Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
tyler
Tyler fidgets with the handful of pebbles filling his palm. The little rocks scrape and scratch together while he stares up at the silvery glass of the second-story room he’s almost positive belongs to Winnie.
Something about this was too easy—the casual way the woman at the front desk mentioned the possibility of a meteor shower as production shuffled him by, the fact that no one was keeping an eye on the door to his hotel room, the perfectly empty lobby when he snuck downstairs.
Hell, with the midnight sun, he doesn’t even have the cover of darkness.
It’s all wrong.
And yet…he can’t find the will to care. So what if he’s being set up?
So what if there’s a secret camera filming his every move?
He just spent ten hours on a group date dodging women left and right.
All he wants is Winnie, and if Nina is going to give him an open pathway to her for some godforsaken reason he can’t begin to understand, well, he’s damn well going to take it.
Tyler pulls his arm back and releases.
A pebble hits the glass with a small clink.
He waits.
Nothing.
So he tries again…and again…and again.
Fourth time’s a charm. The curtain is thrown to the side, and—
“Fuck!”
Tyler leaps back as his heart just about breaks through his skin. A white face presses up against the glass like something out of a slasher movie. The huge black eyes are unreadable. The lips, though, twist into a wicked grin.
“You should see your face!” a feminine voice calls as the window slides open.
He recognizes it immediately. “Harper? Jesus. You scared the shit out of me.”
“I know.” Her glee deepens. “Looking for someone?”
He scrunches his face and scrubs his hand through his hair.
This is more awkward than he realized it would be.
Winnie’s three closest friends in the group have made it pretty obvious they’re only there for the exposure, but he is technically supposed to be dating them, and now that he’s staring into Harper’s eyes wishing they belonged to someone else, he can’t help but feel like a complete and total asshole for being here.
“What’s going on?” Two more ghostly white faces careen into view. This time, however, he’s prepared. Charlotte’s eyes pop wide while Cynthia adds, “Oh, it’s you!”
“It’s me.” He shrugs, suddenly wishing for an exit strategy.
Why the hell did he think this was a good idea?
He knew she wasn’t rooming alone. What did he think was going to happen?
That he would walk out here and she’d just be there waiting for him like a lovesick puppy staring out the window, daydreaming that he might show up?
Yeah, he realizes. That’s exactly what he thought was going to happen.
Gah!
He shifts his weight, squirming beneath his jacket.
Harper elbows Cynthia. “Do you see his face right now?”
“Obviously. I’m looking right at it.”
“But do you see it?” the girl jokes, laughter on her lips she’s not even trying to hide. “He’s so uncomfortable.”
“Do you see your faces?” he calls up. “You look like the three most cheerful serial killers I’ve ever seen.”
That earns a giggle from Charlotte. “They’re hydrating sheet masks.”
“They’re fucking terrifying.”
“Maybe ours just weren’t the faces you were hoping to find…?” Harper croons.
“I, uh—” Tyler swallows, his throat suddenly tight. “Well, um—”
“You’re so bad,” Charlotte mutters with an amused grin.
Cynthia elbows her way to the front of the window. “Winnie is in the bathroom. We’ll go get her. Don’t pay attention to anything this one says while we’re gone.”
“Me?” Harper asks her friends with mock offense as they retreat back into the room. When she turns toward him again, though, the humor on her face is gone, as if it walked off with the others. Her expression shifts to something more thoughtful. “It’s obvious, you know.”
“What?”
“That you’re completely and totally in love with her.”
Tyler remains silent, no urge to deny it.
“That’s what I thought.” Harper nods, a smile passing fleetingly over her lips before a quiver of worry pinches her brows. “From one friend to another, you might not want to be so obvious.”
“What—”
He loses his train of thought the moment Winnie pokes her head through the window, laughter on her rosy lips and a sparkle more brilliant than the stars in her eyes.
The questions and concerns vanish in a blink, her infectious smile like a beacon, chasing all his inner demons away.
Nothing bad ever permeates the aura she creates.
It’s like her special superpower—making him feel as if no matter what, everything will be okay.
Whenever she’s close, his negativity loses its choke hold and he can finally breathe.
As her luscious mouth twists into a smirk, his own follows suit. She crosses her arms over her chest and arches a brow. “Don’t you think you might be taking this Shakespeare thing a little too far?”
“Get your ass down here, Juliet.”
“I’m on the second floor.”
“It’s like twelve feet.” He shrugs. “I’ll catch you.”
