Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 78049 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78049 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“You love her,” Stone says in a singsong voice, and I can tell he’s trying to embarrass me into denial so he can tease me further.
No denying my feelings, though. “Damn right, I love her. And she loves me too. What we have is some fated shit.”
Baden barks a laugh, and Stone claps me on the back. “Own it, dude. Love is some powerful mojo.”
My phone rings just as we push open the door to the parking garage, and my heart leaps when I see it’s Jenna. I left her at her apartment a few hours ago.
“Give me a minute,” I say to the guys as I stay by the door, and they continue toward Baden’s car. I connect the call. “Hey.”
“Hi,” she says, and I can hear her nervousness in that one word.
Being me, I want to swoop in and ease her suffering. “I’m glad you called. I missed the sound of your voice.”
She lets out a quavering laugh. “Charmer.”
“Always.”
“I wanted to apologize,” she gushes in a tumble of words. “I’m being stupid and overly cautious. Yeah, things are scary, but you’re the one person who has repetitively shown me how unscary the world can be when I open myself to it. I don’t want to disappoint you—”
“—you are not disappointing me—”
“—and I want to be everything you want me to be.”
“I want you to be what you want to be, Jenna,” I assure her.
She inhales, the sound coming through clear. When she lets out the breath, her voice is steady and calm. “I want to be yours, in all ways. I want to be by your side when you need me. I want to be there even when you don’t need me. I want to face my fears knowing full well they aren’t as scary because I have you, even if I falter, knowing you’ll be there to steady me. I thought a lot about what you said this morning.”
“I said a lot of things this morning,” I point out.
“A lot of good things,” she agrees. “But specifically, you told me you had expectations of me. You said you expected someone like me—who has courage and determination—to figure a way to get past my fears and own up to my true self. And, well… no one has ever really put an expectation on me like that. There’s been a lot of love, support, gentle encouragement. I’ve been led by the hand a lot of the way on this journey, but you actually put the ball in my court and said… I expect you to do this.”
“I didn’t mean that to come off so high-handed,” I rush to assure her.
“No, it wasn’t like that at all. It came across like you have the utmost confidence in me. That if I couldn’t move past those fears, I wasn’t letting you down, I was letting myself down. And that all sort of clicked and made sense. Plus, I called Emory, and she told me I was being an idiot.”
I chuckle at the exasperation in her tone. “I really like your sister.”
“Well, she really likes you, too, and doesn’t want to see me screw this up. So if the invitation is still there, I’d like to be your date for this evening.”
“The invitation to be my date is always there and will never be available to anyone else,” I say. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”
“No,” she says emphatically. “I’ll meet you there. Actually, Sophie and I are going this afternoon to shop for dresses, do the hair and makeup thing, all that. We’ll meet you and Baden at the party.”
For a moment, I don’t know what to say. My first reaction is to insist she not go to any great lengths as she’s perfect the way she is. But then I realize her voice is brimming with excitement about doing these beautifully girly things with Sophie, and I know it will be great for both of them.
“Okay, then,” I murmur in a low voice. “You know I’m going to be distracted all day, wondering what you’re going to look like when you show up. Do you think any of that shopping might include lacy undergarments?”
“Maybe,” she says coyly. “I suppose you’ll find out at the end of the evening.”
Laughing, I start moving toward Baden’s car where he and Stone are waiting for me. “I can’t wait to see you tonight. I love you.”
“I love you too,” she says and disconnects.
“Now that’s the dopiest look I’ve ever seen on your face,” Baden muses as I tuck my phone in my pocket. “Guessing that was Jenna.”
“Apparently, she and Sophie are heading out on a shopping spree to get ready for tonight. You and I are to meet them at the party.”
Baden’s eyebrows rise—that’s a big deal for Sophie too. She’s still leery about going places, especially shopping, since she was attacked in a shopping mall parking lot. “Seems like our girls are really turning into butterflies.”