Her hand cupped the top of my head. “Then just assume I always am.”
I tipped my head back, taking in her solemn expression. “Really?”
Her hand drifted down to my cheek. “Go back to your seat, Adam.”
“We’re okay?”
“Sure.”
But there was something shaky in her answer. Something I really didn’t like. Knowing I’d put it there made it even worse. I rose to my feet anyway, circling back to my side of the table.
Food came, people moved on from me making an ass of myself, and Baddie didn’t share a single bite with me. She was smiling, though, laughing with everyone. I liked how well she fit in with my friends—probably better than I did. But that was who she was. People liked her, and she liked being around people. I wondered if she’d gotten that from her mom. Saul certainly wasn’t charming in any fucking way.
The doubleXside of the table burst into laughter. My ears perked up, tuning out Roddy and Ronan’s discussion over some Irish soccer team—they called it football, which was too confusing for my American brain. And since I was trapped between them and Callum, who had spent most of dinner vacillating between speaking lowly to Wren and staring intensely at her when she wasn’t looking, I was teeming for something a little more stimulating.
“You haven’t even taken them out of the box?” Hope asked Baddie.
“No. It’s not like I’m going to use them,” she answered.
“But what if you want to?” Wren asked.
Baddie shrugged. “I’m not with anyone like that. Even if I had a one-night stand, I’m not going to let some guy I barely know tie me down.”
Tie her down? What?
Iris shuddered. “Yeah, no, honey bunny. Don’t even mention that. It gives me the skeeves.”
No one was going to be tying Adelaide down. Fuck that.
Hope arched a brow. “You’ve put the other stuff you bought to good use, right?”
Adelaide’s rainbow lips curled into a little smirk that seemed awfully naughty. “Oh yeah. The Rose and I were already well acquainted, but now I have The Enigma, and it’s just…” She bit her bottom lip and rubbed her arms.
A laugh burst out of Hope. “That good?”
“That good,” Adelaide confirmed.
I had a good idea of what they were talking about. I wanted a lot more information, but the waitress came with the bill, putting an end to it.
The questions would have been better asked in private anyway.
After dinner, Iris pulled me aside as we waited for our drivers to pull around to the front of the restaurant.
“Merry Christmas.” She kissed my cheek, then held my face in both hands. “I love you very much, and I say this with all the love in my body—you’re very, very dumb.”
A breath of a laugh expelled from my lungs. “What the fuck?”
“That’s it. I’m not saying anything else. But one day, I hope you look back on this conversation and realize how right I was.”
“Is this a conversation or an attack?”
She patted my cheek. “This is me caring for you and wanting you to have the best.”
“Well…” I frowned at her, perplexed, “I wish you the best too. Happy holidays. I’ll see you next year, Adler.”
She let me go and blew me a kiss. “See you next year, Wainwright.”
With Iris’s vague, kind of rude words ringing in my head, I bundled Adelaide into our waiting car and sat beside her, taking her gloved hand in mine.