Page 70 of The Love Trick

Four hours later, I’m sitting at a table on the rooftop that overlooks the city skyline. I check my watch, seeing that she’s nearly twenty minutes late. This is so abnormal for her.

Is she not gonna show?

I swallow the hurt that follows the thought of that possibility. Would she actually do that? Ghost me?

I run my hand along the top of the table and then grab my water, downing the entire glass.

“Can I get you another one?” the bartender comes out of nowhere, a gaudy smile on his face. “Would you like to order a drink?”

I shake my head. “No, just water.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back.” He saunters off, probably relieved not to be dealing with a whole boatload of people tonight.

I drum my fingers on the tabletop. And when I finally see the door to the bar open, I catch my breath as Addy steps through. Her silvery blonde hair is freshly styled in perfect waves. She’s wearing a tight black jumpsuit, showing off every curve she’s got. It dips low in the front, giving me an eyeful of parts of her I’ve only imagined in my head.

And I’m speechless as she heads toward me, her hips swaying slightly as she struts in her high heels. I suddenly feel severely underdressed in my dark jeans and Converse.

“You look nice,” I choke out the words as I catch the scent of her perfume. My mind flashes back to the memory of her body beneath mine on the beach, my hand on her hip. I’d do anything to go back to that moment.

“You rented the whole bar, I see,” she says.“How come?”

I try to maintain eye contact instead of dropping my gaze to her perfectly kissable shade of red lips. “I thought it would make it easier for us to talk if we were alone.”

“Yeah, so why not just go to your house?” She bats thick lashes at me, and my heart skips ten beats all in a row—which I think might give me a heart attack.

“Um, I don’t know,” I say, finally looking away from her. I can tell she’s got her guard up, and I hate the way it feels. It’s something that up until this point, I’ve never been on the receiving end of from her. “I just wanted to give you a proper apology.”

She narrows her eyes. “Okay … I’m listening.”

I rake my fingers through my hair. “Well, first off, I’m sorry forbreaking upwith you in front of your mom. I probably could’ve done that a little smoother.”

“It doesn’t matter. I told her the truth,” she says, shrugging. “She was disappointed, but she’s fine. Just another one of my antics, I guess.”

“You told her the truth about it all being fake?”

“And then some.”

Oh, wow.

“That must’ve been difficult…”

And her momdefinitelyhates me now.

“It is what it is.” Addy folds her arms across her chest as the bartender sets down two waters. “But you were the one who wanted to talk, so let’s talk.”

“Why are you being so weird?” I stupidly blurt out.

“I don’t know. Maybe because youkissedme?Twice!What am I supposed to do with that? Why the heck did you kiss me that night at the wedding?”

“Because Iwantedto. I don’t have some great, groundbreaking answer. I…”

She snorts. “That’s not very friendly.”

I can’t help but cringe. She’s right. And I can’t even come up with a decent explanation for it. But I have to try. She deserves that, at the least. “I know I broke the rules. I got caught up in the moment and—”

“Okay, but what about the second time, Blaze? Why did you kiss meagain?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because youdaredme to kiss you. And I just …wantedto. But I never meant to cause all this.”

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