The night was balmy, so I donned a flirty sundress and some wedge sandals, figuring it was only right to dress up for my birthday—and knowing that showing some thigh was guaranteed to turn Ryder’s head. For his part, Ryder was clad in his usual uniform of a graphic T-shirt and jeans, while Jason looked every inch the off-duty actor in sunglasses and a baseball hat.
“Now here’s what we’re going to do,” Ryder instructed as we muscled our way up to the bar, shouting over The Beach Boys, who were singing about Aruba and Jamaica over the bar’s speakers. “We’ll start by ordering three drinks representing different varietals of liquor, and you’ll have a sip of each. If you don’t find one you love, we’ll keep going until you do.”
“Very scientific,” I said mock-seriously. “And what happens to the drinks I don’t like?”
He gave me a look like I was very silly indeed. “Jason and I will drink them, duh.”
For our first round, we decided on a Painkiller in the rum category, a Tequila Sunrise, and for vodka, a Sex on the Beach.
“An homage to Tom Cruise,” Ryder explained with a twinkle in his eye, and I tilted my head in incomprehension. “You know, fromCocktail? ‘Sex on the Beach, the schnapps made from peach, the Velvet Hammer, the Alabama Slammer’…No?”
“I think you have a thing for Tom Cruise,” I teased, stepping closer so I wouldn’t have to shout over the music.
“Can you blame me? The man’s a legend!”
A laugh spilled out of me, and his mouth tugged up in a crooked smile. “My mom loves him, so his movies were always on in my house, especially the older ones likeRisky Business,Days of Thunder,Far and Away,Rain Man.I used to memorizehis monologues for acting practice.” He leaned in, his lips grazing my ear, and goose bumps rippled across my skin. “Plus, nothing works on high school girls quite like reciting the ‘You complete me’ speech fromJerry Maguire.”
Something told me that trick’s success wasn’t limited to teenage girls. “I’ll bet.” He winked, and the coil in my stomach twisted tighter.
From this close, I couldn’t help but notice the dusting of new freckles sprinkled across the bridge of his nose that had sprung up since we’d started filming. Even with the makeup team slathering us in sunscreen at every opportunity, no one was safe from the intense South Carolina sun.And a sun-kissed Ryder was a thing of beauty.
“And just what are you lookin’ at, little lady?” he drawled in a lazy cowboy twang, and I flushed.Caught.
Just admiring your incredibly handsome face. “You’re getting too tan,” I said instead, skimming my index finger along his cheekbone, ignoring the tingling in my fingertip. “Francesca’s gonna yell at you.”
He cuffed my neck with his hand and squeezed once in an affectionate way, and the contact sizzled down my spine like a bolt of electricity. “Franny would never yell at me! She loves me too much.”
He was right, she did. “One day you’re going to meet a woman who’s immune to your charms,” I grumbled, rolling my shoulders. “And I want to be there to see it.”
“I guess that meansyou’renot immune to my charms?” he said with a rakish grin, and the coil threatened to snap. This dance we were doing, the constant game of push and pull, was getting harder and harder for me to endure. It was torturousto spend all day pretending to be in love with him, then have to spend all night pretending I wasn’t. While I couldn’t decide if our teasing flirtation was all in good fun for him—a natural byproduct of our forced proximity—or if more could be read into it, the fact remained that Ryder had me tied into knots.
“Melody could never be immune to Holden’s charms,” I answered cheekily, expertly evading his question.Spin, twirl, shuffle, dip.I’d gotten good at the dance, too. As much as I wanted to point the finger at Ryder for tormenting me with mind games, it took two to tango. I was as much to blame for our confusing dynamic as he was.
He stared down at me, his eyes studying my face. When he looked at me this way, I felt certain he could read my mind, could see the internal war I was waging, like my feelings were as transparent as cling wrap.
“A toast to Scarlett,” Jason broke in, mercifully interrupting our strange little interlude. He distributed the three drinks he was juggling, and we all raised our glasses in tandem. “Today, you become a woman,” he started, and Ryder groaned while I pretended to stab him with the pointy end of my drink’s paper umbrella.
Ryder took over. “To a memorable birthday for a memorable woman,” he said, his pupils dark and dilated as he looked at me over the rim of his glass, and his sinful smirk was all it took for my pulse to kick up.Knock it off, heart.
Not to be outdone, I proposed a toast of my own. “To the Three Musketeers: Thanks for not letting me rot in my room tonight.”
“Hear, hear!” the guys chorused as we clinked glasses. I took my first swig, then made a face. “Too sweet.”
“Okay, Sex on the Beach is out. Try the Painkiller.” Ryder and I traded drinks, and he watched me take a sip.
“Ooh, it’s really good. I love the coconut. And what is this on top, nutmeg?” I took another hearty swallow.Yum.
I liked the Tequila Sunrise as well, and it didn’t take long before the drinks had all been consumed and the boys had ordered a second round, and then a third. The place had gotten progressively more crowded, the music cranked louder, and fortunately for us, we blended in like the locals we sort of were. And perhapsunfortunately, it wasn’t long before I’d sailed right past tipsy into full-blown drunk.
“Didn’t I already try this one?” I slurred as I took a sip of something fruity—although I’m not sure who I was kidding, they all tasted the same at this point—and shimmied to “Love Shack.”
Jason smirked at me as I danced, then caught me before I knocked into a table. “I think it’s time to slow down, lightweight. You’re like half my size and you’re keeping up with me.”
“Hey, I amnota lightweight. Besides, our apartments are closeby,” I enunciated proudly.
Before I could stop him, Jason had taken the drink from my hand and replaced it with a glass of water. “No more Painkillers until you down that whole glass.”
I did as I was told and gulped down half the glass, giddy and buzzing and carefree. I could see why people thought drinking was so much fun. I didn’t have a care in the world, all my worries melted away. I felt weightless, buoyant.I could get used to this.Why had I been so worked up about Ryder? Flirting wasfine. Flirting was fun! Flirting was seriously underrated.I should tell him this.
