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“I mean, everyone’s gotta get it right once in a while,” he replied, making me chuckle.
When we were in his vehicle, the top down, he pointed to the bottle. “You planning on drinking that tonight? If so, we might need to get you a muzzle.”
I laughed again because I couldn’t say he was wrong. “Nope. This is for your friends. I’m going to be very careful with you and wine in the future. Speaking of…do we need to talk about anything?”
He drove off, taking a moment to respond. “Nah, we’re good.”
“Thank you for inviting me.”
“No problem.”
“I can’t believe I’m meeting the guys from The Vers.”
He looked at me with that cute, pinched face he got sometimes. “You’re a world-famous actor, and you’re excited to meet my friends who are really just a bunch of idiots like me? I’ll never understand you.”
The thing was, I felt like that statement was true for Declan. I didn’t think he realized he was special in his own right. It was also killing me not to ask him what he’d told his friends about me, to the extent that I truly wondered if I might burst open with the pent-up need.
“What is it?” he asked, making me frown. How the fuck did he know it was something? Did we really know each other that well?
“Did they know about me before?”
He kept his eyes on the road, not turning my way. “No.”
“But they do now.”
“No.”
I blanched, but he turned to me and winked, which was cute as hell and the Declan he showed when his walls weren’t up.
“Asshole.”
“Clearly, they do.”
“What did you tell them?”
He groaned. “I swear, you’re just like them. Well, at least like Parker and Corbin. Always trying to get me to talk. I told them the truth. I said we met years ago, hooked up, did it off and on until you got into a relationship, but now you’re single and we’re friends.” He glanced my way, eyes sincere. “I didn’t tell them what happened with Neil, though, and they won’t talk to anyone. No one will know we’re friends or that you guys broke up or anything.”
I nodded. “I didn’t doubt them. I trust you, and if you told them, that means you trust them, so why wouldn’t I?”
Declan mumbled something under his breath I couldn’t understand, then rubbed a hand over his face. “You’re killin’ me.”
“What did I do?”
“Nothing.”
“Whoa, wait a minute. You can’t drop a bomb like that and then tell me nothing.”
“Pretty sure I just did.”
“Declan!”
“Sebastian!”
I laughed. God, I loved this. I had so much fun with him, felt more like myself with him than I had in years, if ever. When I was young, I was lying about who I was, and as an adult, I had to mold myself to fit so many people around me that I wasn’t sure the last time I could just be Sebastian Cole, whoever the fuck he was. But the me I was able to be with Declan felt like the real one.
“Fine. I’ll be good,” I told him. “You can keep your secrets. It’s just fun to try to figure you out.”
“Fun for you.”
But I had a feeling it was fun for him too. I wouldn’t do it if I thought otherwise.
Marcus lived in a wealthy neighborhood in Santa Monica, right on the beach on Palisades Beach Road. The house was huge, similar in size to mine, and in what looked like a contemporary villa style—white, with an orange-tiled roof, and surrounded in front by palm trees and other foliage.
“Jesus, I’m nervous. Is it okay to admit I’m nervous? Why am I nervous?”
“I don’t know, but do you think you can say nervous a few more times?”
I grinned, his reply helping to slow the rapid beat of my pulse.
“You’ll be fine,” he said, then surprised me by reaching over and fingering a lock of hair on my forehead.
I held my breath. Breathe, breathe, breathe, I instructed myself, but it took me a moment to actually do it. “Okay,” I finally replied, believing him.
Yep. I was in so much trouble when it came to Declan Burns.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Declan
I was nervous as shit too, but I didn’t tell Sebastian the way he’d told me. He was so good about stuff like that. I wondered if he was like that with everyone in his personal life, and then figured he probably was. Why would things be different with me?
I saw the blinds move, undoubtedly the guys looking out the window like I was their child bringing a date home for the first time.
“This is going to be a disaster,” I mumbled.
“Hmm?”
“They’re going to make a big deal out of this, and likely try to embarrass me. Are you sure you don’t want to go back to your place?”
Sebastian grinned. “Not for all the money in the world.”
