I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t help chuckling. “Oh my god.”
“What did one wall say to the other,” Ward asked, nose brushing against the shell of my ear now.
“I dunno.”
“I’ll meet you at the corner. You know why seagulls fly over the ocean? Because if they flew over the bay, we’d call them bagels.”
Now I couldn’t help laughing. None of these jokes were actually funny, but I could hear the laughter in Ward’s voice as he told them one after another, and it was making me laugh, too.
My stomach swooped as he pressed his lips to my cheek, and I turned to look at him then, breathless with laughter, taking in those beautiful hazel eyes glinting in the morning light while he caught his breath, too.
He was about to kiss me. I could feel it, I could practically taste his mouth, hear the mattress creaking as he pushed me over and pinned me down and kissed me until his lungs burned for air.
And then the moment passed, and he didn’t. And I felt silly for thinking he was going to.
We werefaking. None of this was real.
“Photos,” Ward said, handing my phone back.
I scrolled through them, biting my lip as I looked at photo after photo of the two of us laughing, curled up against each other, cozy and comfy. Just like real boyfriends.
Something in my chest twinged as I came to one where our noses were just touching, both of us laughing. I hadn’t seen myself smile like that in longer than I cared to admit, and Ward was glowing.
“Can I post this one?” I asked.
Ward shrugged. “That’s what I took them for.”
It was so weird to watch him agree to something like that without agonizing over every single element.
Not that it was possible to take a bad photo of Ward. Maybe that was all there was to it. He’d never had a reason to feel self-conscious.
“Do you have Instagram?” I asked, sending the photo to Astrid for approval like she’d told me to. “I could tag you in the post.”
“I have one for my woodworking,” Ward said. “But I don’t think your fans would care.”
“Some of them might. Could bring in some business. You oughta get something out of this.”
“I’m helping you out.” Ward shrugged. “That’s more than enough to get out of it.”
I was about to argue when my phone went off again.
Astrid:perfect, approved
Astrid:give him my number
Ryder:what for?
Astrid:he’s cute??
“Something up?” Ward asked.
“My agent wants me to give you her number,” I said.
“What for?” Ward asked.
“She thinks you’re cute.”
Ward chuckled as he rolled onto his back, stretching his arms above his head. I watched his biceps flexing with more interest than I ought to have.
