Page 37 of The Chances We Take

“Reid, dude, are you going to answer that?” My phone was still vibrating in my hand, and Jake was nudging me. Probably because he noticed my phone was going off and I was staring off into space.

“Oh… Yeah, yeah.” I knew Isa was fine, but what if there was something wrong? I couldn’t just ignore her. “I’ll be right back.” I gestured to the front door.

Colter and Jake nodded back, and I headed outside where it was quieter so I could actually hear her on the phone. I answered the call, and her face filled the screen.

“LAWSY, I’VE MISSED YOU!” she practically yelled. Isanevercalled me Lawsy. It was always either my name orCowboy.

“You’re definitely drunk.” I chuckled. “I’m glad you’re all having fun, though.”

She ignored me and flipped the camera so it was panning over the rest of the girls. They all seemed to be inebriated, even Caitlin, and I’d rarely seen that side of her in the years I’d known Colter. They all waved to me and then, instead of flipping the camera back, Isa turned over her phone so her back camera was facing down toward her. She couldn’t see my face right then, and I was glad for it. It was hard to disguise my amusement—and attraction to her. Her hair was falling in front of her eyes, but she was making no effort to brush the strandsaway. She was still bubbly and fun as her personality had always been, but this version of her seemed even more carefree.

I needed to get off the phone, or off the street. Back home.Somewhere private.I was already sporting a semi that was slowly starting to turn into a full hard-on.

“Isa,” I said, but she obviously couldn’t hear me, considering she was still holding her phone up like it was 2002 and phones didn’t have front cameras.

She started dancing to the music—some modern pop song I didn’t know about a girl who can’t think or talk straight when she’s with the guy she likes—and was swaying her hips in this intoxicating way. I was willing myself to look away, but my eyes were glued to my phone screen.

“ISA!” I raised my voice.

Finally, the camera flipped and she was looking at me. She was a little bit too close to her screen, the image of her looking like it had a fish-eye effect, but this way I could make out every freckle on her nose.

I wanted to memorize them, draw lines between them with my finger like constellations in the night sky. That’s kind of what Isa was to me. A constellation. Because, even if she was out of my reach, I was still going to admire her from afar. Every single time.

“What?” She pulled the camera back, her sweet voice pulling me out of my thoughts.

“I need to go.”

Disappointment flashed across her face, but it was gone in an instant as she replied, “Okay.”

“Have fun, be—” I started to say, but the FaceTime call ended before I could finish. “Safe.”

I sighed and went back inside to catch back up with theboys, trying to think of the most un-sexy things possible to get my boner to go away.

Cow shit.

The bathroom in Mikey’s trailer. Mikey’s trailer in general.

This isn’t going to work.

For the time being, I adjusted myself as best I could to not give anything away. I’d also come to the conclusion that I was going to have to take care of my issue later when I was alone in my house.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

reid

Looked like you had fun at the bachelorette party.” I walked side by side with Isa, helping her carry her bags into Colter and Ellison’s house.

They had all just gotten back from their extended weekend over in Glacier. Ellison had already ran off with Colter somewhere, so it was just me and Isa at the house. I hadn’t gotten any more drunk texts from her, or drunk FaceTimes, for that matter. Part of me was glad, but another part of me hoped it wasn’t because she was calling someone else.

“I had a little too much fun at the bar, I think.” She snorted, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as I opened the front door for her.

“Is that so?” I teased. I knew exactly how much fun she had. I had the text messages to prove it.

“Let’s just say, I’m never drinking that much tequila ever again. It’s a good thing we only went out one time. I just hope I didn’t do anything incriminating.” She blushed.

Does that mean she doesn’t remember the texts she sent me?

“Erin took my phone halfway through the night.Probably a good thing.” She laughed in a sort of self-deprecating way. “I’m not sure what she did with it, but I checked this morning and there weren’t any new text messages. Thank goodness. That would have been embarrassing.”

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