I flipped my hands over. This was such foreign territory, I didn't know what to think. Obviously I needed to have a real conversation with Adelaide, but I needed to come into it prepared, knowing exactly what I would say. Right now, I felt like a fish out of water, flopping from one direction to the next.
Roddy wiped his mouth. “Are you shitting me? You have no idea? In all the time you spent together, you never even kissed?”
The game Adelaide and I played was private. They weren’t getting that from me. And besides, mutual masturbation wasn’t exactly a declaration of love.
But that last night…
“There was a kiss,” I said.
Iris’s eyes bulged. “Give me all the details.”
“Before my going away party, we were dancing, and I was spinning her. You know she likes those poofy dresses that are good for spinning?” They looked at me blankly. Clearly I’d been paying more attention to Adelaide’s dresses than they had. I shook my head and went on. “Anyway, her lips landed on mine for a second, and I…I guess I got caught up and took it a lot further. That was the only time I’d kissed her.”
Three pairs of eyes blinked at me. Judgment was coming off them like heat waves on hot asphalt.
“You kissed her,” Iris said dryly.
Ronan’s brow furrowed. “You kissedher, mate? Is that right?”
Roddy slapped the back of my head again. “Dude. She kissed you!”
“Kind of. It was friendly.” I sounded stupid, even to myself.
Iris rolled her eyes. “Do I kiss you on the lips?”
Ronan grumbled, and I recoiled. “No. Why the hell would you kiss me on the lips?”
She flipped me off. “You’d be privileged to receive a kiss from me. But I wouldn’t, because friends don’t kiss friends on the lips unless they want to be more than friends. Adelaide’s lips didn’t just land on yours, jackass. She kissed you.”
I surged to my feet. “She kissed me? Two months ago?”
What the hell was I doing sitting here when I could be…I didn’t know. What was I going to do?
I sat my happy ass down.
“She kissed me.” My head fell forward, clunking on the table. She’d kissed me, and a few hours later, I shat all over her. She’d kissed me, and I’d invited her nemesis into my home. She’d kissed me, and I’d been completely oblivious to what it might’ve meant.
Instead of slapping me, Rodrigo rubbed the middle of my back. “I get that you think you’re a screwup, and maybe that’s been true in the past, but that’s not the sum of who you are. You’re a good dude. Obtuse as hell sometimes, but still a good dude.”
Ronan nodded. “I concur. I trust you with Iris’s safety when I can’t be there, and that’s not something I take lightly. When it counts, you show up.”
Iris rapped her knuckles on the table. “You’ll do the right thing. I mean, you’re already engaged, why not give it a real go?”
They spent another hour giving me head pats andattaboys. By the time they left, I was tipsy on Bloody Marys and missing my girl something fierce. I was giving her the day. Myself too.
The next time I saw her, we were going to have a real talk. Everything that had been left unsaid was going to be said, even if I had to tie her down to get it out of her.