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I press my hand to my chest, working to calm my breathing down. “Jesus, will you two calm the hell down? It was just a suggestion.”
“But a terrible one.” Rhyland twists in the seat to face me and brings his knee up onto the cushion. “The last thing you ever want is to owe Amelia.”
“Blaise does.”
“But he can handle it.”
“Yeah, that’s why you’re both freaking out. Because he can handle it.” I stand up and move to leave, deciding that I’ll call Amelia myself.
But Blaise snags my sleeve as I pass by. “Hadley, I get your frustration and your need to take care of this yourself—I really do—but trust me, it’s better for me to go out with Amelia on Saturday and then we can just move on to finding these bags.”
I swallow hard, knowing he’s right, at least about the understanding part. Blaise and I are similar. I’m understanding more and more with each moment we spend with each other.
“I feel guilty and uncomfortable that you’re doing this for me,” I admit, meeting his gaze. “I don’t like owing people.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” he promises. “I made the decision to make the deal with Amelia.”
“On my behalf.”
“But it was still my decision.”
I restlessly tap my foot against the floor. “I just feel like I should be doing something to get you out of this mess. It’s my fault you’re in it.”
“If you want to help me,” he says, “then let me do this.”
“That makes no sense at all.”
“It does if you really think about it.”
“No, it doesn’t.” I sigh, feeling more defeated than I have in a long time. “But I’ll let this go as long as you swear to the moon and back that if she tries to get anything else out of you, you’ll let me take over the deal.” I want to add,and you won’t kiss her, but that seems like a stupid idea.
Really stupid.
He nods. “I swear to the moon and back that I’ll let you take the deal over if she tries to get anything else out of me.”
“Good. And just so you know, a to-the-moon-and-back promise is unbinding. If you break it, you’ll be punished.”
He sucks his bottom lip between his teeth. “By you? Because that doesn’t sound that bad.”
Rhyland snickers. “Okay, that one wasn’t too bad. Bravo, bro, you’ve officially had your first not-so-sucky one-liner.”
“It was actually a two-liner,” I inform Rhyland with a haughty smile. “And in my opinion it was lame.”
Rhyland spreads his arms across the back of the sofa. “Not lame for Blaise, though.”
I waver. “Maybe.”
“Hello, I’m sitting right here,” Blaise gripes. “I can hear everything you’re saying.”
“Good for you.” I pat his head.
Rolling his eyes, he seizes hold of my hips, lifts me up and plops me down on his lap so I’m straddling his waist. Then he pins my arms together with his hands.
“No more petting me like a dog.” Holding my wrists in one hand, he tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear.
I can barely breathe, my heart fluttering like an idiot again. I’d mentally tell it to shut the hell up except something else has got me distracted. A faint memory pressing against the back of my mind.
“This is going to sound really weird,” I say to Blaise, “but have we ever met before? Like a long time ago?”
