Her green eyes looked bright as she looked at him and said, “What?”
“Are we cool? You okay after the whole . . . closet thing?” He noticed the goose bumps on her arms and instinctively began taking off his jacket.
She rolled her eyes and gave him a grin as he draped it over her shoulders. She stood and pulled it tighter against her, looking even tinier as she burrowed into the jacket. “I’m fine, and thank you for the jacket, you chivalrous delight.”
He set down his glass and stood. “Let’s go.”
Her eyebrows dipped down. “You don’t have to leave the party just because I am.”
He shrugged, wanting nothing more than to be alone with her in their only-one-bed room, even if sex was off the table. “I want to.”
Thankfully, no one noticed as they left the patio and went back into the hotel. He wanted Hallie all to himself.
Chapter
TWENTY-TWO
Hallie
Hallie rambled about the patio party as they walked to the room, her heart pounding in her chest as she thought through her plan. She was scared to say anything for fear of messing up their friendship, but she was equally scared of letting the perfect weekend end without ever daring to make something happen.
Without possibly taking a step forward.
“And they actually took the microphone away from you?” Jack laughed as they stepped into the elevator. “What a bunch of buzzkills.”
“Okay, well, I was actually being really obnoxious.”
“You? Impossible.”
She loved the way his eyes got crinkly around the edges when he was teasing her. She hit the button for their floor and said, “I discovered that falsetto made the mic squeal, so I might’ve selected a Bee Gees song and hit it hard.”
He rolled his eyes and said, “Why would they ever let you sing karaoke?”
“Why wouldn’t they? I have the voice of an angel.”
They got off on their floor and walked down the hallway. Hallie kept trying to get herself to just say it, to calmly tell him how she felt and what she wanted, but she couldn’t bring herself to utter the words.
They were stuck in her throat, so she rambled incessantly about nothing.
Jack opened the door and they went into the room, and as Hallie looked at that one very big bed, the words wouldn’t come out.
Say it, Hal.
Say it, you pussy.
Sayyyyy. Itttttt.
She spun around and looked up at his handsome face. “Um, Jack?”
He started loosening his tie, and she felt light-headed. “Yeah?”
“I think, um, well, I was thinking. That.”
He raised one eyebrow. “That . . . ?”
“That since we’re both staying in this room, uh, together, maybe we should, um. Maybe we should . . .”
He whipped off the tie and dropped it by his suitcase, his gaze intense. “Should what?”
She swallowed. “We should, um, take turns using the bathroom.”
His eyes narrowed as he unbuttoned his top button. “As opposed to . . . using it at the same time . . . ?”
“No.” She rolled her eyes. “I just have to wash my face. Can I have the bathroom first?” she asked.
He gave her a weird look. “Of course.”
“Awesome.” Hallie went over to her suitcase and pulled out the super-safe, not-sexy pajamas she’d decided to bring on the trip: her oversized, knee-length flannel nightshirt and a pair of tall, fuzzy socks. She walked past him and went into the bathroom, and it wasn’t until the door was closed and locked that she silent-screamed and wanted to smack herself in the face.
We’re adults, Jack, and we’ve slept together before. Since we don’t have emotional baggage, why not sleep together again? We obviously have sexual chemistry, so I say we do whatever feels right this weekend and then leave it all in Vail. As long as we don’t feel anything other than sexual attraction, it won’t be a problem, right?
She felt a hell of a lot more than that, but no way was she going to put it out there. No, her plan was to throw every single thing into the fake relationship this weekend, and maybe by the time they returned home, they would share their mutual feelings for each other.
Crazier things had happened, right?
But she had to say it casually enough so he wouldn’t get freaked again. Obviously he was worried she’d get emotionally attached—hence the closet conversation—so she needed him to believe that she wouldn’t.
She took off the white dress and changed into—ugh—the world’s least sexy pajamas. She fluffed up her hair, put on vanilla lotion, spritzed her belly button with Chanel No. 5, and pulled on her tall tube socks.