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“Please tell me we don’t have to walk back through the wedding like this.” I look up at where the reception still goes on with dread.
“Scared to look like you rolled around on the beach with me?” Will raises his eyebrows back to his playful, teasing self.
“Just don’t want to be the only competitor in the wet t-shirt contest.” I laugh, pointing to where his shirt has gone see through from water.
“No worries. This beach has a public access point a half mile south of here. I’ll have the car meet us there.” Will reassures as he types a text to the driver.
“Thank goodness.” I pick up my dress and heels and begin walking south beside him.
“My kindness will cost you, though.” Will’s expression is all trouble and I love it.
“Considering I’m stopping you from traipsing through the wedding looking like a male stripper, I think I’ve paid my dues.” I eye his bare chest under his suit coat.
“You have a point there, but now I need to know, am I the embarrassing type of male stripper or the sexy kind?” He laughs.
“What do you mean?” I chuckle at his question. With his body, he is definitely the hot kind, but I’m not going to admit that.
“Male strippers come in two varieties: funny or hot. Which one am I?” He presses.
“Both.” I admit, my cheeks growing warm.
“I’m funny and hot? Wow, why aren’t you snapping me up, Hannah?” Will raises his arms and spins in a circle as if he is open for the taking.
“Because you don’t want to be snapped up, Will.” I say quietly, bringing the mood down.
“But what if I did? What if I wanted it all? The dates, the love, the commitment.” Will poses the scenario, but I know better than to hope he would want that and I’m not delusional enough to believe that if he did want that, that he would want it with me.
“Then you’d make someone very happy, Will.” I don’t even have to think about it. I know that if he lets himself, Will will be the comforting face at the end of some girl’s workday. He will be the reason her heart skips and her breath catches. I don’t let myself dwell on the way that makes me feel sick.
“Do you think it would make me happy?” His walk slows as his eyes search mine and my heart aches at the vulnerability I see in his gaze.
“Only you can figure that out, Will.” I say because I can’t know that. Will Whitmore’s mind is a mystery I’m slowing unraveling.
We are silent the rest of the walk and by the time we reach the beach, the car Will requested is waiting for us. I mull over our conversation on the ride back to the hotel. As nice of a thought as Will being willing to be in a relationship is, I know it won’t be with me. I try to be happy for him still. Going to this wedding provided closure for him. He is ready to move on. I just have to come to terms that it won’t be with me.
It is just a silly crush, anyway. We would never work. We are too different in the way we see the world. We wouldn’t be good for each other. One of us would destroy the other. One of us would have to lose who we are.
Still, as we stumble through the halls of the hotel together unsteady with laughter at the reactions of the other hotel patrons to our oddly dressed state, I can’t help but think I’ve never felt like this. Like I would do anything to stay in this moment and always see the humor lighting up Will’s eyes and making him smile so big that his dimples show. I wish I could freeze the feeling in my heart, a happiness so pure I’m sure it must shine in my eyes the way it shines in Will’s.
When we stop at the door of my room, I smile up at Will as I grab my key card out of my clutch. “You made that stuffy country club wedding memorable, Will.”
“I have been known to be a good date occasionally.” He leans against the wall and smiles down at me.
“Oh, it was a date?” I tease, feigning shock.
“Well, I did get you out of your dress, so I feel that calling it anything less will get me slapped.” Will chuckles and his eye rake over my bare legs.
“You still might get slapped.” I warn.
“On that note, goodnight, Hannah.” He gives me one last smile as he backs away before turning to walk down the hall to his room.
“Goodnight Will.” I watch him walk away; a stupid smile glued to my face.
When the nightly text from Lilli comes in, I finally change my answer.
Lilli: Kiss or kill?
Me: Kiss
