Page 2 of Leave Before I Love You
“I mean,” he says slowly, his hard jaw and stupid plump lips flexing with tried patience. Ihatethat now that my eyes have adjusted, I’m able to see just howfine as hellhe’s looking at the moment. “You can’t jump with that thing,” he blathers on. “You’ll fucking kill yourself. I have an extra waterproof waist pouch that fits below your buddy harness you can use. Whatever you can fit, you can take, but nothing more.”
He reaches over to the table behind him and hands me a small pouch with a high-tech-looking strap and buckle system. It’s no bigger than a Lululemon crossbody bag and in no way big enough for all the stuff I have in my suitcase. Not even close.
“You can’t be freaking serious.” I glare at him. “We’re staying for three days! How the hell am I supposed to fit what I need in a…a…a fanny pack!”
“What do you need other than a bathing suit and somedeodorant?” he questions like a total idiot. “Everything else in the house is supposed to be pre-stocked, and we’re only going for a couple of days.”
“Listen, Henry, until you grow a vagina and have to deal with all the complexities that come with one, don’t ask me things likewhat could you possibly need, okay?”
Good-natured as usual, Henry smiles at my mocking of his voice rather than getting offended, and I flip him the bird as a rebuttal. I don’t need him being all sexy and cute and smoldery while I’m trying to have a tantrum.
Hand to my hip, I direct a raised eyebrow at him. “So, what am I supposed to do now?”
Henry shrugs. “Well, you could take the suitcase with you…”
“Yeah?” I ask, hopeful.
“But then we’d basically have to chuck it out of the plane ahead of us, and who knows where it’ll land or if it’ll be in one piece whenand ifwe find it.”
I groan and stomp my foot. “You’re really fucking irritating me right now.”
“I know.” He nods.And smiles.The hot bastard. “But look at it this way…at least you’ll have three days of relaxation to get over your aversion to me.”
“Are you kidding?” I scoff. “Three days of you and two of the three stooges, and I’m going to be ready to jump out of a plane without a parachute.”
“The three stooges?”
“Beau, Mav, and Ronnie. Two out of three is still too many.”
Henry’s eyebrows draw together. “Ron and Mav aren’t coming either. They’re both uproariously hungover from last night’s New Year’s Eve bash at that new club Ransom and hugging the porcelain throne. It’s just you and me.”
“What?” I shriek. “Everyonebacked out? Why the hell are we still going, then?”
Henry barely reacts. His obscenely attractive face remainsinfuriatingly calm, his ocean-blue eyes steady as he says, “We already paid for the house.” His tone is a little too condescending for my liking, even if his jawline is cut from stone. “Nonrefundable. Maybeyoucare fuck all about money, but I’d like to at least enjoy what I paid for.”
“Icareabout money,” I snap.
Henry laughs. “Right.”
“I do!”
“You’re right. You do care about money—you care about making sure Neil gives it to you so you can spend it on expensive shit.”
“I’ll have you know, when I turn thirty, Daddy plans to cut down my allowance. He just told me a couple days ago.”
Henry grins, all wolfish amusement. “Ohhh nooo,” he mocks. “So, you have three years left of bullshit spending. Though, if you were smart, you’d start saving instead of blowing it all, so by the time hecuts you off,you’d have a nice little nest egg.”
I huff.God, he’s annoying.Not because he’s wrong—he’s actually alarmingly right—but because I refuse to admit it. So, I choose to ignore him completely and bend down to unzip my suitcase and try to figure out what I can transfer into the ridiculously small fanny pack.
But my mind starts to spiral.
Just me and Henry freaking Callahan for three whole days?
That sounds crazy—and dangerous in ways I’m not sure I’m comfortable with. My whole body pulses with a mix of repressed arousal and adrenaline. Suddenly, I’m not feeling so well. And technically, this is moneyalreadyspent, so it wouldn’t change anything if I didn’t go on this trip…
“I don’t think I should go,” I blurt, grasping for a way out. “Look at us. We’re already fighting. Three days alone? We’ll end up on some true crime podcast.”
Henry shrugs, completely unbothered. “Suit yourself.”
