Page 36 of Best Man
But her?
Wow.
She was a babe. A hardworking babe, too—her toned arms, shapely legs, and golden tan were proof of that.
“Let’s find you a towel,” she said.
Her walk held him captive. All he could do was stare in awe at her long, smooth legs. Her perfect ass wiggled as she strutted away.
This is going to be a very long night,he thought, whimpering silently to himself.
***
But the truth was, time passed a lot quicker than Niko expected. With Paulina’s cool music keeping them in a productive groove, they worked into the early morning hours, chatting and churning out one sky lantern after another.
The boys liked to tease Niko about how weird he was, but he didn’t mind; in fact, he wore the badge with pride and enjoyed playing into the stereotype. It was like playing a character: he was Niko, the crazy Russian, and he’d often say crazy things designed to get a rise out of the boys. But the thing he was quickly learning about Paulina was that he could say or ask heranything,no matter how off-the-wall or silly, and she’d give him a thoughtful answer. It made their bantersomuch fun.
“On your farm, have you ever found—ugh, what is the word?” he asked, trying to jog his memory. “What’s it called when aliens land in the middle of your farm?”
“Crop circles?”
“Yes! Crop circles! Have you found crop circles on your farm?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Okay, who told you?”
“Told me what?”
“Was it Piper? Or Jax?”
“About crop circles?” he asked. “I saw them on the History Channel. You knowAncient Aliens? My favorite show.”
“Hm.” She stared deep into his eyes, probing for some deeper truth. “So Piperreallydidn’t tell you anything?”
“No! Tell me what?” he asked, and now he had to know. “Wait a minute. Did aliens land on your farm?!”
“No …” She trailed off with a skeptical chuckle. “But, when I was thirteen, I witnessed what I can only describe as a UFO flying through the sky.”
“No way!” Niko said in a fit of excitement. “Tell me, what did it look like?”
“It was shaped like a triangle. The point of each triangle faintly glowed. And it looked to be flying extremely low, because of how big it was in the sky, but the eerie part was that it didn’t make any sound whatsoever.Dead silent. Just zipped right over my head in a flash. If I hadn’t been looking up, I would’ve missed it.”
“Wow,” Niko murmured. “You saw a real UFO.”
“Well, remember, UFO stands for unidentified flying object. So, yes, it was a UFO by definition—because it was unidentified, tome, anyway. But was it piloted by aliens? I don’t know. I doubt it, frankly. I’d guess it wasprobably some kind of military aircraft that they haven’t told us about, actually.”
“Boring,” he grumbled. “Why not aliens?”
She giggled. “Because! How can I say it was aliens when I can’t prove it?”
“It wasdefinitelyaliens,” he said with certainty.
“You don’t know that,” she sang, and he liked her singing voice—it was pretty. “Remember, I only believe what I can see for myself.”
“Man. You’re lucky,” he groused. “I’d love to see a real UFO.”
“Lucky?!Youtry telling people you saw a UFO. No one ever believes me—not Piper, Mom or Dad, or anyone else I’ve told. And I’ve never, not once, claimed it was aliens. People just refuse to believe me when I describe what I saw.Clearly,I was mistaken.Clearly,I saw a regular jetliner or something, and mistook it for something else.” She rolled her eyes. “Y’know, I really hate that.”
“Hate what?”
