Reaching out, I hooked her around her waist, dragging her in. I circled both arms around her, hugging her, my face pressed to her stomach.
“I mess up everything, Adelaide. Every relationship I’ve had, with the exception of my band, has been screwed up by me crossing a line or being careless. I don’t want that to happen with us.”
After a long moment of silence where I swore she was going to tell me to go fuck myself, she surprised me by sliding her fingers through my hair and sighing.
“I wish you hadn’t waited two days to say this,” she murmured. “You gave me time to work myself up into a righteous anger that’s hard to come down from.”
I chuckled into her firm belly. “I had to give myself time to work myselfoutof my righteous anger. But now I feel like a total fuckwit for wasting two days when we don’t have that much time before I leave.”
She pushed my forehead, tipping my head back. “You owe me cake, you know.”
I cocked my head. “I’ll give you cake, but I’m curious why I owe it to you.”
She tapped my nose. “Because I left the wedding before I got to eat any. Wedding cake is my favorite.”
That made me grin. Of course Baddie would like wedding cake—something that only came around on really special occasions.
“It wasn’t that good.”
She let out a short laugh. “I don’t believe you.”
“Okay, it was the shit, but I didn’t enjoy it because you weren’t there.”
“Good. You didn’t deserve to enjoy the cake.”
I pushed her back a step so I could stand and gave her a hard hug. She circled her arms around my waist, embracing me back with the same ferocity.
“Thanks for the flowers,” she mumbled into my shoulder.
“You’re welcome. I would’ve brought cake if I’d known.”
“I would’ve forgiven you a lot faster.”
After that, we had no choice but to order cake for dinner. It wasn’t wedding cake, but Adelaide devoured it anyway. No doubt we were both still on edge, but I was hoping I could keep plying her with cake and good behavior and we’d get back to normal.
I’d fucked up too many relationships. This one wasn’t going down that way. Not if I had any say about it. I had two weeks before I was gone for the summer. Two weeks to get back on solid ground and make sure Baddie would be here to greet me when I returned.
Adelaide stared at me from across the table. I cocked my head, making a face. She laughed, but there wasn’t a lot of heart behind it.
I reached out and smooshed her face with my palm. “If you’re sad, I’m gonna be sad.”
She batted me away. “I’m not sad. I’m just contemplating what I’m going to do with all my free time now that I don’t have a needy man banging down my door every five minutes.”
Hopping up from my seat, I showed her what needy was and plopped down on her lap. She squealed, trying to shove me off her, but I held on to her shoulders and shoved my face in her hair.
“You’re crushing me,” she cried.
Since I had both feet planted on the floor, bearing the majority of my weight, I doubted that. But hey, what was a little pain between friends?
“You’ll survive,” I mumbled. “Be quiet so I can soak up some Adelaide time before I have to leave.”
Relaxing, she slowly wrapped her arms around my back. It should have been an awkward position, but we really didn’t get awkward with each other. The last two weeks since I’d bugged out at Callum and Wren’s wedding had been smooth between us. I’d been busier prepping for the tour than I would’ve liked, but I’d spent all my downtime with my best girl.
“I hate to say it, but I think you were supposed to leave ten minutes ago,” she said softly.
“Probably.”
Neither of us moved for another minute. I stood and pulled Baddie out of her seat, wrapping her up in another hug. She laid her head on my shoulder and sighed.