“You promised me we could leave if we were bored.”
I had promised him that and I wouldn’t go back on my word. “Yeah. We can go.” I glanced around the courtyard, trying to figure out an escape route. “But we need to leave separately, so it doesn’t look like we’re actually leaving. Nobody will notice. I’ll meet you in the foyer inside.”
“Roger that.”
I pulled my phone from my purse. “Okay. Here I go.”
Pretending to talk on the phone, I avoided eye contact with everyone and walked back inside the hotel, waiting by the large painting of a beach sunset. I slid my phone back into my purse and glanced back toward the glass door that led to the garden terrace, expecting Nick to come through right behind me.
A minute later, he came through the same door, spotting me, and walking my way.
I smiled. “Ready?”
“More than you know,” he said.
I surprised myself by grabbing his hand. “Let’s go, then.”
I loved the way his hand felt wrapped around mine.
We walked down the long hallway toward the front of the hotel, Nick glancing down at our intertwined hands. “Holding hands, huh? Looks like this is getting pretty serious.”
I smiled. “It is for me.”
“Good.” He pulled me toward the open door of the banquet room with people dancing inside. “In that case, we can’t leave until you dance with me.”
“Nick, we can’t go in there.”
“Yes, we can. Just one dance. Listen, they’re even playing our song.”
I did my best not to laugh. “This song is going to haunt me for the rest of my life.”
It was “Shake Your Booty” by KC and the Sunshine Band.
The song that was playing when I got the wedgie at the gym.
The same day I met Nick but didn’t know one day I would have feelings for him.
“Turn that negative memory of a wedgie into a positive one.”
“That’s impossible. That wedgie will be stuck in my—”
Nick laughed.
“Okay, poor choice of words.” I couldn’t help laughing with him. “This is me being serious now. We’re going to get kicked out of the hotel if we crash this party.”
“We were leaving anyway. The difference would be we would have a private escort out of the place. Just like royalty.” He grinned and gestured toward the banquet room with his head.
I laughed. “You’re crazy.”
A woman approached us from inside the banquet room, waving us in. “You can come inside and dance. We’re just finishing up, it’s okay.” She headed back to the dance floor and waved at us again to come inside.
Nick grinned. “Wasn’t that nice of her?That’sthe kind of person you should be working with, not those egotistical suits who don’t care about you and are obsessed with money.”
“Did you pay her to do that?”
Nick chuckled. “No. Never met her before in my life. This was meant to be.” He held out his hand. “Shall we?”
I stared at his hand for a moment and then placed my hand in his.
