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“Then I guess I’ll just have to take you as my date.”
My heart shimmied inside my chest, but I still wasn’t sure I should take him seriously.
Maybe.His eyes weren’t dancing with amusement the way they usually did when he was joking, but the likelihood of him truly meaning it was slim.
But he was still staring into my eyes as if waiting for an answer, so I smiled. “It’s a deal.”
* * *
After the postshow routine of showering and changing, we all headed out to the restaurant Drew had booked to celebrate the engagement—nobody could accuse him of not making an effort.
The mood around the table was fantastic, and everyone was laughing and joking around as we ate.
“I’ve been thinking,” Joey said as he finished up the last of his steak. “Proposing with a vase is maybe the lamest thing I’ve ever seen.”
A chorus of laughs burst out around the table, and Drew said, “Cheers, mate. You couldn’t have brought that up before when I told you what I was planning?”
“Nah. I thought it’d be funnier this way!”
Ellie placed her hand on Drew’s arm. “I thought it was perfect.”
Drew tilted his chin, his face oozing mock smugness. “See? Ellie thought it was perfect!”
“She’s just being polite,” Mack teased. “You should have done something manly like…” When he paused, unable to think of anything, we all laughed again.
“Struggling there, buddy?” Jason asked from his seat beside me. “You might want to take some tips from a real man!”
“Oh yeah? What have you got, Action Man?”
Jason held up his hands and shook his head. “Forget it. It would be wasted on you guys.”
“No, come on.” Drew chuckled. “Educate me, little brother!”
I raised an eyebrow in Jason’s direction, and he smirked. “All I’m saying is romantic stuff is well and good, but women don’t want or need that all the time.”
“For a proposal, we want the romantic stuff! No woman wants to be proposed to at the same time as being clubbed over the head and dragged back to the man cave,” I told him as more giggles echoed around the table.
“You tell him, Luce!” Mack said, raising his beer bottle in my direction.
The grin that crossed Jason’s lips set my insides on fire, and he winked at me. “You’ve never been to my man cave. You might like it.”
The heat in my cheeks threatened to burn the whole table to ashes, so I whacked his arm and turned my head but shifted my eyes back toward him, unable to stop myself from laughing. “You’re an idiot.”
“But you love me.”
Yes. Yes I do.
I rolled my eyes at him and reached for my glass of champagne. I hadn’t had nearly enough to drink to conjure up another witty response, so I swallowed more of the bubbly instead.
Once the laughter simmered down, we broke off into our own little groups to talk and, of course, eat dessert. When we were done, Drew and Ellie left the table to pay, and I headed to the ladies’ room. As I was about to turn the corner toward the overly grand staircase that led to the toilets, I heard Ellie’s voice and stopped dead.
“I don’t like this,” Ellie said, then sighed loudly, ending it with a growl. “This is so messed up. She’s my sister, and Jason is my best friend. I want them both to be happy, but… together? I know it’s what Lucy wants, but I don’t know if she can handle it. Him. The reality of what being with him means.”
“I know, Ells. Maybe bringing her on tour was a bad idea.”
“Maybe. But if this was going to happen, it would have happened anywhere.”
My brow furrowed as I tried to understand their conversation. Because, believe me, if anything had actually happened between Jason and me, I would have remembered.
