Total pages in book: 191
Estimated words: 182070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
The employee rolled his eyes and took his cash, huffing something under his breath, probably calling us assholes. Yikes. Zac and I made a face at each other after he took his change, and we moved off to the side. “You got any plans tomorrow, kiddo?”
“Work in the morning but nothing in the evening. You?” I wanted to know how practice had gone—and if his mood had anything to do with it—but I didn’t want to ask.
Honestly, I just wanted him to tell me on his own, but I knew better than to hope. Expectations and all that. We’re just friends, I’d reminded myself no less than once a day since I’d woken up in his hotel bed holding his hand.
Through his sunglasses, I could see his eyeballs focused on me as he lowered his voice and said, “Nothin’ much. One of my teammates asked if I could drop by this haunted house he invested in that’s openin’ tomorrow. Wanna go?”
“Go with you?”
He made a little bit of a face. “With who else?”
I made a face back at him.
He squeezed my shoulder. “So yeah?”
He really wanted me to go with him? “You don’t want to ask one of your other friends?”
That had him tipping his head to the side. “Other friends?”
“Yeah, your other friends here.”
Those eyebrows of his just knit together, and even that bottom lip of his got fuller with the movement. “You’re my only friend here, honey,” he explained, his voice careful. “If you don’t wanna go, that’s all right.”
Shit balls. At the second part. Not at the first. The first was obviously… well, I guess I understood it. I knew a lot of people, but I was also aware they weren’t all my friends. There was a difference. “I’d go with you to an opera if you really wanted me to, I just thought….”
He raised his eyebrows.
Okay, there wasn’t any getting out of this. “I know you don’t have a lot of time, and I know we hang out when you do have a chance. I didn’t want you to….”
“Feel obligated?” he asked slowly.
“Yeah, maybe.” I pressed my lips together. “Don’t make that face at me. You had all those people over at your house that day I first went over and—”
“Those are my friends, but they aren’t my friends, darlin’. Not like you.” He stared down at me with those baby blues. “And I’d rather hang out with you. If you’re gettin’ tired of me….”
I made another face at him. “Oh, get a life, loser. You know I’m not.”
He coughed. “Loser? Me? I’m writin’ this down and tellin’ Mama about it.”
I snorted. “What are you going to tell her? Mama, Bianca was bein’ mean to me.”
His upper body jerked, and I heard him choke, “Is that what you think I sound like?”
I was 95 percent sure that the cashier at the register who had been looking blankly forward, whispered under his breath, “It is what you sound like.”
I raised my eyebrows at Zac like see?
“Well, now you’ve done fucked up, and you’re sharin’ those cinnamon things with me.”
That got me to laugh.
And it got him to grin at me, not taking me or himself seriously. “I’m still tellin’ Mama,” he threatened with a little side smile and a nudge.
“Your food’s ready,” the cashier finally called out, shoving a tray on the counter forward, his expression watchful all of a sudden.
I smiled at him.
He didn’t smile back.
I grabbed some sauces and let Zac carry the tray over toward the drink station. We each filled up our cups and took the table in the corner, farthest away from the front counter. I was going to be hurting soon. I’d make it worth it in the meantime, though. My stomach was grumbling.
I took a bite of my crunchy tacos and then said, “I’ll go with you if you want me to. I’ve only been to a haunted house once, and I closed my eyes the whole time, but it’ll be fun, right?”
Zac, who had his mouth full of chalupa, nodded. “Very fun.”
Liar. I had no problem with scary movies, but I did close my eyes from time to time—most of the time.
Speaking of doing things together. “Hey, have you watched the video I uploaded of us lately?”
He shook his head.
“It already hit four million views.”
Zac set his chalupa down. “You serious?”
I nodded at him and grinned. “Yeah. They went up like crazy over the last week. It’s been years since the last time I got that many views so fast. Everyone loved it.” Especially me. It made me smile the times I watched it. All right, I’d smiled the entire time I’d edited the video, but that was a different story. I just loved watching Zac talk and do everything in general.
Oh God, I was screwed and needed to stop thinking that way.