She’d hit a hard truth; even worse, Nash had been the instigator of all their pranks. Emily had no idea what she was up against. “I’m disappointed that you aren’t taking this more seriously,” he said, taking a sip of his own drink. “I have been working night and day on my list of demands. It’s been painful, to be honest.”
“Has it? Wait, demands? Oh, this should be good. Fine, give it to me. What do you have on your list?”
He had no idea. “You give me one and I give you one, then back and forth. That’s how it works.”
“I just… well…” Her lips flattened into a line while she played with her napkin. “Don’t think that you have to… take me out if you don’t want to.”
“That’s a great rule.”
It’s an awful one.
He never would’ve agreed to this madness if he wasn’t desperate to get to know her better, but he supposed she wasn’t ready for his confessions—yet. She kept trying to stuff him back into the friend zone, even if her kisses made him want to howl at the moon and come prowling after her for more.
He didn’t blame her brother for being worried about her at all.
“When we go out,” he said, “I say, we have to match. None of these happy accidents where we both happen to wear black.” He tugged on her shirt, setting the soft knit up against his. “See—it’s barely the same black. And what if I went with navy blue tonight and we completely clashed? Yeah, we need to coordinate. It’s better for the photo ops.”
She ran her hands over her face in a defeated gesture. “That actually was my next rule. Wenevercan match again.”
He broke out into a laugh, loving that she was playing along. “Hmm, so what happens if our rules rule the other rule out?” he asked.
That was quite the tongue twister. She didn’t even try to ask him what he meant. “Then my third rule is thatmyrules always win against your rules.”
He found her hand and ran his thumb against hers. “Then my third rule is that if I forget your rules then they never happened.” She opened her mouth to make up another rule, and he shook his head. “Andwe only get three rules.”
“What?” she complained. “You think these are like wishes?”
“Yeah, they are.”
“Then I take back my second rule, and replace it with you having a perfect memory, so you won’t forget a thing.”
“It doesn’t work that way, especially since I can’t even remember your second rule, and also you can’t remake your rules.” At least none of them could in kindergarten.
That serious look that had haunted her eyes from the beginning of this date was officially gone. He’d won this round. She nudged him with her shoulder. “Don’t break my heart, Nash. And no, that’s not an official rule, but I’m pretty attached to this heart of mine and I want to keep it in one piece.”
That sobered him immediately. She must care about him to think that he could break her heart. “I think I can arrange that,” he said.
She took a deep breath and picked up her drink again, though he noticed that her hand was shaking. He guessed that it was a pretty big step for her to admit how fragile she felt. Already, he was beginning to understand her better.
“Emily?”
“Yeah?”
Admit how much you like me.No, he’d wait to get that out of her. “We’re going to kill ’80s night tonight. I’m going to make you serenade me.”
“Hmm…” She pretended to be in deep thought. “Did I forget to put that clause of ‘no serenading’ in my rules…?”
“Lady! You know you’re voice is velvet, right? Don’t be selfish. I’m not letting you keep it all to yourself.”
Her cheeks turned pink. His backhanded compliment had flustered her, though she seemed pleased, too. She looked down and shook her head with a pained smile. “I’m not sure what’s going on,” she said. “It’s been so hard to get up in front of a group lately.”
“I think I can teach you a thing or two about sharing your talents. Sing for me, my Angel of Music.”
“Only if you do it for me first,” she said.
She didn’t know him well enough if she thought that the challenge would make him back down. She needed his help. “You asked for it,” he said. “One serenade coming up.”