Page 80 of The Write Stuff

She rolled her eyes.

“Fine,” I corrected. “You need to realize that there’s a point in life when being a geek is actually cool. It’s the people wrinkling their noses at geeks who suck. When I look at you, I feel as if I’ve won the holy grail.”

“Oh, my,” she said, coming to a dead stop in her twirls. “That was ridiculous.”

“Oh, I know.” I joined in with her laughter. “I don’t care, though. You make me happy.”

Her smile tugged at my heartstrings — and a spot a little lower — at the same time. “That’s very sweet.”

“So, is that a yes to coming to my place?” I asked after manfully clearing my throat. If we weren’t careful, we would pull the covers over our heads and hide in her bed again. We really needed to stop doing that. Even I knew we were getting into unhealthy territory, which was why I’d suggested a trip to my place. At least that would be a change of scenery.

She shrugged. “Sure. What are we going to do, though?”

“Well, there are restaurants there,” I started. “I haven’t even eaten at all of them. There’s a pool. There’s my golf cart, which was delivered and I haven’t taken out yet.” I searched my memory for all the amenities. “There’s croquet.”

She whipped her eyes back to me, her hair flying. “There’s croquet?”

I nodded as I recognized the emotion flitting through her eyes as excitement. “Yes. It’s a big deal. There’s a brochure and everything.”

“That sounds amazing.”

I had no idea why she believed that, but if she wanted to play croquet all weekend, I was up for it. “Pack a bag,” I said. “I’ll help. We’ll leave a note for Lucy — not that she’ll care we’re gone — and when we’re done with the reader event, we’ll head to my house.”

I’d moved my vehicle to her parking lot about a week prior. That would mean no drinking tonight, but I was more than happy to go without if it meant I could have Wylie in my house, with no risk of anybody just walking in on us whenever a whim struck, for an entire weekend.

“This sounds fun.” Wylie immediately pulled a small rolling suitcase out of her closet. “I’m going to need a lot of stuff, so I have options for the restaurants.”

I grinned, loving her excitement. “I’ll handle your toiletries.” I started toward the bathroom.

“How do you know what I’ll need?” She looked genuinely curious.

“Because you don’t have a lot of them compared to everybody else. You’re not fussy about that stuff.”

She considered it, then nodded. “That sounds like a compliment to me.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” I promised her. “I’ll be complimenting you all weekend. Maybe by the end you’ll be willing to talk to me about the app.”

I’d brought up the app no less than 10 times since I’d first heard about it. She refused to tell me what it was. The way her cheeks flushed bright with color, however, whenever the subject arose, told me that she was embarrassed by it. Or maybe she was worried about how I would react.

That only served to fire up my curiosity even more.

My goal wasn’t to wheedle her until she told me. It was to make her trust me to the point where she wanted to tell me. It might take longer that way, but it would be all the more worthwhile when it happened.

“Let go of the app,” she ordered.

I paused in the bathroom doorway and grinned at her. “You didn’t think up Angry Birds or something, did you?”

“If I’d thought up Angry Birds, I would be able to retire now, instead of in 10 years.”

I considered it. “Good point. Pack up, baby.” I winked at her. “We have 30 minutes until we have to be at the restaurant. Where are we going again tonight?”

“It’s called The Cotton Exchange Tavern. It’s a bit of a hike, so we need to give ourselves 15 minutes to walk there.”

“Okay, then get moving.” I gave her one more look before I disappeared into the bathroom. “You don’t have to waste time with pajamas. You won’t be needing them.”

She paused to give me a dark look when I peeked out of the bathroom to gauge her response, but there was a pleased pink tone to her cheeks. “Thanks for the tip.”

“No problem. I’m always here for you, babe.”