Removing his hands from his pockets, he signed without speaking, You look gorgeous.
Okay, something was definitely going on with him. As my roommate, Quarry had been subjected to countless hours of me trying on clothes before dates or interviews or really any time I’d been able to go shopping. I’d heard him tell me, “You look fine,” or “You look nice,” or “You look good.” Once, on Halloween, after I’d had my makeup professionally done to be a zombie at the community center’s haunted house, he’d even told me, “You look great.”
Never once had I been “gorgeous.”
Glancing over my shoulder, I checked to see if the busty, blond reporter had somehow snuck behind me. When I found nothing more than the On The Ropes logo on the red carpet backdrop, I turned back in his direction to find he was no longer there.
My whole body stiffened as callused fingers brushed the hair off my neck.
“I need a drink.” His voice was gravelly in my ear.
“I feel like you might already be drunk. There’s something wrong with your face,” I replied breathlessly even as I insulted him.
He chuckled. “I tell you you’re gorgeous and you tell me there’s something wrong with my face?”
I craned my head back and peered into his eyes, “Okay, there’s something wrong with your face and your hands. You’re creeping me out.”
His expression shifted, and his face was once again painted with something pained.
I smiled warmly, wishing I could figure out what the hell was going on with him. “Talk to me?”
Shaking his head, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Sorry. I’m tired. That’s all. Let’s get that drink.”
He was lying, but whatever had been bothering him vanished as he tossed me a wicked lopsided grin.
So I let it go.
I could give him that.
For now.
Looping my arm through his, I replied, “I wouldn’t turn down champagne.”
“Did you see Flint in that tux?” Ash asked for the twentieth time that evening. “I mean, I knew he was sexy in a suit, but God! That vest and bow tie are doing dirty things to me.”
I laughed as she continued to ogle her husband from across the room.
“If you want, the boys can spend the night at my house tonight,” Eliza offered before sipping on a glass of champagne.
Ash choked on her drink, and her eyes grew comically wide.
Pounding on Ash’s back, I told Eliza, “I think she’d like that.”
Eliza giggled.
Ash and Flint had two boys, Cole and Chase, whose birthdays weren’t even a full year apart. Cole had been a planned pregnancy not long after Mia had passed away. But, when he was less than two months old, Chase had been created the old-fashioned accidental way. Flint and Ash loved those boys more than anything in the world, but there was no denying that they could use some time away. Ash was frothing at the mouth just standing in the same room as Flint, so they probably needed more like an entire week away. I made a mental note to talk to Quarry about us watching the hellions so they could do just that. Flint was crazy weird about leaving their kids with babysitters, and if it wasn’t for Eliza and Till’s long-time nanny having agreed to keep the boys for the gala, I wasn’t sure Flint would have come at all.
“Are you sure?” Ash asked through a cough.
“Of course! There is no point in you guys picking them up tonight anyway. They’ll already be asleep by the time we get home. But you’re gonna have to tell Flint. I know how he is with those kids.”
“Oh, I can handle Flint. Don’t you worry about that.” She pushed to her feet and smoothed her long, strawberry-blond hair down. Leaning into my face, she pointed under her eyes. “Makeup?”
“Perfect. You want some gloss?”
She smiled so wide that I thought her face might split. “Nah. It’s too hard to clean it off his zipper. There’s a strong possibility I may need to do some convincing. A little preview in the bathroom should do the job.” She exaggerated a wink.
I groaned, not needing that mental picture.
Eliza pelted her with a balled-up napkin. “Gross!”
Ash crossed her arms over her chest. “Don’t even pretend like we don’t know why you came strutting out of the limo all disheveled tonight.”
Eliza slapped a hand over her mouth, and her cheeks turned bright red. “Oh, God. Was it that obvious?”
Ash high-fived me as we both burst into laughter.
“Not at all. I actually just took a guess. He sprang for the limo. I figured he wanted a little more than just the extra leg room.” She winked again then took off on her task to “convince” Flint to leave the kids with their aunt and uncle for the evening.
“Ten bucks she goes for the wallet first,” I bet Eliza, sliding down to fill Ash’s vacant seat.
“No. You watch. She’ll bat her eyelashes, kiss him, and then slide a hand down the back of his pants. Then!” She lifted a single finger in the air. “After he at least agrees to meet her in the bathroom, she’ll swipe his wallet. Only it won’t be in his back pocket. Flint replaced it with the key to the hotel room he booked for them tonight.”