His hands land on my waist the moment I’m within his reach. “There was a group text with the team that started at a request from Dex and Lucie for a night out of the house. When Ithrew out Winedown as the location, your favorite bartender so graciously backed me up.”
“So, everyone’s here?” I’ve waited on them countless times. I’ve talked to all of them plenty, but suddenly my heart rate kicks up a bit.
“Yeah, but if you need to stay in here, I’ll ditch them and watch you work.”
“You force everyone here just to abandon so quickly?”
“Without fucking question.” Adam brushes some of my hair behind my ear. “But if you want to come out there with me, I’d like that, too.”
Nibbling on my lip, I eye him cautiously. “Have you told them about us or is this going to be some big deal to everyone?”
Adam chuckles. “They know about us, but you’ve met them. You’ll get subtlety from maybe four of them. The rest I have zero control over.”
“Yeah, that tracks.” Taking the slightest step back I take in everything there is to look at. Hell, from his height to the way he fills out not only his shirt but pants—I’ve wanted to admire him for days but we’ve both been busy. “I think I can call it a night.”
“Good.” Adam leans in, giving me a tender kiss. “You look really beautiful.”
“Thank you.” It’s been a day, so my hair made its way up to a ponytail, and while I do love this outfit—simple gray sweater with a black skirt—it’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him it looks better in my closet.
My cheeks feel hot and while I’m hoping Adam takes that as a response to his compliment, I halfway want to know if he has this same desire to rip each other’s clothes off that I do.
But instead of swiping everything off my desk and throwing me on it, he takes my hand and we head out to the table where everyone else is sitting.
Jensen has this annoyingly big smile on her face. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Jensen will not be the chill one about this whole thing.
“Hi, Mia,” she all but sings.
Taking the empty seat next to her, I refrain from giving her the finger. “Hi, Jensen.”
Adam takes the other seat next to me, then pulls my chair closer to him. “You all know Mia. And we talked about this days ago, you know we’re seeing each other.”
Sitting across from me, Callie’s face practically lights up. I brace myself a bit for questions, but they don’t come.
Beck leans on the table. “So, hear me out, next game night we all go to that parkade game place that Adam took Mia.”
“Okay, but no roller rink,” Emma adds. “My dad would kill us all if someone gets hurt.”
“Agreed.” Callie tips her drink to Lucie. “Plus some of us have precious cargo.”
Dex wraps his arm around Lucie, kissing her temple. “Count us in, but we’re bringing Miles if we’re talking arcade.”
“Well, obviously,” Adam says. “Who else is going to point out anyone being a sad loser?”
The rant starts with Will calling out Adam for not playing Monopoly. Dex makes one comment about Will not being the worst “sad loser” at game nights, which leads to Beck getting his feelings hurt.
Tripp doubles down with how unfair their game nights are anyway, considering Beck and Jensen or Callie and Will usually win.
Adam leans closer and whispers, “He never wins because his attention is usually split.”
I bite back a laugh the best I can, but it gets called out nonetheless.
“What’s so funny?” Tripp asks in a teasing tone.
The temptation to point out the obvious is eating at me, but Adam’s arm comes around my shoulder. “Mia kicked my ass in the arcade. So, who knows? Maybe we’ll win this time.”
Everyone chirps in on the outcomes of a game night they haven’t even scheduled yet, but I tune them all out when Adam’s eyes meet mine.
“Regretting this yet?” he whispers.
