Chapter 16
Nic and Felicity passed around the gold tissue paper–filled sparkly gift bags. They’d spent last night making sure that everything was wrapped as elegantly as possible.
Felicity and Nic stood in front of the fireplace of the three-bedroom rental house Courtney and Thea shared with Nic. “Happy New Year’s, everyone.”
“Cactuses?” Samantha said first. “They’re adorable.”
“Yep.” Nic grinned.
“They’re really soft,” Courtney said, rubbing hers against her cheek.
Derek laughed and whispered something in Dylan’s ear.
Dylan snickered. “So we should change, I guess?”
Abbott held up his own. “They say prickly.”
“Figured it was a good word for this group.” Felicity smirked. “We have an extra size if you need one, Samantha. Nic said we should order two.”
“Thanks.” She frowned at her belly. “Three more months.”
Abbott rubbed her shoulders.
They all headed to different spots to change. Courtney was the first to holler down the stairs. “I’m not sure you got the right thing, Nic.”
“What’s wrong with them?” Felicity yelled.
The reply was too muffled to hear the response.
Felicity was in the shockingly large bathroom off Nic’s bedroom, just about to open her package of pajamas.
The shower was so much nicer than in the apartment over the plant shop, and there was a tub. She missed having a tub.
They’d spent the day working on the pergola with Dylan and Derek. Nic and Derek were not exactly hopeless with tools, but the more she worked with Nic, the more she worried Nic with a power tool in his hand was an actual insurance liability. She hadn’t figured out how to tell him yet.
He was, however, very good at lifting lumber. Felicity could watch Nic lift lumber all day. Yes, there were so many wood jokes in there, she didn’t even bother.
She unfolded the fabric, looking for the pants, but there was only one thing in the package.
She frowned and held it up to the light.
Instead of the pants and shirt sets they had picked out, she’d been given a frilly neck-to-floor nightgown.
The cactus pattern was the same as the rest, but there were ribbons and lace across the front.
Despite the fact that it looked like the kind of thing Maggie Smith might wear in a period drama, Felicity adored it.
She hugged the oversized nightgown to her chest.
Unfortunately, Felicity was four inches under average height, so she had to clutch her skirts to walk. She came out of the bathroom without thinking about the man changing in the attached room.
Nic stood at the far side. The men had apparently received the intended style. Nic was in the bottoms—just in the bottoms—with the shirt part still on the bed. He paced back and forth holding his phone to his ear.
And holy fucking shit.
Works of art could be created from the planes of this man’s back.
Felicity wanted to lick ice cream off it.
She wanted to drizzle it with chocolate syrup.
Write sexy across it in Reddi-wip.
Felicity … Felicity might be hungry. She was certainly starving for something.
They hadn’t talked about anything related to dating since Halloween unless you counted the conversation about online dating fails.
None of the others—except Courtney, who was very difficult to read—hid the fact that they wanted them to get together.
They rolled their eyes at the flirting. They nudged Felicity in the ribs when Nic wasn’t looking.
On a related topic, Felicity’s favorite vibrator had died recently after evidently deciding that the work hours were too long.
It had been forever since Felicity had sex with a man.
If she hadn’t known for sure that Nic was both pansexual and attracted to her, she would have thought he was gay or maybe simply wasn’t into cis women.
But she’d never forgotten that night with the monstera. He’d said that if she sat on his face, he’d make her come so hard she’d tip over.
She was currently wearing a soft tent covered with cacti.
The easiest access in the world. Every time she got close to broaching the issue, she remembered that moment on Halloween when he’d been more serious than she’d ever seen him.
He had said he wouldn’t let her do the slow fade again.
He’d been true to his word. She’d felt more herself than she had in a long time.
She wasn’t so reckless to risk that over the admittedly appealing idea of offering herself to him as his own personal banana split.
Wow, that was even dirtier than she had thought it would be.
She shook herself out of her lewd thoughts and found Nic had finished his phone call. He was staring at her via the large mirror.
“What was that about banana splits?”
Fuck. “Um.”
“And what are you…” He stepped close enough to get a better look at what she was wearing. “I thought we got the ones with pants.”
