Chapter 6 Lady Lumberjack #3
He chuckled. “Thanks for sounding so surprised, beautiful.”
“What do we have here?” Naiomi shot Phoenix a coy smirk from over her plate of barbeque wings.
“Looks like we have a natural. Second throw. Bull’s-eye.” He shot a warning look to his sister and mouthed a quick Behave that he knew would go ignored.
The four of them fell into a groove, taking turns hurling a few axes while devouring the bottomless basket of wings and nachos they ordered for their table.
“You didn’t tell me that you had Addie with you when I called you,” Naiomi scolded Phoenix gently a while later as they all took a break to rest their hands.
“That’s because she wasn’t with me then,” Phoenix said truthfully before shooting a glance at Addie. “I was stuck in traffic when I saw a pretty redhead tearing into someone on the sidewalk.”
Naiomi shot a questioning look to Addie, who took a bite of a chicken wing and cleaned off her fingers with a napkin. “Story me, please.”
“There’s really not much of a story. Went on a blind date and it was a freaking fiasco.
” She opened Phoenix’s jacket and gestured to the front of her dress.
“His idea of a good time is a pretentious restaurant where you eat in earplugged silence—which honestly wasn’t that bad because I wasn’t forced to hear about the size of his bank account again.
But it was the nose plug and no utensils that really brought it home.
Finger foods are usually the way to my heart, but not with creamy soup. ”
“He took you to Sense-Less?” Naiomi swallowed a giggle. “I had a classmate who went there once and they kicked her out halfway through because her phone buzzed and ‘broke the experience.’”
Addie snorted. “I would’ve paid big bucks to have gotten kicked out. And then he wanted to pin down a date.”
“For a second date?”
Addie grimaced. “For our ceremony.”
Naiomi’s eyes widened. “No.”
Phoenix glanced at Easton to see if his friend was following along with the conversation. When he shrugged, Phoenix’s curiosity got the best of him. “So that grabby-handed ass from the sidewalk was a first date?”
A rush of something shot through Phoenix so fast he couldn’t decipher it.
Jealousy? Maybe. It was a foreign feeling and it took a few moments for him to register it. And he didn’t like it one damn bit.
Naiomi shifted her attention from him to Addie and back before clamping her hand around East’s and hauling him off his chair. “I need to throw a few more axes. Come watch.”
“I can watch you from here, babe,” East complained, devouring a barbeque wing.
She shot him a silent glare that held an entire conversation as she tilted her head toward Phoenix and Addie. “But you’ll have a better view of my ass from over there.”
East smirked and dragged her to their lane. “Well, when you put it like that. Let’s go.”
Despite being surrounded by people, the only one Phoenix could focus on was Addie. He watched her chase a jalapeno with a tortilla chip as he debated his next move.
Phoenix cleared his throat and gained her attention. “So I guess it’s safe to assume that there won’t be another date with Mr. Pretentious?”
“Hell no.” Addie looked horrified. “But I need to figure out how to break it to Maxi. She’s been so down on herself for creating these nightmare matches … but there is no way that guy will help me get Happily Ever Forever out of the gossip trenches.”
“Will you let her try again?” Phoenix asked curiously, gently digging.
“I’m not sure it’s worth it, honestly. Not only was it a long shot, but I think I need something a bit more … immediate.” Her gaze traveled around the room before finally landing—and holding—on him.
His heart skipped as he waited for her to say something—anything.
“You know that idea you brought up in my office a few days ago has a ninety-percent chance of blowing up in our faces, right?” Addie lowered her voice.
“It’s ridiculous. Who on this earth would actually believe it?
I mean, I was in a play in summer camp, and there’s a reason why I wasn’t given the lead.
And be a Muse? I wouldn’t have the first idea how to go about doing that. ”
“First, it’s ridiculously genius, and I think so even more now than I did when I first proposed it,” Phoenix admitted truthfully.
He pulled out his phone and brought up one of the music mag articles Marcus had been sure to yell at him about a few days ago.
“Summer play lead or not, the foundation is already set. All we have to do is have some fun … and that goes for the Muse thing, too. You don’t need to do anything but be you. ”
“‘Naughty Nix or Knightly Nix: Who Is Nix’s Mystery Damsel?’” Addie read the article heading before her gaze snapped to his. “This was from outside the HEF building the other day.”
He nodded. “Exactly. We can spin this however you want, but I think people will eat up the idea of us falling in love while planning my sister and best friend’s vow ceremony.”
Addie nibbled on her bottom lip, deep in thought. “How would something like this work? I mean, we’d have to set some kind of rules. Write up a contract.”
Phoenix kicked up an eyebrow. “You want to write up a contract?”
“Don’t laugh. We should have something that lays out all the expectations and limitations. That way there are no surprises for either party.”
He failed to withhold a smirk and got a glare in return. “Fine. We’ll draw up a contract.”
“Good.”
“Great.” He paused before slowly sliding his open palm across the table and waited for her to slide her hand into his. “So we have a Fauxmance Arrangement and Muse Agreement? A FAMA?”
Addie snorted. “A FAMA?”
He shrugged. “It sounded better in my head.”
The gorgeous demigoddess sighed and slid her hand into his. “I guess we have a deal.”
A heated zing sparked on contact, bringing a smile to his lips and a pink blush to Addie’s cheeks. Phoenix could practically hear the lyrics already jumping around in his head.