I threw my head back and laughed at her story.
“No more lost checks that way,” I said.
“Nope. Haven’t had a single lost one since we started taking donations that way.”
“Any other flat-out failures I should know about?”
“Um, well. I’m a terrible cook. I once almost burned down my apartment cooked ramen noodles in too little water.”
“Good thing we have a kitchen you can call,” I said, smiling.
“Yes, it really is. I also can’t bake. That’s a fun story that involves a cake with no eggs, an oven that was too hot, and a pan that lied.”
“That lied?” I asked.
“It said it wasn’t flammable. It became very flammable in my presence.”
The two of us shared a hearty laugh and I watched her eyes light up. They almost closed themselves off to the world when her smile grew to encompass her face. Her cute apple-peaked cheeks turned red with her laughter, and her leg stretched out so far her bare toe grazed my leg. Just the smallest touch from her sent electricity flooding my body, and my head spun as her leg came back and grazed me again.
I thought Andrea was beautiful. Sexy. Selfless and strong. And if things continued to go well with us, I wanted to ask her out when we got home. A proper date for a proper woman. I’d always been one to take things slow. Sure, I had a few one-night stands. Yes, I flirted to get invitations in the pockets of women to come to our parties. But when I was really, genuinely serious about another woman, I made sure to do it right. Take it slow. Not force her hand in anything she didn’t want to do. When it came to relationships, I didn’t want to waste either of our times. If sex was all either of us wanted, then that was fine. But that wasn’t what I wanted with Andrea. Not after finding out how incredible of a woman she was.
She was the kind of woman I’d want something more with. I needed to take the time to find out if I was a man she could see something more with, though. Otherwise, doing anything would simply be a waste of our time. But as I sat there talking with her, despite how slow I wanted to take things, I knew after that first conversation that I would ask her out the second we got back home.
I had to be careful, though. Because otherwise, the biological drive of my body would ruin all of it.
NINE
Andrea
I shouldn’t have enjoyed my time with Everett as much as I did. And when our second day in Vegas rolled around, it was very similar to the first. Right down to the conversation with him. Jessica came and knocked on my door after breakfast, rattling on about how we were all headed back down to the pool. We caught some rays in the sun. I took a little dip in a hot tub while drinking sangrias with my friend, only this time I felt Everett’s eyes on me.
And I didn’t mind staring back.
He sat on the other side of the pool with his brothers while I putzed around with Jessica. Every once in a while, Lucas would come over and steal a kiss. Or sit on the edge of her chair and talk with us. I enjoyed getting to know him, especially with Jessica’s growing infatuation with him. But my eyes still gravitated over to Everett.
Sometimes, I found him smiling. Having a joke with a brother of his or talking with one of the workers of the hotel. Sometimes, I found him grinning, enjoying whatever it was that was going on in front of him or in his head. But most times I found him staring. And it was the heat behind his eyes that made me shiver.
“So, I saw you walk off with Everett yesterday,” Jessica said.
I ripped my gaze from him and nodded.
“Yes, we went inside to go get a drink,” I said.
“You guys got more than a drink. You were gone for over two hours.”
“We were gone that long?”
“Oh, it must’ve been good if you lost track of time.”
“We didn’t have sex, Jessica.”
“You owe me ten bucks!” Lucas exclaimed.
My jaw hit the floor as Jessica rolled her eyes.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“When you and Everett went inside, some of us may have had a running bet as to what was going on.”