Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
The element of surprise is a great way to make an impression. Today, you’ll have the opportunity to surprise someone. Leave them wondering what you’ll do next! Also, pack clean undies—you never know.
“My face is tingling.” Dakota brings her hands up to her face but doesn’t touch it.
“That means it’s working,” I say, wiggling my nose. It does tingle, but it also itches.
“These are hilarious.” Ginny hands me her phone. “Take a picture so I can send it to Heath.”
“Yeah, I’m sure a creepy-looking tiger face mask will really turn him on.” Dakota snorts as I snap a picture of Ginny and hand her phone back.
“You’d be surprised what turns Heath on.”
Dakota and I both burst into laughter.
“No, honey, we wouldn’t be surprised at all,” Dakota tells her.
“He says, ‘Rawr,’” Ginny tells us, staring down at her phone. “Reagan, you should send Adam a picture.”
“You think he’s into llamas?” I ask and pose with my hands under my face. She snaps a picture.
“Absolutely do not send that to him. We are not at that stage.” The tingling gets worse as my face flames with embarrassment at just the idea of him seeing me like this. “Promise me?”
“Okay, okay.” She puts her phone down. “But you look adorable.”
“What stage are you at?” Dakota asks.
“It’s hard to take you serious with that on your face,” I deflect. Her mask is a narwhal and makes her face almost entirely blue.
My friends, or the tiger and narwhal they’ve become, stare back at me. They don’t look like they’re going to let this go.
“We’re at the ‘everything is great and everyone else should mind their own business stage,’” I say.
“She has no idea,” Dakota says to Ginny.
“My brother is an idiot.” Ginny’s shoulders sag, and she sticks out her bottom lip. “I’m sorry.”
“There is nothing to apologize for. Everything is great.” I smile, though I’m not sure how effective it is through this mask.
I get up and go to the kitchen to grab another bottle of wine.
The truth is, everything is great. Do I have an uneasy feeling wondering if Adam is as into me as I am him?
Yes. Do I think I’d have this same uneasy feeling regardless of what label we slapped on this thing between Adam and me?
Also, yes. I’ve been crazy about him for years.
It makes sense that I’d fall harder, faster.
There’s a knock at the door, and all three of us look at it but don’t move.
“Go away. We’re too poor to buy anything, and we’ve already found Jesus,” Dakota yells.
Ginny giggles. “What if it’s Girl Scouts selling cookies or hot firefighters checking smoke alarms?”
“If you have cookies, knock three times,” Dakota yells again.
“What about the firefighters?” Ginny asks.
“My stepdad is a firefighter. Kind of ruins the fantasy for me.”
The knock comes again.
“Only once must not be Girl Scouts.” Dakota shrugs, and I sit back on the floor where we’ve got a whole home spa thing going on. Wine, nail polish, face masks, and magazines.
Ginny gets to her feet. “The suspense is killing me.”
“Can you hand me the white polish?” I ask Dakota while Ginny goes to see who it is. We see our fair share of solicitors here, and the only person I really want to be on the other side of that door is out with the guys tonight.
“Uhh, Reagan,” Ginny calls from the door. “I think you want to see this.”
“Who is it?” I ask. “Firefighters?”
She doesn’t answer, just smiles, and opens the door wide.
Adam steps through.
I gape at him. He’s so handsome. He still takes my breath away sometimes. “What are you doing back so early?”
I can barely pull my eyes away from him, but I do note that Heath, Rhett, and Maverick file in behind him.
“Go away. You’re supposed to be at guys’ night,” Dakota says from behind me. “I never get these two to myself anymore.”
“What exactly are you supposed to be, Kota?” Maverick asks her.
My hands go to my face.
“I’m a narwhal, Ginny’s a tiger, and Reagan’s a llama. Duh,” my roommate tells him.
Oh shit. I’m a llama. I’m a llama standing in front of my incredibly sexy crush. A freaking llama.
I duck my head and use my hand as a shield. “We’re having a spa night. You guys aren’t supposed to be here.”
“I know, but I needed to see you.” Adam steps forward and leans down to see my face.
“Uh-huh.” Can llamas blush? I motion toward the bathroom. “I just need a few minutes.”
“Don’t go.” He grabs my hand. “This can’t wait.”
Slowly, this llama faces her dream man. “Okay.”
“Reagan, I…” Adam’s brow furrows. “I’ve been thinking…” He stops again and looks around. “I’m no good at speeches, so I wrote it down.”
