Page 20 of All In

I shrug. “It’s not your fault. What was his problem, though?”

“I have no idea.” His face twists again, but this time in anger. “Sitting around acting like a kicked puppy when he was the one who kicked the puppy.”

I nearly choke. “Me? I’m the kicked puppy? Wow.”

Standing up quickly, Gray hooks his arm around my shoulder and tugs me to him, pulling me into a hug. I relax into him, sinking into his warmth as he buries his face in my hair and inhales.

“Regretting the whole ‘Don’t worry about your hair products’ thing?” I ask when he nuzzles the wild strands.

He inhales deeply again, then lets go of me. “Nope. I love your wild hair.”

My stomach does that same flip it did when he said that to me before. It’s true that I’m an attention whore and that I like compliments, but it’s just somehow even better when it comes from Grayson.

“Alright.” I gesture toward the door. “Well, I’m ready if you are.”

Gray pats his pockets, checking for his wallet and phone, and then he nods. “Yep, let’s go.”

When we walk out of the hotel and into the street, the heat hits us full force.

“Good thing you didn’t bring your hair shit. It wouldn’t have mattered.”

Hell, it already never matters, but it especially wouldn’t matter right now.

“What else did you have planned for this week?”

“Well.” My eyes are darting all over the place. There are people milling about and things everywhere to look at. Vegas really is perfect for a person like me who has no chill and a short attention span. “I planned a couples massage, and I wanted to get dinner at The Eiffel Tower.”

“Sounds perfect to me.”

I stop in the street and turn to look at Gray. “You want to do all of that? With me?”

He raises a shoulder in a little shrug. “Uh, yes? I thought that was the whole point.” Yeah, I guess it was, actually. “Is that all?”

“All the plans we had? Yeah. Why?”

Gray smiles. “You booked a week-long trip, and you only have a couple of things planned. I just didn’t know what else you were gonna do.”

Oh. I mean… “I was planning on being a newlywed,” I say, hoping that gets my point across. For the first time in literally ever, Grayson doesn’t get what I’m saying, and he cocks his head. “Sex, Grayson. I had lots of sex with my new husband planned.”

He inhales so quickly he chokes. On air? His spit? I’m not sure. But one second he’s staring at me expectantly, and the next he’s doubled over, hacking his lungs up.

“You okay?”

I take a step toward him, and he holds his hand up, stopping me. “Fine,” he rasps out, before clearing his throat and standing up. “Yeah, no. That makes sense. I don’t know why I didn’t think about that.” He scrunches his nose up. “I don’t really want to think about that if I’m being honest.”

Look, I don’t really want Gray to think about me having sex, either, but something about the way he says it makes me bristle a little. “Yeah,” I say, trying to laugh it off. “Anyway, I’m hungry, so…”

He nods. “Let’s go, then.”

The walk is pretty short, but I’m slightly sweaty by the time we make it there. We order our food, and I pay because I’m nice like that. Also because Gray has taken what should be an absolute shitshow of a time and turned it into something I can hopefully enjoy and have fun with.

We find a small bench to sit on while we eat. The hot dog is surprisingly good, and I devour half of it in just a few bites. I really was starving. There are never good snack options on planes.

“So, how are you holding up?”

I finish chewing my bite, then glance at Grayson. “What do you mean?”

He waves a hand through the air. “With everything.”