Page 60 of Make Me Want it Too

“You don’t have to go tonight, you know.” Wood stands behind me, looking at me in the mirror, buttoning his shirt.

I’m trying to put some product in my hair to make my curls less frizzy. They’re supposed to be shiny and bouncy. Why aren’t they shiny and bouncy?

“Of course I’m going to go. She’s my best friend and I’m the maid of honor. I can’t not go.”

“It’s okay to look after yourself instead of everyone else sometimes. Bex loves you. She’d understand. Especially after this morning.”

“Well, I’m going, so we don’t need to keep talking about it.”

Wood sighs. “Okay. These take thirty minutes to an hour to take effect, so you’d better take it now.” He takes a little white and yellow tube out of his pocket and hands it to me.

“You got me Dramamine?”

He shrugs. “It’s nothing.”

I’ve used the anti-motion sickness medicine before, but with the craziness of the weeks leading up to this trip, I hadn’t even thought about getting some to bring with me.

I hold the little tube in my hand, my eyes starting to sting and my chest tightening.

“Why are you so good to me?” I ask, willing the tears to recede. “I’m a mess. I’ve been no fun.”

Wood tilts his head, furrowing his brow. “I know you haven’t been yourself. Give it time. I didn’t come to have fun, I came to help and support you.”

He means it. And it hits me that he’s really the only person I have right now. Bex and Livvy are caught up in their new relationships. I don’t have any family nearby. I don’t have a boyfriend. The only reason I even have a place to live right now is because of Wood.

I finish getting ready, my hands shaking the whole time. My stomach is a ball of nerves. I’m afraid I’m going to throw up the Dramamine. I have no doubt Wood would rush in and hold my hair back if I did. The idea mortifies me at the same time it brings a little smile to my lips.

It’s like my whole life I’ve been walking a tightrope with no net. Keep my balance or fall to my death. That sounds dramatic, but when you live most of your life knowing you have a condition that will absolutely kill you if mismanaged, the metaphor is spot on.

And for the first time, someone’s thrown me a safety net. If I stumble, Wood is here, and I know in my gut he will catch me. Maybe instead of being out here on the rope alone, it’s more like a trapeze. He reaches out for me, and I leap with complete faith and trust.

In actuality, I take his hand as we head for the door.

“You look beautiful, Mace. The most beautiful fake girlfriend anyone could have.”

My nerves have morphed into full-on acrobats tumbling cartwheels in my stomach. I am an entire circus. But I’m going to say it anyway.

“Yes.”

He quirks an eyebrow as he opens the door for me. “Yes? Yes to what?”

I squeeze his hand. “Yes to your proposition from earlier.”

CHAPTER 12

WOOD

Istop in my tracks. “You mean my offer to make you come?”

She flushes immediately, looking around the empty hall. “Um… I mean, if you want to.”

“I do.”

Her eyes widen. The cutest little deer caught in headlights I’ve ever seen. “You do?”

“Yeah.” I take a step closer. “And let’s not pretend it was my proposition when you’re the one who brought it up first.”

She puffs up her chest. “I did not.”

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