I nodded my head.
“How hot was the desert at Hale Wheeler’s camp for wayward kids?” she inquired.
“We were in an air-conditioned, five-star resort when Rix decided we were going to pretend to be looking forward to a joyous future together,” I told her.
“And he’s saying you’re going to have to make out…a lot?” Katie asked.
This was the part I wanted to talk about.
Though there was a part of that, a part that made it important that was never going to be theirs to know.
The Peri part.
“He’s right,” I told them. “You know Blake’s going to look for any chink in my armor, Dad’s going to be uber competitive, which means he’s going to look for any chink in Rix’s armor, and Mum’s going to be judgy. We’re going to have to be seamless and flawless, and I can’t be freezing up every time he touches me at the same time telling everyone how thrilled I am I found my perfect man.”
“This is…” Katie didn’t finish.
So I did it for her. “Terrifying?”
“Really cool,” Gal drawled.
Katie’s head swung her way, and they exchanged a look that included Katie bugging her eyes at Gal.
This wasn’t that she didn’t think it was cool. Katie was all about adventure. She was an everyday-is-a-new-day type of girl. Leap now, look later.
This was because Gal was not that at all.
Gal turned back to me. “Obviously, your future husband will have the stamp of approval from your two best friends. Therefore, we’ll need to meet with this paragon who swept you off your feet.”
Okay…
This had suddenly taken an unexpected turn.
Katie’s head now swung to me, and she breathed, “Ohmigod, yes. You can’t really know a woman unless you know her friends.”
“Totally,” Gal declared.
I stared at them.
And then I told them something they had to know.
“You realize this whole deal is flipping me out.”
“I’m flipped out too,” Gal replied. “I mean, one second, this guy is blowing you off, the next he’s volunteering to enter the lion’s den with you.”
“No, Gal,” Katie stated urgently, reading Gal, probably correctly. “When we meet him, you can’t be all”—she puffed out her chest—“you must traverse the Girl Friend Ritual of Fire to go forth with my bestie. You’ll scare him off.”
“If I’m going to scare him off, think of the mincemeat Helena is going to make of him when she gets him between her jaws,” Gal retorted.
Oh, and as my two closest girls, they knew all about my family.
And straight up, what Gal said was the gods’ honest truth.
Though, I suspected not only would Rix be able to charm Gal, if he couldn’t, it wouldn’t faze him. He didn’t strike me as a guy who had to have everyone like him. I also suspected he’d find Mum curious in the way you observe a black widow spider from the opposite side of the glass.
“Can we get back to the whole we-have-to-make-out-a-lot thing?” I requested. “Which, I failed to tell you, he told me it was mine to start when I was ready and stop if it was getting too much. Which is cool of him, but it’s mine to start.”
A look came over Gal’s face that I couldn’t quite read, except I knew, for me, it was frightening.
Katie’s eyes grew bright. “This is your golden opportunity to pounce on your big crush.”
See?
Totally leaps before she looks.
“I’m not a pouncer, and remember, he’s doing me a favor. This is all fake,” I reminded her.
Gal was now studying me.
“You still can have fun while it lasts,” Katie noted. “You’re a super good kisser. He’s getting the deal of the century with this.”
I loved she thought that.
And as mentioned, I just loved my friends.
Though with that, she was kinda full of it.
“I’m not a super good kisser, Kate,” I told her, though, obviously, I personally wouldn’t know if this was true or not.
I’d never had any complaints.
But no one had given me an award either.
“Trent said you were the best he ever had.”
“Trent was trying to get in my pants.”
“And he succeeded,” she fired back. “And remember, he didn’t say that to me. He said it to Forrest when he didn’t know I was standing behind him. If I remember correctly, he was full into locker room mode and he said”—she took on a gruff man voice—“‘Bitch is hot in bed, but shit, the things she can do with her mouth. Don’t need to fuck her with the way she kisses.’ He was totally bummed when you broke up with him.”
“He was supposed to help on a hike with the kids, got drunk the night before, and begged off because he was hung over,” I replied. “Deal breaker.”
“Yeah, gotta admit, that was uncool, and like, ‘Dude, do you not know the chick you’re dating?’” Katie agreed.
“Has Rix ever bagged on a hike, even when the man has lost both his legs?” Gal queried smoothly.