Page 108 of Famous for a Living

“And if your idea of a date is hiking ten miles in the snow, then I’ll have to politely decline. Even if you are a three-time national skijoring champion.”

At this his eyes twinkle. “I would expect nothing less than a handful of opinions from a fellow national skijoring champion. What did you have in mind?”

I press my lips together. “I’ll accept any plan and place that is at least sixty degrees.”

“Any other guidance here?”

I level my gaze. “Basically, I get excited when Kevin and Jax bring Twizzlers from the gas station over for evening blitz games. I can assure you, as long as it’s warm and not from an antique store, my bar has never been lower.”

He smiles. “Would Friday work?”

“We work together. We basically live in a secluded forest together. The way I see it, we’re the last two survivors on a deserted island. You bring me a coconut any night and you got yourself a date.”

Chapter 16

The Date

“Serena’s calling you again,” Mina calls. “Want me to pick up?”

“I don’t have time,” I call back through the bathroom door.

I’ve been taking steps to distance myself from the phone. One rule being that I do not take it in the bathroom. Ever.

One would be surprised how infuriating that fact is to certain friends.

Like Serena.

“Now she’s calling me,” Mina calls.

“Really? How did she get your number?” The bathroom light flickers, the light on the curling iron shifting from red to black and red again. “You know what, never mind.” I check my watch, racing the clock as I get the last bit of my hair in place.

My little comment about being on a deserted island with Zaiah is true.

It’s the only thing that can account for the extreme, heart-pounding level of anticipation I have felt the past forty-eight hours.

I’m a grown woman.

I have my dignity; I sit in a folding chair at a desk, beneath a saddle made in China, where I see Zaiah Smith day in and day out.

I have probably been on no fewer than three hundred dates in my life. On each one, I have been cool and collected with rational perspective about the evening ahead.

But today?

I finally broke out all the suitcases. And just about everything inside them is currently strewn across the floor of my living room/bedroom. A fair bit, too, in Mina’s.

Hastily I reach for one of the tubes of lipstick littering the vanity of the small bathroom with one hand, while the other hand holds a lock of hair in the barrel of the iron.

With my thumb I pop the cap off the lipstick. Use my thumb and forefinger to spin the silver tube until the rose-red color slides up.

At the front door, I hear a polite double knock.

A calm knock.

A sane knock.

I drop the curling iron onto the vanity. Manically tug at an overactive curl, running my fingers through it to calm it down.

“He’s here!” Mina whispers excitedly, standing in the doorway. Her face is so bright and shiny you could go blind from staring at it too long. She clutches her phone in her hands, the camera facing me square on.