“I don’t know…” She pulls her lower lip between her teeth, eying the drop.
“Come on.” He holds his arms out, ready and waiting. “I overheard the lady at the front desk say there’s supposed to be a meteor shower tonight.”
“Yeah, we heard that, too.”
“You’ve got to come down and watch with me.”
“I want to, but…” She trails off, unsure.
“Who’s the scared one now?”
She rolls her eyes at him with a frown, then turns away as her friends mumble something he can’t quite hear. She whispers hastily back. A jacket gets thrown in her arms, and she stumbles toward the window as if shoved.
“You promise you’ll catch me?”
“I promise.”
She carefully ambles up onto the sill while her friends support her from behind, then hovers. One second turns to two.
“Win,” he goads.
“Ugh. Fine.”
She squeezes her eyes shut and falls…right into his arms.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
She fixes her glasses and wraps her arms around his neck with an impish grin. “You know, in my fantasies, you weren’t such a smart-ass.”
“That’s funny,” he murmurs into her hair. “Because most of mine involved putting your very smart mouth to very good use.”
Pink overtakes her cheeks in the most adorable way.
She squirms, her thighs rubbing together, letting him know that image affects her the same way it does him, arousal surging.
But unfortunately, tonight is not the night to give in to temptation.
He sinks into an Adirondack chair, keeping her draped chastely across his chest. He’s not so stupid to believe there aren’t at least three cameras on them right now, and who knows how many eyes, waiting to catch them in the act and blast it out to millions of people.
Besides, this is enough, sitting out here, limbs entwined as a cool breeze blows off the lake, looking out at an endless peach horizon.
It’s everything.
“When is it supposed to start?” she asks, snuggling closer.
“I don’t know.” He shakes his head, wrapping his arms more tightly around her and resting his chin on the crown of her head.
“Do you think it actually will?”
He laughs softly. “You’re picking up on that vibe, too?”
“We all just so happen to hear about a meteor shower after you return from a group date with eight other women, and I’m not supposed to think it’s a setup?”
“Do you care?”
“If everyone sees?”
“Yeah.”
“Ty.” She pauses to look up at him, her gaze sparkling with humor. “I am a petty, petty woman. If I could grab a Sharpie and write dibs across your forehead right now, I would.”
“Did you hear that?” he shouts, angling his head back toward the pink windows of the hotel behind them. “She called dibs! Show’s over! Winnie won—”
“Stop,” she hastily whispers, slapping a hand over his mouth with laughter bubbling on her lips. “You’re so ridiculous.”
“Maybe that should be my next tattoo.” He slashes his pointer finger and thumb across his forehead. “Dibs. Right here in your handwriting for the whole world to see.”
“What if I said yes? Go do that right now, please.”
“I would.” He shrugs. She rolls her eyes. “What?” he presses. “I would. I’m not kidding. If you wanted me to, if that’s what it took to make you believe me, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Besides, you’re the one who’d have to spend the rest of her life looking at it every day, not me.”
“Ty.” She glances away, hiding.
He lowers his head, lips brushing the outer shell of her ear. “I’m not embarrassed to talk about forever with you.”
She swallows and looks tentatively up at him. “You think about that?”
“All the time.”
“What do you see?”
“You in Los Angeles with me. You in my house. You in my pool, naked this time.”
An airy laugh escapes her lips.
“I’m not joking, Win.”
Her brows twitch. “What exactly are you saying?”
“You should move in with me.” She inhales sharply, and he rushes to keep going before she can say no, his heart thundering in his chest. “After the show wraps, and we don’t have to hide anything anymore, you should come to LA.
You can set up an office in one of the guest bedrooms. I want to wake up to your face, and I want to dream of you in my bed when I’m on the road.
I want you rinkside at my home games, wearing my jersey.
I want everything with you. I’m a greedy asshole. What can I say?”
She doesn’t crack a smile at the joke. She just stares, studying his eyes, as if trying to find some hidden message beneath his honest plea.
His brows pinch. “What?”
Winnie shifts her face to the side as if to avoid the heat, but he won’t let her get out of this so easily. Something is holding her back and he needs to know what it is.
“What’s bothering you?” He uses his pointer finger to tilt her chin up, forcing her to look at him. “Am I moving too fast?”
“No,” she interjects quickly, genuine shock coloring her features. “No,” she repeats. “I want all of that, too. I do. I just…”
She licks her lips, hesitating.