Chapter 29 #2
“She had her tongue down his throat and her hands God-knows-where when I caught her,” Addy offers up, and I raise my eyebrows in surprise, trying not to laugh as Theo looks like he’s just tasted something rancid.
“I hate when you both gang up on me,” Evie moans. “Can I please remind you I am now officially twenty-one? If I want to kiss a guy who’s too old for me, then I get to kiss him.”
“Yeah? Where is he now? Nowhere to be seen!” Addy sneers.
“He’s working,” Evie snaps back, losing patience. “He’s going to meet up with us later. I actually really like him, so both of you stop being dicks, okay?”
And because Evie was so cool with the whole overhearing me having sex with her brother thing, I step forward to have her back. “Yeah, guys. C’mon. How about we trust Evie’s judgment on this one?”
Theo fires me an unimpressed glare, and I smile sweetly back at him.
Thankfully, we’re up next to claim the prime photo spot in front of the sign, so all disagreements are briefly put to the side.
Us girls step up first as Theo snaps photos of us, and I don’t know who trained him, but he puts in a lot of effort to get the perfect shot.
At one point, he’s even on the ground. Addy and Evie pose effortlessly next to me, alternating between smiling portraits, candid hair-flicks, and playful hands in the air while I simply mimic their every move.
I switch places with Theo, offering to take some photos of the three siblings together that I’m certain their parents will have blown up onto a canvas in their home.
“Hails, come here,” Theo calls, waving me back over. “I want one with you.”
Addy’s head turns sharply toward Theo. Evie grins and dips out of the way, and then Addy follows suit, leaving only Theo standing by himself.
I’d love to get a photo with him. We’ve had the most amazing weekend together and I’d love a memory of our time together, but stepping forward for this photo . . . It tells Addy so much.
“Go ahead,” she says, gently plucking Theo’s phone out of my hand. “I’ll take the photo for you.”
I don’t move an inch. I stare at her, torn, trying to read the expression in her eyes. “Addy . . . About Theo . . .”
“We’re holding up the line!” she says, gesturing behind her. With a shrewd smile, she physically pushes me toward the sign. “Get the shot and then tell me all about Theo.”
Yeah, Addy knows.
Chewing my lip, I join Theo in front of the sign.
I huddle in awkwardly by his side as he wraps an arm around my waist, his head tilted toward me and the most gorgeous smile on his face.
I smile, too, right at Addy as she takes some shots of us.
I feel hyperaware of all of my movements, like the crowd of strangers are judging me for posing weird or taking too long or smiling too much, when in reality I know no one cares about me as much as I think they do.
So I focus on Theo. I press into him, inhale the scent of his cologne.
Without breaking the pose, I hear him whisper, “I’d love to pick you up and kiss you right now. Think of the shot.”
“Think of Addy,” I warn, barely moving my lips, still smiling at the camera. My hand is around Theo’s back now, and even that feels like too much. The sun blazes down on us, the heat scorching.
“She’s smiling, Hails,” Theo murmurs back under his breath. “I’m going to ask her something and I need you to trust me when I promise you she won’t freak out.”
“Ask her something?” I repeat, angling my chin toward him now with concern. “Ask her what?”
There’s a mischievous sparkle in his ocean-blue eyes as he grins back at me, then turns to the camera. “Addy,” he calls out, “can I please have permission to kiss your best friend?”
“Something tells me you already did!” she calls back, then dramatically hands Theo’s phone to Evie as she turns her back on us and holds a hand over her eyes.
My mouth parts in surprise at her playful response, but before I can even begin to feel any semblance of relief that maybe Addy won’t freak out over my feelings for Theo, I am swept off my feet—literally.
I yelp, clutching my arms around Theo’s neck for stability as he holds me, one arm around my back, one supporting my legs.
“Hi, Hails,” he says, smiling back at me.
And in that moment, all I think about is him.
Everything else around us melts away and all of the noise inside my head fades to silence.
Theo leans in, but I don’t give him the chance to kiss me—because I beat him to it.
I press my lips to his and I feel the way he smiles against my mouth in the midst of the kiss.
A stranger from the crowd cheers us on. I haven’t even seen the photo evidence of this moment yet, but I already know it’ll be saved in my favorites folder.
“Perfect,” Theo murmurs, his gaze smoldering hot as he carefully sets me back down on my feet.
I can’t believe I just let Theo hold me in his arms and kiss me like that not only in public with an audience, but in front of Addy and Evie.
I feel proud of myself for not letting all of my worries and anxieties stop me from living in the moment, and the adrenaline pumps thick and fast through my veins as I dash away from the famous sign, letting the next group in line have their turn.
“It’s safe to turn around,” Evie tells Addy as I approach with Theo in tow. She hands him his phone back as she gives me an impressed nod, because that was so out of my comfort zone and everyone knows it.
Addy cranes her neck, stealing a peek over her shoulder at Theo and me. When she confirms our lips are no longer locked, she turns fully to face us, blows out a dramatic breath, and simply says, “Well, we are in Vegas.”
“That was really cute,” Evie says, then frowns at Addy. “Liam really should have been here. You’re both literally in Vegas for your joint bach, and that’s the kind of photo you two should have taken together.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not his thing,” Addy answers a little sharply with a shrug of her shoulders. She doesn’t let the conversation derail from Theo and me, though, because she reaches for my arm. “Anything you’d like to tell me, Hailey?” she asks with a playful rise of intonation.
“Lots,” I blurt out. At this point, I’m ready to spill everything. I crave the relief of getting it off my chest before it can fester and drive me insane. The longer I ruminate about something, the worse I feel in the end.
“First, let me call an Uber,” Addy says, and as she walks off, we all naturally follow her away from the thick of the crowds gathered around the sign to a quieter spot by the edge of the road.
She hails us an Uber that arrives within minutes, and no sooner than we arrived at the sign, we’re heading back to the Cosmopolitan.