Page 31 of Best Man
“A project? What kind of project?”
“A project to study bomb athlete dick, maybe?”
“Oooh! It’s like the Manhattan Project! But instead of splitting atoms, she’s getting split by an athlete.”
Piper shrieked. “AUSTEN!”
“Oh my God, you guys!” Paulina laughed harder. “I didn’t invite him over for anything scandalous, okay? If I did, I wouldn’t be telling you.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Yup.”
“Sure, sure.”
The girls didn’t believe her. To be fair, she wasn’t really sureshebelieved it, either.
“Go on, then—tell us! What’d you invite him over for?” Piper demanded to know.
“Well, I can’t say yet, because it’s a wedding surprise! But trust me, it’s a hundred percent innocent. And Ipromiseyou’ll find out what it is tomorrow.”
“If the surprise is that you two are boning—” Piper began to joke, and already the girls exploded into laughter. “—then please do me a favor and keep it a secret untilaftermy wedding, okay?”
Paulina laughed right along with them. “Get real! That’s not the surprise!”
“Well, whatever. Like I said earlier, I’m done worrying about things I can’t control,” Piper said. “You’re both adults. So whatever you two decide to do is up to you.”
“Thanks for your permission,” Paulina said as she grabbed her pajamas and made her way to the bathroom. “But we’re not going todoanything but work on our project.”
Maybe,she thought—though she might not stop him if he wanted to do something else instead …
11
Paulina
Paulina was pleased she’d come clean about her project with Niko—it meant she didn’t have to try to sneak him over after everyone else had gone to bed. Which turned out to be a good thing, because the party was still going strong when she said her goodbyes around midnight.
Piper walked her to the door. The dreaded storm had arrived, and it was still going strong. Big bolts flashed through the night sky and lit the outdoors up as if it were daytime.
“Be safe out there, okay?” Piper said as she handed Paulina an umbrella.
“I will.”
Paulina ran through the rain and headed back to her yurt to change. The silk pajamas were cute for the slumber party and all, but it wasn’t exactly what she wanted Niko to see her in.
Not that it should matter, she thought,since we’ll be making sky lanterns all night and all.
Who was she trying to convince? She didn’t know. Regardless, she scrounged through her wardrobe for some clothes comfy enough to lounge in, that also maybe showed a tiny bit of skin. She dabbed a little rose oil onto her neckjustin case he ended up close enough to smell it.
Once she was ready, she took all her supplies over to the barn. She set up shop at one of the dinner tables for tomorrow and got right to work—because the sooner they finished, the sooner they could call it a night and go to sleep.
Or, y’know, stay up even later.
Not much later, she heard the roar of Jax’s truck pull up next to the barn. Under the relentless barrage of rain and booming thunder cracks, she hadn’t heard Niko coming down the drive at all.
Guess I could’ve sneaked him in here after all,she thought with a touch of disappointment.Oh well.
She stood in the open barn door, waved, and watched him park. Niko killed the engine, hopped out and slammed the door shut. He didn’t have an umbrella, though, and so he had to sprint through the downpour.