Maverick steps forward and hands him a stack of poster boards. The first one says my name. Maverick plays a song from his phone. He even holds it over his head and sways in time with the music.
Adam smiles shyly as he drops the first poster board, the next one reads, The past few weeks have been amazing.
I smile. They really have. The guys must know what the poster boards say, which makes sense since they came over together, but they’re watching me instead of Adam, and I’m blushing hard.
The next board falls.
You are the coolest girl I’ve ever known.
My stomach flutters as he keeps going.
You’re smart, talented, kind, and gorgeous.
Somewhere behind me, Ginny says, “Awww.”
Your butt’s nice too.
Mav chuckles and whispers, “That one was my idea.”
“Thanks, Mav,” I say.
I don’t know how I got so lucky.
Adam drops the board, and the last one reads, “Will you be my girlfriend, Reagan?”
I step closer and whisper, “But, what about… everything?”
“Maybe we should give them some privacy,” Rhett says.
“But,” Mav starts. “It’s just about to get good.”
“Come on.” Rhett puts an arm around Mav’s neck and guides him back out the door. Christina Aguilera’s voice gets quieter as they cross the breezeway into their apartment. Ginny squeezes my arm as she and Heath follow.
“Pretend I’m not here,” Dakota says. “Just grabbing more wine and going to my room. Where I have knives, just FYI.”
Adam leaves the posters on the floor and shoves both hands in his pockets. “So, what do you say? Want to be my girlfriend?”
“Me or the llama?” I joke. I need a minute to process this. “Come with me. I need to take this thing off,” I say as I pull him toward the bathroom.
While I peel off the mask, Adam leans against the doorframe. I feel his gaze on me, but I wait until I’ve rinsed my face and dabbed it dry before I speak.
“That was probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.”
“But?”
“How come you changed your mind?”
“Talking to the guys tonight, I realized that I’d only taken what I wanted and needed into consideration. I never once asked how you felt about it.”
“I want you. The rest isn’t all that important.”
“Then maybe it is all about me. I want you to be mine in every way. I want to do boyfriend things for you. Take you on dates, walk you home, make you oatmeal in the mornings.”
I laugh at his oatmeal remark. I might even eat it. That’s how crazy I am about him.
“And all your worries?”
“Maybe I am in a love bubble, but I don’t have those worries when I’m with you. It’s only when I’m by myself and second-guessing everything.”
“What you just described is a lust bubble, and your dick is doing all the thinking for you when I’m around.”
“Maybe.” He chuckles and places his hands on my hips. “Me and my dick like you a lot.”
“I like you too.” I settle between his legs, leaning against his chest.
“But you won’t be my girlfriend?”
“Remember how I said I wanted to be good for you?”
I glance up, and his hazel eyes narrow playfully. “Not being my girlfriend is good for me?”
“According to the guy I talked to before he fell into the love bubble, yeah.”
I want more than anything to be his girlfriend, but maybe he’s right. And even if he isn’t, I don’t need him to make it official. I feel it when I’m with him. This is enough for now.
“Using my own words against me.” Adam rests his forehead against mine. “Your face feels really soft.”
“It’s from the mask.”
“You were a cute llama.”
“Can we never speak of that again?”
A slow smile spreads across his face. “Got any other animals? Maybe something badass like a grizzly bear or a lion?”
“I have a unicorn or a shark.”
He rubs his palms together. “Let’s go with shark.”
“You’re going to wear a face mask?”
“Will it help me convince you to be my girlfriend?”
My heart squeezes. “No, probably not, but it’ll be funny.”
“What exactly am I looking at here?” Dakota asks the next morning as I hand her my phone to show off the pictures of Adam wearing the shark face mask. I conveniently left out that the mask was all pink before he let me put it on him.
He chased me around the apartment demanding payback, which he took in the form of sex against the wall. I can’t even pretend to be mad about it. However, sex with a guy in a pink shark mask is a little disorienting.
“He was a shark.”
“I love how you can see his facial hair through it. Creepy.” She gives my phone back and takes a drink of her smoothie. “So, it’s official, then? You’re Adam Scott’s new girlfriend.”
“Not exactly.”
She tilts her head and stares at me.
“I’ll explain later. Anyway, I’m sorry our girls’ night got crashed.”
One brow quirks up with disbelief.
“Okay, it was an awesome night, but I really do want to hang out—just the girls. The guys have away games this weekend, and I was thinking we should have a do-over.”
“Ginny had the same idea.”
“She did?”
“Yeah, she was by early this morning. Pack your bags, little lady, we’re taking a road trip this weekend.”