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“While that sounds fabulous, Liam, I really had my heart set on taking a ride on the wheel.”
“I promise I can give you something better to ride on.”
A laugh bubbles out of her throat, and I fucking love the ease of being with her. My heart squeezes tight in my chest. Jesus, I have never loved anyone the way I love her. “Maybe later,” she says.
“Promise.”
Her smile is sweet and demure. “I promise.”
She takes a right instead of a left, and I give her thigh a squeeze. “You’re going the wrong way.”
“Right, I just remembered Gavin left his favorite video game at Nina and Cole’s. Since we’re close, do you mind if we stop in and grab it?”
My God, she is so bad at this, but I truly love her more for trying. “Don’t mind at all.” I sit back and keep the grin from my face.
“Do they know we’re coming?”
“Ah no. You don’t think they’ll mind if we just pop by, do you?”
I reach for my phone. “I can text Cole. Let him know we’re close.”
She nods. “Oh, that’s a great idea.”
I fire off a text to Cole, and tap my fingers against the dashboard, and sing along—albeit horribly, but at least Harper seems entertained—to the music. She drives to Cole’s place, and the lights are off and there are no cars in the driveway. Either they aren’t home or they’re going all out to surprise me.
“Did you hear back from him?” Harper asks, like she’s worried he’s not home.
I glance at my phone. “It says they had to go out, but they left the game on the patio table out back, under the pergola.”
“Good thing you texted and caught them just before they left.”
I nod as she pulls into the driveway and kills the ignition. I feel like a prick. Deep inside, I love my teammates, my friends, but this kind of big party is so not what I want. Sure, in the past I could drink and pull it off, but I don’t want that now. I want to snuggle up somewhere quiet with Harper. But if Nina and everyone wants to have a party for me, I’m going to be grateful and honestly, it doesn’t seem so bad with Harper at my side.
“Why don’t you wait here?” I say, just playing with her. “I’ll run out back and grab the game, and then we get straight to the wheel.”
“Oh, okay,” she says and frowns and I feel a tinge of guilt for making her think hard about this.
“Actually, you’d better come. There’s probably a lot of toys laying around and I don’t want to grab the wrong thing.”
Her face lights up and she jumps from the car, and I meet her at the hood. I slide my hand into hers, and glance around the quiet neighborhood. Of course, we’re in a high-class area, and the houses are spread apart here, just like they are where I live. I have to say, though, I don’t mind the area where Harper lives either and if that’s where she wants to make home when we…
Okay, dude, don’t get ahead of yourself.
She smiles up at me and glances around, her brow furrowed. Is she wondering where all the cars are and that maybe she messed up the date? With the sun low on the horizon, we follow the path to the backyard, and just as I suspected, when we get there, everyone jumps out and screams surprise. I put my hand on my chest. No way am I ruining this for Harper. I pretend they all scared the shit out of me.
I turn to find Harper grinning from ear to ear. “Surprise,” she says. Unable to help myself, I lean down and press my lips to hers.
“You were behind this?”
“Not really,” she says, her lashes blinking as she glances around, dictating that she just might know how much I hate this. “Were you surprised?”
“Very,” I tell her. I make a point of not lying but I’m not going to burst her balloon here. I kiss her again, and someone screams “Get a room!” and I whisper in her ear, “Not a bad idea.”
She chuckles. “First, you enjoy your party.” I lift my head and glance around, but her hand on my arm has me turning back to her. “Liam.”
“Yeah?”
“Are you okay with this?”
