out of the car, I can’t help but notice how sad she looks. Tears gather in her eyes before she unlocks the door.
“Layla, I have to tell you something.”
“What is it?”
“It’s my fault that Brad found out.”
“No.” She shakes her head.
“It was. The night of the bachelor party. The guys kept firing questions at me and Pierce was being a wanker—”
“As he can be,” she cuts in with a soft smile.
“And I snapped and told him. We were talking about it outside the bar and Brad bumped into me. He had to have heard me.”
