“I love how well I know you.”
His words make my stomach flutter. I wonder if he’ll always make me feel like this. I look over at him and he’s still grinning, although he’s focusing on the road ahead. His hair’s messed up and his shirt’s crumpled from the seatbelt. Even so, this is the most beautiful I’ve ever seen him. He looks carefree, happy and I want to do a little dance that I may have played a part in that smile he’s wearing.
“Do you want to play a game or not?” he asks, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “What dinosaur would you rather be?”
I scrunch my face in confusion. “What kind of question is that?”
“It’s just a random question, but it tells a lot about someone’s personality.”
“What, like if they actually know the name of a dinosaur, it tells you they’re a geek?”
“Just answer the question, Princess.”
“Ugh, fine. Okay, a Velociraptor, I guess.”
“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Interesting choice.”
“What does it say about me, then? Let me guess… that I’m small and vicious?”
“I would say that it makes you quick-witted and intelligent,” he tells me. I smile internally at my choice in dinosaurs before he’s finished. “Also confirms that you're a geek. Nine out of ten people would have said T-Rex; the fact that you know more than one dinosaur proves it.”
A groan escapes my lips as I push myself further back into my seat.
“I can’t believe I have to spend another five hours in this car with you…god, why was I even looking forward to this?” I press the side of my head to the window and sigh. “You suck at car games,” I tell him, although the smile I’m trying to hide is apparent in my voice.
“Are you trying to tell me you’d rather be somewhere else?” he says playfully, although there’s an air of uncertainty to it. How he can be unsure that I’m not exactly where I want to be, and with the only person I ever want to share boring car journeys with is beyond me. I need to squash that doubt away.
SHIT, THAT STINGS. I rub my eye and hope to fuck that she didn’t just see that. I hear her choke on the laughter she’s trying to hold back and I sigh; of course she saw that. I toss the tent pole that just attacked me, snapping back at fucking warp speed and slapping me straight across the eye, and turn to her.
She cocks her head pouting, “Aw, poor baby, did someone not get his camping badge in Cub Scouts?” She’s speaking in a baby voice, mocking me and loving every second of it. We’ve been at the campsite about forty-five minutes and the tent’s still not erected. I’m losing at life right now.
“There is no way that pole fits in there!” I point to the sorry excuse of a tent that’s flapping about in the wind, taunting me.
“Want me to have a go?”
“No offense, but there’s no use, it’s the wrong size pole. If I can’t make it fit, there’s no sense in letting you mess with it and hurt yourself.”
Anyone would think I’d just told her that her ass looks fat in her shorts and her hair’s a mess. Her eyes have almost closed completely into slits.
“Move over, cupcake, I want to actually be able to sleep in this thing tonight.” She pushes past me and starts dismantling the part of the tent that was already constructed. That’s just great, now when she can’t put it up, I’ll have to start from scratch.
“Knock yourself out, Princess.”
I sit on the hood of the Camaro and prepare myself to enjoy the show she’s about to put on for me when she bends over to fix the tent.
It takes her six and a half minutes; I want to punch myself in the face at how easy she just made that look. I feel completely emasculated. There’s a war going on in my head and I’m not sure what emotion is winning out: pride that she schooled me big time, or shame that she schooled me big time. I’m just thankful the band hasn’t seen this; they’d burn my man card right here and now in front of me, never mind revoking it.
She saunters toward me looking like that cat that just got the cream; her smile is so wide you’d think she swallowed a clothes hanger.
“Yeah, yeah…you’re better than me. Blah. Blah. Blah. Please let’s not ever speak of this again, okay?”
Her smile stretches even wider. “Are you freaking kidding me? I’ve already updated Facebook!”
“You’re joking, right?”
The gleam in her eye lets me know that she’s not. “Fuck’s sake, Blair!” I pull her between my legs and rest my hands on her hips. “The guys are gonna eat this shit up. Thanks for that.”
“Quit your whining, grab the sleeping bags and let’s go to bed.”
All thoughts of the guys dissolve at her words. My mind flashes to the last time we spent the night together and I feel my jeans tighten as she looks up at me from under her lashes.
“Yes, ma’am.”