“The women got the granny gowns, it seems.” Felicity popped her foot and blinked rapidly like a cartoon character.
“Something in your eye?”
“I’m trying to look adorable.”
“You are adorable.”
The doorbell rang. Nic grabbed the shirt of his pajama set and committed the crime against humanity that was covering up his torso. “That’s probably Alex.”
“The front-desk girl from the tattoo place?” Her heart dropped. He’d invited a date? “She’s coming tonight?”
“What’s wrong?”
“She’ll feel left out without a granny gown, obviously.”
Nic touched the lace around her neck. “No, weirdo, I didn’t invite someone to our party without telling you. She’s dog sitting nearby and said she could bring by the calligraphed sign she made for that engagement party at the restaurant tomorrow.”
“Oh, okay.”
They headed downstairs. Nic pulled open the door, but it wasn’t Alex from the tattoo parlor.
“Mom—”
“Ms. Dale,” Nic said, cutting her off from accidentally almost calling the hot older lesbian Mommy a second time.
“Cynthia’s fine.” She smiled, taking a stronger hold on her two adorable greyhounds. “Sorry to barge in on you like this, but I saw Dr. Powell out by the bookstore. He said all you folks were here tonight, and I should go ahead and stop by to ask you.”
“Ask us what?”
“One of the large local event venues folded without warning. My wife was putting on a fundraiser with the university humanities department, and they can’t find anywhere else to have it. Everything’s booked. Usually it’s a very popular event with the students and faculty too.”
“When is it?”
“Valentine’s Day.” Cynthia adjusted her hat. “Based on your plan, I thought maybe you intended to make space for larger events in all weather, so I wanted to check before she canceled the event completely.”
Nic frowned. “How many people?”
“Somewhere between sixty to a hundred. Seemed doable between the restaurant and that outside area.”
“What kind of event did you have in mind?”
“The theme before was based on the venue, which was an old bowling alley. So all that’s out the window now. Sally—my wife—would probably be open to suggestions. Mainly she wanted there to be an activity of some kind.”
Felicity nodded. “I think we could come up with something.” She lifted her chin in question to Nic.
Nic nodded. “Me too.”
“Several of the council members work with this charity, so it might be a good way to get some good face time in with them too. Not that I’m biased.” Cynthia paused. She looked around the room, scrutinizing everyone’s pajamas. “You all know you’re wearing cactuses shaped like butts, right?”
All of the partygoers bent to get a closer look at the fabric. A chorus of groans and “prickly” and “what the hell” bellowed from them all.
Cynthia turned around, waving as she got to the sidewalk. “Let me know tomorrow. You have my card.”
“Yep, I still do,” Felicity said with a degree of enthusiasm that made Nic glower at her.
“Stop drooling.”
“I’m human. She’s hot. What do you want from me?”
Nic’s mouth shut so fast, it was as if he was avoiding a fly buzzing into it.
Before Felicity could ask about it, their friends pulled them back into the room, all of them coordinating their efforts in showing how mad they were while hysterically laughing.
Within fifteen minutes after their fake midnight countdown, Derek and Dylan had left to go back to their hotel, Samantha and Abbott had walked home, and Courtney and Thea had gone upstairs to bed. This left Felicity and Nic alone watching the first show they had been able to agree on.
“What were you going to say earlier when Cynthia left?” Felicity asked, taking the mug of tea he handed her.
Nic sat beside her. “I don’t know? When?”
Felicity didn’t buy it, but she didn’t push the issue. They settled down under a collection of blankets. Felicity could barely keep her eyes open. Nic took the mug from her hands and slid it onto the side table beside his own. “Is your shoulder okay like this? And your neck?”
She yawned. “Yeah.” She pulled the ends of her granny gown over her hands and leaned against Nic’s chest. “Will you kiss me if we’re still awake at real midnight?”
“I…” He took a slow breath and cleared his throat, voice huskier than usual when he spoke. “Of course I will.” He leaned his cheek on the top of her hair. It almost seemed like he was smelling it. She smiled as she fell asleep.