Everyone looks over.
“Uh…not a cool prank, Eli,” Graham says, not having witnessed the trip.
“Damn. Obviously I didn’t mean to do that,” I ground out, feeling like more of an idiot than I’ve ever felt in my entire life. And I’ve done some stupid shit. Glued quarters to tables as a prank because I thought that was hilarious at the time. Almost decapitated my friend after setting off fireworks. Hunted Big Foot. Really, not sure why Summer would say yes after reading that killer list.
Speaking of the angel. Summer’s by my side. Not sure when that happened. Her bright and bubbly voice is reassuring me, “It’s no big deal. I shouldn’t have left it there right in the middle of the room.” Trying to hide it, her face cringes as she stoops to pick it all up. Ya, she’d be terrible at poker.
Brushing off the camera, she flicks on the power. “See, it ummm…still works.” She flicks it off before the screen even displays anything.
“I’ll buy you another one.”
“No. Don’t worry about it. It was old anyway.”
“I’ll get you a new one.” Not waiting for her reply, I bend down to pick up the tripod. But when I maneuver its legs to stand up right, something must have caught in one of my suspenders pulling it away from my skin without me noticing because all I hear is a loud SNAP! And then my own voice screeching, “OW!”
My suspenders just snapped back my bare chest. That fucking stings.
But something warm is rubbing my nipple. That’d be Summer’s hand.
“Oh my God, Eli. That must have hurt.”
Shit. It did hurt.
“That’s gonna leave a mark,” she murmurs while still rubbing her hand over my nipple, up and down my torso where the red welt shines brightly. Her hands move softly. But the real mark that’s being left isn’t from the suspenders.
I grab her wrist.
“I think you should stop doing that.”
Her caramel brown hair falls away from her face as chocolate brown eyes peer up at me through her long dark lashes. All natural. All beautiful. Fucking delicious. Yup. I’m definitely gonna ask her out again.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, as if rubbing my oily body in front of a whole room full of people is just a normal thing to do.
“Nothing,” I grumble, feeling the heat from every angle about now. “Just—” I clear my throat “—I’m gonna need you to not touch me right now.”
“Oh.” Her perfectly round lips look—
“And that’s enough,” I say loudly. “Let’s get this shoot on the road.”
“Okay. Eli can you—”
“I’m gonna need a minute. Shoot Finn first.”
Like really. Because he’s the one who put the idea in my head that I should ask her out again, and now I can’t get past that.
Finn’s up. Leaning against the truck, flashing smiles, winking. The guy’s comfortable. We’re twins, and actually very similar to each other, but he’s way more natural in the limelight than I am.
Nolan’s next, and he’s so eager to be captured on film that he’s taken double the time Finn took. I see Summer snap another shot and look around. She shies away from confrontation, and I can easily read her signs. It was like that from the first moment I met her.
When she rushed into the bar, it was obvious that she needed something. She was in a crisis. And I wanted to be the first one—only one—helping her.
“Nolan,” I shout. “She’s got every angle of you. Twice. You’re done.”
“I don’t think she got the thumbs in my pocket—”
“Dude. She got that one. Three times. You’re out.” I throw my thumb to the back wall.
As he walks by her, he says, “Maybe we can get a few private photos later—”
