Page 63 of One Night with Number Nineteen

Gray chuckles, claps me on the shoulder. “Can I talk to you?”

My stomach twists at the look in his eyes. “Yeah.” I step a few feet away, wait for him to warn me off again.

“I was an asshole.”

I blink.

“About Lainey,” he says. “I was…well, whatever. It doesn’t matter. It’s not what I thought because I was”—a shrug—“an asshole.”

“It’s fine,” I tell him. “I know my reputation. I get why⁠—”

Faye slips an arm around his waist, steps close. “He was an asshole. And he’s sorry.” A glance up at Gray. “Did you get to that part already?”

“I’m working on it, Red,” he says.

An adorable scowl on her face.

He sighs, looks back at me. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

“It’s all good, man. I told you it’s all⁠—”

“No, man. It’s not all good.” He steps closer, settles his hand on my shoulder. “For real, I’m sorry.”

My heart rolls over in my chest. “Thanks.”

He squeezes my arm. “See you in a couple of days.”

Throat tight, I just nod and watch them drive off. Then I exhale and turn back to Lainey. She’s not watching me, but staring off in the distance.

I turn, see nothing but shadows.

“Do you want me to follow you home?”

A jerky shake of her head. “No,” she says. “But will you come by tomorrow sometime?”

I’d opened my mouth to argue with her about following her home (though even as I’m thinking that, I’m already also deciding to just follow her anyway).

Her question has my words stoppering up in the back of my throat.

“If you’re too busy,” she says when I don’t—can’t—answer, “I get it. Maybe the day after then?” She nibbles at her bottom lip, uncertainty rippling through her expression. “Or⁠—”

“I’m seeing my mom tomorrow.”

“Oh.” She blinks. “Right. Of course you’re going to see family.”

“We always go out to dinner,” I blurt. “If you want to come with us…” I clamp my mouth closed.

Fuck.

What am I doing?

I can’t have her and Ollie meet my mom.

That’s…

Insane.

Before I can find some way to take that back, Lainey smiles. “I’d love to not have to cook on Christmas. We’re in.”