Chapter 17 #2
I blink and drop my head, breathing in the air my lungs have refused since the moment Lawson walked up behind me.
Chuckling, he steps around me and I tense when his fingers brush the side of my arm. “Have fun, sunshine,” he whispers.
I don’t look away until the door clicks shut, breaking the hold his presence seems to always have on me.
Cassie shakes me from my stupor. “Okay, ladies. Who’s ready for a night of debauchery?”
Five minutes and a million goodbyes later, we are guiding the bride-to-be down the walkway. “What is going on?” she asks and reaches up for the blindfold.
I lightly slap her hand. “Not yet!”
She giggles, gripping onto me as we make our way through the front gate to where the limousine we booked for the night awaits.
“Okay. Now.” Blake slips the fabric over Kinsley’s head.
“Oh my god,” she gasps.
“Surprise!” we cheer at the same time, jumping over and throwing out our arms.
We hurry inside and all of us twist around, eyes bouncing all over the interior.
“I’ve never been in a limo before,” Cassie says.
“Same, this is so cool,” Kinsley gushes.
I’ve made sure the driver knows each of our reservation times and the locations, allowing us all the time to be in the moment instead of worrying about what’s next. By the time we pull up to the lingerie store, Kinsley is bouncing in her seat to see what’s in store.
The shop attendants help us set up in the back with whatever selections we’ve made and we spend the next thirty minutes putting on a mini fashion show accompanied by cheers, wolf whistles, and ‘oh my god, you are so getting that’ said at least three times per person.
We end up buying almost everything we tried on. Cassie got a two piece emerald green set, Blake a cute black one piece that’s both sexy and innocent, Kinsley left with two baby doll style sets that highlight her blossoming chest, and I took home a light pink set with floral embroidery.
All of us are starving when we finally make it to dinner. I may have read the menu wrong since we all end up with family-sized portions of different entrées, but none of us were upset with that outcome.
“Thank you so much for tonight. Seriously, this was all perfect.” Kinsley smiles, looking at each of us with pure adoration.
“We just wanted you to have a night of fun,” Blake says and we all nod in agreement.
We pull up to the karaoke bar and Cassie throws herself across the seat, her jaw dropped. “What the hell?”
I look out the window and a laugh bursts out of me. The car stops and we climb out.
“Why am I not even a little bit surprised?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.
“If you expected me to stay away from her for a full night before the wedding, you clearly don’t know me at all.” Jace shrugs, walking over to Kinsley and pulling her in for a kiss. “Hi, angel. Having fun?”
Our groups merge as we file inside. The kind woman at the front shows us to our large room, decked out in disco lights with a big screen and music box at the front.
Yes, I made sure to book the biggest room they have because I do know who my brother is.
We spread out across the comfy couches sprinkled around the room and I unintentionally find myself right next to the man who I can’t seem to stay away from even when I want to. Ha! Like I ever want to actually not be around him. Ah, isn’t denial a trip?
“Fun night?” Lawson asks.
“Oh yeah. How about you?”
“I paid way too much for a bottle of scotch that I won’t drink, but it’s in a bottle shaped like a skull, so I think it was a good purchase.”
“Well, everyone needs a skull-shaped bottle of alcohol.”
“See? You get it.”
Jace is the first to grab the mic and for the next few minutes we are subjected to his off-key singing of “Wrecking Ball.”
“Oh! I almost forgot. I got you something,” I yell, over the sound of Cassie and Blake belting out the Spice Girls’s “Wanna Be.”
He waggles his eyebrows. “Is it whatever is in the pretty pink bag I spotted when you got out of the limo?” My face heats and he chuckles. “I’m kidding, Sydney.”
“Oh. Yeah. Of course,” I say through a forced laugh.
“What did you get me?”
“Well, really it’s something I got myself but you get to also reap the benefits of it.”
“Are you sure it’s not—”
“No, Lawson. It’s not in the little pink bag!”
Unless… no, let’s stop that train of thought before it leaves the station.
He throws his hands up in defense. “Okay. Okay.”
“So, at the restaurant, we all accidentally ordered off of the family-style portion of the menu and ended up with way too much food. I know how much you love their vodka sauce—”
“You didn’t.”
“Oh, but I did. I have practically two big boy portions just for you in the limo’s fridge.”
He groans. “God, you are the absolute best. I could kiss you right now.” My mouth pops open at the same time as he looks at me with wide eyes, as if realizing what he just said.
The kiss we had talked of for our big Valentine’s Day post never happened. And I’m both sad and happy about it. I don’t want my first kiss with him to be for show.
No. While our relationship may not be real… I want parts of it to be as much as it can. I want him to want to kiss me just because it feels right, not because it’s what we think the world will want to see.
“I—”
“It’s okay,” I whisper.
Lawson’s jaw ticks as he watches me. I watch him back.
We aren’t in public.
Everyone here knows this is fake.
There’s no need for us to be acting this way.
And yet…
My breath seizes in my chest when his hand comes up to cup the side of my face. He leans forward, brushing his lips over the corner of mine.
A kiss, but not quite.
“Thank you, Syd,” he whispers, his breath skating over my skin.
I hum, not being able to produce much more of a reaction since my brain is currently fried from the small touch.
With a smirk, he stands and heads over to the bar in our room. My gaze follows him as he goes, my heart pressing harder and harder against my chest the farther away he gets.
It might not have been an actual kiss, but this one with him has wiped all the others away as if they never existed.