Page 62 of Just My Luck

“Have you ever smoked before?”

“No.” He shook his head solemnly. “Wait. Once, in Las Vegas. It put me to sleep. When I woke up, I was engaged.” More giggles.

Inside his suite, she helped him take his clothes off and shoved him into the shower, water on high. She hoped that might make him a little more alert. He immediately rested his forehead against the wall, as if he might fall asleep standing up. With a sigh, she stripped down to her underwear and got in with him.

“Hi!” he said brightly, turning to face her. “I love you!”

“Uh-huh.” She squirted some shampoo into her palm and reached for the top of his head. She had to dodge the streams of water, but it felt good to get clean herself. She’d worked so hard to make their little bungalow a safe, clean-ish, family-friendly place. It had taken her father one afternoon to change all that.

“You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen,” he told her with utter sincerity. “I love you.”

“Hmmm. That’s nice.” She stood on tiptoe so she could lather up his scalp.

“You don’t believe me,” he wailed.

“Please don’t cry.”

He started to cry. Oh good lord. This was a complete disaster. Her family had reduced this reserved, disciplined, brilliant man to a sobbing mess in the shower.

“You know, I was really hoping we could just have sex and call it good,” she grumbled. “Instead, thanks to my darling dad, you had to inhale a metric ton of marijuana smoke and now we have a sob-fest on our hands. One more thing I can blame him for. I swear, that man ruins everything.”

He winced; she might have been scrubbing his scalp a bit too forcefully. She eased up, then tilted his head to rinse out the lather.

“He said stuff,” Lincoln mumbled. “I have to remember.”

“Well, good luck with that. You’re completely baked. Why does my dad think you’re a gigolo, by the way?”

He ignored her question, clearly trying to maintain his focus. “But it’s important.”

“What is?”

He faced the needles of hot water and scrunched up his face. “It’s important,” he repeated. She turned him so the water could reach the back of his head. Now that he was facing her, he gave her a soulful look. “You’re magic, Zara. Everywhere you are, the light follows. How do you do that?”

“Shhh.” If he kept on like that, her heart might break, because she knew that the non-stoned Lincoln would never be this openly emotional. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”

“Look at you, you’re dazzling. I can’t see anything else, only you.” He blinked water out of his eyes. “I don’t understand it. It scares me. Why have I never felt this way before?”

“Maybe because you haven’t ever been this stoned before?” She turned the water off. “Stay here while I get you a towel.”

“You’re leaving me? Don’t leave me. Everyone always leaves me.”

“All I’m doing is stepping out of the shower.” She opened the frosted glass door and stepped onto the cushy bath mat. Snagging a couple of pristine white towels, she returned to his side, only to find him leaning against the wall, snoring lightly.

“No! You can’t sleep yet.” She poked him in the side, causing him to jerk awake.

“Zara, you’re so sexy. I think I love you,” he mumbled.

“Yes, we’ve established that. You know, I really missed the boat here.” She took his hand and helped him step out of the shower stall. “I should have been recording all this for blackmail material. No one will ever believe me later, including you.”

She draped one towel over his shoulders and vigorously dried off his hair with the other. As she worked the towel, he kept talking, but it didn’t make much sense.

“The rigger,” he said between swipes of the towel. “It’s a rigger. Scam…can’t go back. Hide … Rory. Rory’s the key.”

At least, that was roughly what she thought he was saying, but it made absolutely no sense and he was swallowing half of his words.

“We’ll figure it out tomorrow,” she told him.

She guided him toward the bed and helped him crawl into it. As she pulled the covers over him, he latched onto her wrist. “Please. Come in with me. Did I tell you about my dreams? I never had dreams before I crashed. Now every night it’s another dream. I’m a boy, and I’m falling, and there’s trees and…please get in with me.”