Page 37 of The Love Trick

“I don’t want to go on a date,” Addy muses. “I think I’d rather go back to our room, order pizza, and watch a movie.”

“You want me to invite him?”

She rolls her eyes. “No. Just invite yourself. I like our movie nights to just be the two of us. No need to have him crash the party.”

“Threeisa crowd,” I reason, smiling. “But isn’t four a party? I think that’s how it goes. I don’t know.”

Addy laughs. “Why are you so weird sometimes?”

I shrug, tipping my head back and looking at her. “I have no idea, but in my defense, I think I learned half my weirdness from you.”

“Ah, yes,” Addy hums, standing to her feet. “I suppose that makes a lot of sense. I do have a tendency to rub off on people.” She extends her hand to me, and I take it, letting her work to pull me up and off the sand. “You know, we really should try to enjoy tonight. Tomorrow we’ll both be busy.”

I freeze as I stand to my feet, instantly concerned by the tone in her voice. “What do you mean by that? Do we have another one of those dinner parties?”

She gives me a wicked, ornery grin. “No, it’s much,muchworse.”

“What is it?”

Addy laughs. “Robert wants you to go to his bachelor party while I’m with Aurora for her bachelorette.”

I huff.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Chapter Fourteen

Addy

Ireadjustmylittleblack dress at the shoulders—its one-strap design and cut-outs at my midriff have me feeling a little self-conscious. The style is totally out of my wheelhouse, but… it’s the beach.

And I want to look stunning.

I double-check my red lips, smokey eyes, and blonde waves before finally calling it good. High heels definitely would’ve paired better with this outfit over the strappy sandals I’m wearing, but high heels and sand? Yeah, that sounds like a good way for me to break something.

Stepping out of the bathroom, I glance around.

Where’s Blaze?

“I’m leaving,” I call out, a strange sense of disappointment thrumming in my chest. He’s yet to see this dress on my body, and for some reason…

Ireallywant him to.

As I linger in the main part of the hotel room, I finally catch sight of him standing out on the balcony and talking on the phone. I check the time on my smartwatch. I don’t like being late, and even though my family seems to disagree, I’m actually punctual.

Blaze’s back is to me as I approach the door, sliding it open to the fresh ocean breeze. He doesn’t hear me as he laughs about something on the phone. I swallow hard, half-tempted to eavesdrop, but seriously. I’ve got to go.

“Hey.” I tap him on the shoulder, and he spins around, meeting my gaze—and then rakes his eyes over my body.

My face starts to grow hot, and I realize this might be the first time he’severlooked at me like that.

“I’ll call you back in just a second, Kade.” Blaze pulls his phone from his ear and hangs up before shoving it into his pocket. “You look… Um… You lookgreat. This outfit is very fitting for the bachelorette thing.”

I blink a couple of times. “Thanks. That’s what I was going for, I guess.” I furrow my brow as I run my red nails over my dress, suddenly feeling like this outfit didn’t have the impact I was hoping for.I lookgreat?I was hoping to hear something more like beautiful or stunning or anything but … great.

I shake my head and internally scold myself.What else is he supposed to say?I can’t be weird about this. Why am I being weird about this?

We’rejustfriends.

---