Page 58 of Crazy for You

Emma sat on the floor beside the coffee table and dumped out the contents of the Cards Against Humanity box. “Has everyone played?”

“Nope.” Ryan sat beside her.

Gabby looked from him to Emma, and she might as well have had those cartoon hearts in her eyes. Ryan stiffened. He didn’t mind that she knew, that everyone in the damn room knew he and Emma were hooking up, but okay…sometimes it was a little weird.

“I’ve played,” Trent said, putting his cell phone down for the first time all evening. “It’s pretty cool.”

“That’s high praise coming from you,” Emma said with a giggle. She ran through a quick overview of the rules as she passed out cards.

Ethan grumbled as he turned off the video game and came to join them at the coffee table.

“You’ll have fun,” Gabby told him. “It’s not a board game, and you’re welcome to get as raunchy as you like.”

He grinned. “Well, in that case…”

They played a few rounds—and the game indeed got raunchy. By the time Gabby won the third hand by playing her “An erection that lasts longer than 4 hours” card on Ethan’s “A romantic candlelit dinner would be incomplete without ________,” Trent was redder than a tomato, and Emma had tears rolling down her cheeks she was laughing so hard.

There was a knock at the door, and Mark came in, looking sheepish.

“He knew better than to risk pissing you off,” Ethan said with a laugh, pointing at Gabby.

She smiled smugly. “Get some food and a beer, Mark, and then I’ll take you on in King of the Desert.”

Mark’s eyebrows went up.

“Fair warning,” Ethan said. “She wrote the damn game.”

“No shit?” Mark was actually smiling now.

“Yep,” Gabby said. “Go on. I’ll get it loaded up.”

Emma scooted closer to Ryan. “This is fun.”

“Yeah.” He turned and looked at her, and the happy expression on her face made his chest feel all weird, like his ribs had just gotten too tight.

“I have news,” she said, leaning in and dropping her voice.

“Yeah?”

“I met with the Town Planning Committee this morning, and they approved my new design for the memorial.” She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth but couldn’t quite hide the grin creeping over her face.

“That’s fantastic.” Before he’d even realized what he was doing, he had pulled her in and kissed her, right in front of the whole damn room.

“Aww, look at the lovebirds,” Ethan announced, in case anyone had missed it.

All eyes turned to Ryan and Emma. Her cheeks turned pink, but she was still smiling.

“Yo, watch yourself.” Ryan pointed his beer in his buddy’s direction.

Ethan kept on laughing.

Ryan polished off his beer. It ought to make him fucking nuts to know that everyone in the room knew he was sleeping with Emma. Hell, it had only been a week and a half since he first had her in his bed. The whole thing was fucking insane.

But it wasn’t. Because she was still Emma, and she was chatting happily with Trent while she boxed up Cards Against Humanity, and somehow this crazy group had become his family.

And he must be the luckiest son of a bitch in the world. No matter what, he had to make sure he didn’t fuck it up when he and Emma went back to being just friends. He couldn’t lose her—couldn’t lose anyone in this room—but especially not Emma.

“Rowdy’s after work tonight,” Ethan said, popping his head into Ryan’s office.

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