Penn groaned, "Yes, but it's complicated. You know she turned me down when I asked her a few weeks ago. She was scared we were moving too fast and that I needed to work some stuff out—which I did."
"So now?"
"So now I want to add the title and make it elaborate and showy so that if she turns me down she’ll feel terrible."
I couldn't stop laughing. "Soooo, you're basically guilting her into being your girlfriend."
"Hey—whatever gets the job done," he quipped.
"Well definitely count me in then."
"All right, I'm thinking about doing it this weekend."
"As in two days from now?"
He chuckled. "Is that a bad idea?"
I toyed with my fork. "No. We just have to be creative and quick. Or have you already thought of something?"
"I want to do something on the beach with roses and candles. I know it's super cheesy, but I want to make it over the top so that she'll remember it."
I was so happy for Becca. So happy that she found someone like Penn who wanted to go through all this trouble just for her.
"All right, Liam and I will do whatever you want… I can't wait to see Becca's reaction."
He laughed. "She's going to flip. I know it."
"Okay well, I'm going back to my breakfast, but I'll talk it over with Liam and let you know if we come up with any good ideas."
"Sounds good, thanks Kins, and hope you feel better."
I hung up and I handed the phone back to Liam.
"Did you hear most of that?"
He smiled and leaned forward to kiss my cheek. "Let's make Penn buy her a yacht so we can use it whenever we want," he joked.
"Yes! I'll tell him she only accepts 40’ boats as gifts."
We spent the rest of the morning concocting plans on how to trap Penn into getting Becca really awesome toys. We decided a helicopter with the four of our faces on the side would really make her want to say yes to him.
…
Sadly, Penn shot down all of our extravagant ideas with phrases like "you guys are ridiculous", "No, we don't need to buy a house in Hawaii so that Becca will date me", and “stop calling me or I’ll turn my phone off”. Liam and I chalked it up to poor judgment on his part. I guess romantic roses and candles on the beach would have to cut it.
All day Saturday we were running around doing his bidding. We picked up chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of Dom Perignon. We drove around looking for the perfect rose petals because they couldn't just be red. Becca also loved yellow roses, so Penn thought we had to get both red and yellow petals. High maintenance couple alert.
On the way home I could feel Liam glance over to watch me every now and then. It made my skin flush to feel his gaze on me, but I never gave into the urge to meet his eyes. He seemed even more serious about us since the incident with the paparazzi. He'd asked me that morning if I'd thought anymore about moving in with him. We'd even discussed it with Coach Davis on Friday. She was wary about me moving in with him so soon, but she'd agreed that the security at the house wasn't up to par for someone with as much media coverage as I was getting. It was probably safer for the girls living in the house, as well as myself, if I thought about moving somewhere a bit more secure.
The more I let the idea linger in my mind over the last two days, the more I wanted to throw caution to the wind and do it. I’d seen different versions of Liam, but there were still so many that I wanted to know and learn. I wanted the midnight-snack Liam with the disheveled hair. I wanted the lazy Saturday Liam that never changed out of his sweats, but looked freaking adorable anyway. The hot bastard. The only reason I hesitated was because of Becca and Emily. It was so easy to see each other when I could literally shout across our bathroom to get Emily’s attention, and Becca was in my room more than I was. I didn't want to drift away from them or the rest of the girls on my team.
My thoughts were interrupted when we pulled up outside Liam's house. I’d have time to make a decision later. We carried everything inside and then went to find Penn who was running around like a wild man. You would have thought he was asking her to marry him at this point.
"Penn, seriously, everything will work out," I said just as my phone buzzed. I glanced down to see a text from Becca.
Becca: Freaking out a bit. Penn’s been acting weird all day. He still hasn't called, but he just texted me and told me a limo was waiting for me outside. That's good, right?