Page 49 of Finding My Charming

He smirked and shook his head. “Life isn’t a fairytale, Elle. The choices you make — and you seem to be making good ones —decide your life. You don’t need a glass slipper or magic lamp to help you. I have a feeling you’ll make exactly the life you want.”

“Jocks aren’t supposed to talk like that.”

“This jock does.” His smile grew again. “Thanks for talking to me, Elle.”

I smiled and had to look away. His gaze made me nervous. Luckily, the car in front of us was getting off. This strange ride was almost over. Part of me was relieved to get back to Ari and my comfort zone, but the other part wanted to stay pressed against him. He had a way of getting me to open up and talk in a way that I never normally would with a stranger.

Something about him felt familiar. I’d known him for less than an hour and managed to spill my embarrassing secrets and the feelings I have toward my sisters.

Vincent stepped out first then turned and held out his hand.

I took it, and he pulled me up next to him.

With a quick smile, he turned and walked toward the exit, still holding my hand. I looked down then up to the back of his head.

What is happening? We are walking toward Ari and his friends. They are about to see us holding hands, and it doesn’t seem like he is going to stop anytime soon.

With each step, I watched his arm, waiting for it to drop. No guy I had ever known would walk up to his friends holding hands with a girl, let alone a girl he’d just met. This usually meant that he either thought he would be getting something from her by the end of the night, or he was a different breed of male that found it acceptable to show PDA. I wasn’t actually certain that existed, but I was currently being proven wrong.

We reached the group, and they greeted us. Ari smiled at me then trailed her eyes down my arm to our hands. She gave me a small look, silently asking what was going on, but I had no way to tell her I didn’t know. I was just as confused.

Shockingly, none of the guys gave us a second look. This was turning into a very strange night.

Chapter 17

“it’s friday! friday is the best! Friday means the weekend!” I greeted Sherrie with my song and continued while she laughed at me. “Fridays are the be-e-st!” I held out the last note until I flopped into my chair.

“Well, well. Someone is in a good mood this morning.” She turned from her computer and looked at me with a curious gaze.

“Of course I am. It’s Friday, and that means in just a few hours, the weekend starts!”

“And why is this such a wonderful weekend?”

“If things go half as well as last night did, this weekend will be amazing!”

She pulled her glasses off and narrowed her eyes. “What happened?”

“I met one of the guys!”

Her mouth dropped open, and she scooted her chair closer. “Which one?”

“Hat, number two.”

“Oh, he was a star, wasn’t he? We were excited about him, right?”

I nodded with a huge grin. My cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling so much in the past twelve hours.

“How did it happen? Did you recognize him right away? Did he recognize you?”

We spent almost an hour talking about the night before. I told her about seeing his picture, the balloon stand, and the Ferris wheel. For each detail I shared, she had three more questions. We were still laughing and talking when Dad walked in.

He appraised us for a moment then shook his head and walked away. Poor guy. He’d been sitting in the kitchen this morning, innocently reading his paper, when I came in, and Mom began her interrogation. Between her and April’s questions, he knew way too much about last night and how excited I was.

“Are you going to see him again?” I was pretty sure, over the course of our conversation, she’d lost years off her age.

“I hope so.” We hadn’t made plans, and he hadn’t asked for my number, but we had mutual friends. If he really wanted to, he could get ahold of me. Right?

“He didn’t ask you out?”