Page 42 of The Best Worst Mistake
I refuse to step back.
It’s a standoff, him against me, but his eyes are the first to betray him, glimmering at the edges just as his lips start to twitch, like he’s actually enjoying this.
God, he’s infuriating.
“I’m not taking no for an answer. You didn’t come all this way to chicken out now.”
“I didn’t even know this was happening until we got here so it’s not like I came all the way here to—”
“And?” he interrupts. “You’re here now.”
I lick my top lip before biting it.
If Grant were here, he probably wouldn’t fight me on this. He’d probably say, “If you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to.” Then something in me would unravel. Deflate. Regret would fill me, and I’d insist that I’d do it anyway against my better judgment, because I don’t want to disappoint myself any more than him. I always craved for him to fight me on things a little bit more. To push me when I needed it. Especially things like this. Sometimes I need a push to get out of my own hard-headed way, but Grant never pushed me the way Silas is pushing me now.
His eyes dance in front of mine, egging me on, and I know he’s not going to back down. I won’t be getting out of this. My heart picks up speed and my stomach drops.
No one has had the guts to push me past my boundaries in, well, a very long time, and against any type of logic, I like it.
Even worse, something in me kind of loves it.
A big, substantial part of mewantsto be pushed.
“Okay,” I relent, shaking my head in disbelief that I’m actually going to give into this and to him.
Instead of stepping back, he grabs my shoulders and plants his face right in front of mine as one more shit-eating grin comes out to play.
Then he palms my cheek in his hand and for one hair-raising moment we stand there just like that. A silent agreement playing out between us.
Thisis happening.
He holds his index finger up in front of my face, now chuckling.
“Jules: Zero. Silas: One.”
Then he turns and pumps his fist over his head all the way back to the door of the plane.
My jaw opens.
I scoff and roll my eyes at the back of his head.
“Real classy,” I mutter.
Insufferable.
I can see how Silas managed to pull a very shy Grant out of his shell years ago. The man is relentless when he wants to be.
He points the finger at me while I shuffle toward the plane. “And you’re jumping out of the plane first before me so I can make sure you don’t chicken out at the last second.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then you owe me dinner.”
I scoff again.
“That hardly seems like a loss,” I tell him. “I’ll gladly buy you dinner instead of jumping out first.”
“Alright then, I’ll up the punishment. If you don’t jump first, you’ll owe me dinneranda dance at some point before we’re back home.”
