Chapter 15 #2
My whole body is like Yes, girl, I’m here for this!
I’m relieved that my short-sleeve pajama top is made out of sweatshirt material, because I can feel my nipples pebbling against the fleece and I’m hoping that he can’t see them.
Shit, I’m going to have to wear a bra all the time now that he’s here.
“How’s the coffee?” he asks.
“Mediocre.” I cross my arms over my chest, hoping that hides my body’s reaction to him.
“How about I go find us some of the good stuff while you get ready?”
“What am I getting ready for, exactly?”
“Have you ever been to Venice?”
“Nope.”
“Well, the Venetian is about as close as you can get without flying to Italy. Let’s start there.”
“Start?”
“Yeah, your Vegas tour begins in—”he glances at his watch“—half an hour.” Then he slides his sweater over his head, shoves his wallet and phone in his pocket, and is out the door.
“Well, it’s official,” Georgia says as she glances up from her phone. “Luke is totally fangirling over Beau right now.”
“What?” I laugh as I sling my purse over my shoulder.
“Yeah, apparently he and Joe went to your hotel room and introduced themselves, and they’ve all been in the casino together while we’ve been getting pampered.”
“That’s so nice of them to include him,” I say. I had envisioned Beau being bored out of his mind this afternoon while I went with the girls to get a massage and a mani-pedi. Either that, or out creating his own fun without me, which was not something I wanted to spend much time imagining.
“Luke is having a moment right now. He’s a huge fan of Beau’s.”
Between us, Sydney fake coughs as she spits out, “Who isn’t?”
I ignore her and look over to Georgia as we walk out of the spa. “Like, because of snowboarding? Or just because they’re having fun together?”
She sweeps her long platinum-blond hair over her shoulder. “Both. I think this is one of those instances of meeting someone you’ve only ever seen on TV and finding out they’re as cool in person as you hoped they’d be.”
“Wow, I didn’t realize Luke followed snowboarding.”
“Oh yeah, we’re actually both big snowboarders. We go over to Big Bear all the time in the winter, or up to Mammoth if we have a long weekend. In fact, that’s where we would have been this weekend if Sydney and Joe hadn’t decided to tie the knot.”
“I’m so glad you guys gave up your long weekend to be here. But back to the whole Beau thing . . .” Sydney says and turns toward me.
I really don’t want to talk about Beau. I already updated them on our mini-Vegas tour where he took me on a gondola ride at the Venetian, to the botanical garden at the Bellagio, and then on the High Roller observation wheel.
By the end of our half hour on the High Roller, I was standing snuggled back against him with his arms wrapped around me and his entire body cradling mine.
That sense of closeness—it was intoxicating.
The past few hours at the spa have been exactly what I needed to get some physical distance between us and remind myself that this can’t happen.
“Oh,” Georgia says as she glances up from her phone, saving me from having to say anything else about Beau. “Luke says they want us to meet them in the casino.”
“Well, tell them that we need to shower and get ready first. I mean, I’m not going to the casino covered in oil from the massage!” Sydney insists.
“Okay,” Georgia says, “it’s almost five. Why don’t we go get ready for dinner and plan to meet them downstairs in an hour?”
Ugh. It’ll take me half an hour just to dry all this hair and curl it.
I hate being rushed. But Sydney and Georgia seem fine with an hour, and I don’t want to be the difficult one.
So when I get off at my floor, I hurry to my room and take the quickest shower I can manage while still shaving my legs.
As always, drying my thick hair is a labor-intensive and hot experience, and I’m relieved that Beau is down in the casino with the guys, so at least I don’t have to put a shirt on.
I stand there in my lace boy shorts, trying to cool down as I do my makeup in the bathroom mirror, then use my curling wand to make loose curls throughout my hair.
I’ve got some upbeat music playing on my phone to keep me moving at a steady pace, and when I’m done with my hair, I see that I’ve got less than ten minutes to get dressed and get downstairs.
I rush out of the bathroom and turn toward the closet, coming face-to-face with Beau.
The hotel room door slams shut right behind him.
For a second we stand there, eyes locked, not moving. Then he flicks his eyes down my body and growls out my name. He sounds incredibly annoyed.
“Oh my God,” I breathe the words out as my hands fly to my breasts. He looks away. “I’m sorry. I thought you were down in the casino.”
Beau turns away from me and opens the closet door, grabbing one of the terrycloth robes and holding it open in front of me. I turn and slide my arms in, and the second the robe pushes over my shoulders he’s stepping as far away from me as possible in the small entryway to our hotel room.