Page 55 of One More Time
Note to self, lose Dave Grohl’s number.
‘Okay,’ Nicky said matter-of-factly.
Lucy sputtered, ‘Really?’
‘Sure. I’m going to call him.’ Nicky pulled his phone from his pocket. ‘Right now, as a matter of fact,’ he said, calling Lucy’s bluff.
‘That’s okay,’ Lucy said, smiling. ‘I don’t mind. He needs to know.’ Her grin widened. ‘That I love him.’
Nicky scrolled through his contacts. Actually clicked on Grohl’s contact page. ‘Was that two times that you love him?’
‘Three,’ Chloe piped up cheekily. ‘Minimum.’
‘Thank you, Chloe,’ Nicky replied.
Moving with ridiculous speed, Lucy snatched the phone from Nicky’s hand and shoved it between her ass and the chair.
‘You are probably committing an actual butt-dial right now.’ Nicky laughed.
‘Since it’s your phone, I don’t feel bad about it,’ Lucy teased.
‘It’s cute how you think I won’t just dive in there and get it,’ Nicky said, raising an eyebrow for effect.
‘Try me, Broome.’ Lucy chuckled.
The sound of someone loudly clearing their throat pulled Nicky’s focus back to the table. It was Kim, covering her mouth with a napkin, but obviously trying to get their attention.
Then Nicky realized that the entire table was ogling them, their eyes bouncing between Nicky and Lucy like they were a couple of zoo animals copulating in front of an observation window. Devin, especially, gave him the feeling of being examined and considered like a specimen behind glass.
Nicky and Lucy both silently went back to work on their food, Lucy’s ass still warming his phone.
Sam tried to cover the awkwardness by blurting, ‘“The Breathing Room” was the first dance at our wedding.’
Nicky’s heart traveled directly to his throat, making it next to impossible to swallow the bite of eggs he was chewing. He coughed. Tried to breathe.
His head whipped toward Lucy, whose blue eyes had shuttered, even as her fork moved around her plate.
‘It was,’ James said dreamily, looking at his husband.
Nicky let go of the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. It wasSam and James’s first dance. Not Sam and Lucy’s.
Fuck.
Nicky didn’t have time to ponder why the idea of Lucy dancing to ‘The Breathing Room’ at her wedding to some other guy had made his chest feel too tight.
‘That’s great,’ Nicky said, struggling to get the food down past the lump in his throat. ‘I’ve heard it’s a popular song for that. Weddings.’
‘What’s your first dance going to be, Chloe?’ Kim asked.
‘“Grow Old With Me,”’ Chloe replied. ‘No offense, Nick.’
‘None taken,’ he said. ‘John Lennon?’
‘Tom Odell,’ she said.
‘Solid choice.’
The rest of the meal passed with Nicky feeling increasingly sick to his stomach, a condition he did not attribute to the excellent food.
