Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30218 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30218 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
I walked over to Casey and dipped to press a slow kiss to his lips. A flurry of butterflies still hit me every time I kissed him. I knew it wasn’t “forbidden,” anymore, but it still felt like I was getting away with something.
And it still felt like Casey was totally out of my league, anyway.
“Glad you’re here,” I told him. “And you brought company, I see?”
Casey’s construction crew, the Fixer Brothers, were hanging out in various parts of the bar. I recognized them from the first night we’d met, which felt like ages ago, now.
“I didn’t even bring them,” Casey said. “They just knew this was the best place to be on New Year’s Eve.”
“The only place to be,” Harlan corrected him.
I sat down next to Casey, making myself comfortable. Jade Brewery really was becoming one of my favorite places already, even though I knew half of it had to do with it being the place where Casey and I had met.
“I got you something,” he said as I sat down.
There was a tiny red bag sitting on the top of the bar. He reached for it, sliding it over toward me.
“A gift?”
“A little gift,” he told me.
I pulled the ribbon off of the little bag, opening it up. Inside, there was an even smaller plush. I took it out, seeing that it was in the shape of a little cinnamon roll, about the size of a hockey puck, with two cartoon eyes on the front of it.
I puffed out a laugh. “Where in the hell did you find this?”
“Doing some coding work for a company that sells a million different little plushies. I came across this one and it made me think of you.”
“This is going right on the dashboard of my truck,” I told him.
“I figured it could be a reminder that you’re never alone, you know?” Casey said, reaching a hand out and squeezing my thigh. “No matter what happens between us. No matter what all this turns out to be.”
“And a reminder that sometimes, the weirdest things end up really, really good,” I said softly, turning over the little cinnamon roll in my fingers.
“The weirdest things are the fucking best things,” Casey agreed. “And we both know it.”
“Thank you,” I said. “This’ll make me think of you every time I see it. As if I’m not already thinking about you all the time, anyway.”
He leaned over, kissing me again.
And God, I wasn’t used to it. I still felt like I could melt right into my chair from a simple kiss like this. The feel of his lips on mine, the faint scent of him that I knew fairly well by now.
It didn’t matter how weird the circumstances were with our lives—it just felt right, being with him.
Maybe that was all that mattered, in the end.
A few hours later, Jade Brewery had transformed from a cozy little neighborhood bar into an all-out New Year’s Eve bash. More and more people had trickled in over the night, and the place was packed now. The good music just kept coming, and Casey had managed to drag me out onto the dance floor multiple times.
Midnight came, and the whole bar counted down together from ten to one.
“Happy New Year!” the whole place shouted.
Casey’s hands found my waist, tugging me in close as we kissed.
“Here you go, Casey!” Harlan said, appearing near us with a bottle of champagne. He looked like he was on cloud nine, and even he had been dancing like a fool all night with his friend Sawyer.
“You want me to pop this bottle?” Casey asked Harlan over the music.
“Do it,” he said. “On the house.”
Casey gave Harlan a little salute and positioned himself with the cork ready to fly. He moved his thumb and almost instantly, the cork came off with a loud pop, flying out and landing on one of the pool tables by the wall.
And apparently the bottle must have gotten more than a little shaken up while Harlan danced over, because the champagne downright waterfalled onto Casey.
“Holy fuck!” Casey called out, his eyes going wide as champagne spewed all over him, down his arms and all over the front of his shirt.
“Oh, God,” I said.
“I am now soaked in about a half a bottle’s worth of champagne,” Casey declared. “That’s one way to get me to perk up.”
“That might be our cue to head out,” I said.
Casey was laughing now. He shrugged, tossing back the bottle and swigging some of the champagne before offering it to me. I had a big sip, too.
“Yes,” Casey finally said. “I think I should get back home to put on some slightly less alcoholic clothes.”
“You two just needed an excuse to get out of here together, and that’s okay,” Harlan said. “Maybe it was part of my plan all along.”