“Seth says it’s not that kind of event.” I shrugged. “Do you… own a tie?”
“Well, no,” Ward admitted. “But I know you’ve got a couple stashed in the back of the closet.”
“You know? I’m hoping never to wear one again,” I said. I’d only been living in Otter Bay full time for a handful of weeks, but I couldn’t imagine wanting to be anywhere else.
Not when I had Ward, and the kids, and as many late mornings and early nights as I could ever have wanted, surrounded by friends and community andhome. I’d never really felt like I was home anywhere before.
But I felt it now.
“You know, I always dreamed of taking you to something like this,” I confessed, checking the time on my phone like I had every minute for the last hour.
I didn’t want to be late, for once in my life. But I also didn’t want to be early, which was just as embarrassing.
“Really?” Ward asked. “Like… when you started working, or…?”
“Way before that,” I laughed. “When I imagined, like, being the world’s most famous actor, I always had this secret fantasy that I’d need a date for an award night, right? And I imagined asking you to come with me. As a friend, obviously. But then… I dunno, I kinda skipped over the effortless seduction part in my mind and got straight to making out with you behind the theatre or whatever.”
Ward’s eyes lit up, like they always did when I told him yet another of my embarrassing teenage fantasies about him. If he didn’t love hearing them so much, I wasn’t sure I could handle telling him.
I checked the time on my phone again just in time to see the minute switch over.
My butterflies had butterflies, I was so nervous. I wasn’t used to feeling like this before events, but this was different. This was in my hometown, with people who’d known me since I was tiny. Seth promised me it was casual, I’d have fun, and I couldn’t screw it up no matter what I did.
But this was actually worse than I imagined attending the Academy Awards would have been, even though I already knew I’d won and didn’t have to sit there wondering.
“Nervous?” Ward asked, curling his hand around my arm and squeezing.
“I might throw up?” I said, and I wasn’t entirely joking.
“You won’t,” Ward said, pulling me into a hug. “You’ve been attacked by a squirrel in front of these people, nothing worse can possibly happen.”
I snorted, burying my face in Ward’s shoulder and breathing in the clean scent of his skin. God he smelled good.
One bonus about him being all dressed up was that it meant I got toundresshim when we got back. That was the thought I planned to cling to while I got through this. Ward might not have believed it, but he’d gotten me through a whole hell of a lot over the years.
I was glad I had him to get me through the rest, too.
“If it was you getting an award, you’d refuse to go,” I pointed out.
“Yep,” Ward agreed. “But you’re going.”
I snorted. “No argument?”
“No argument, I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you if I have to,” Ward said.
“Well now I’m thinking about refusing to go just so you’ll do that,” I said. “Have I mentioned the fact that you can lift me like I’m a ragdoll is really hot?”
Ward chuckled. “If you’re good I’ll carry you upstairs when we get back,” he said.
“Deal.”
Ward laughed again, giving me one last squeeze and then pulling back. “Come on, time to go.”
“Won’t we be early?” I asked, checking my watch this time. Two whole minutes had passed.
Ward was already grabbing his coat and keys. “It’ll be a novelty for you. Now come on.”
Ihadpromised to be good in exchange for the hottest sexual favor I could imagine getting from Ward, so I followed him.
