Page 26 of Just My Type
I shrug, my brain racing, trying to find the right thing to say that won’t freak her the fuck out but will show her how much I care about her, how serious I am about helping her. How serious I’m realizing I am abouther. “I listen when you talk to me. I hear the things you say and also the things you don’t. I know there’s a lot you don’t share—some of it because you like to keep things close, but some of it because I think, for a long time, someone made you feel like the things you had to say weren’t important.” I stroke a hand down Hannah’s ponytail, the golden-brown strands gleaming in the summer sun as I give her a few secondsto absorb my words. “But Gorgeous, I’m here to tell you that everything you have to say is important to me, and I promise that when you want to talk, I’ll always listen.”
Hannah stares at me for a full minute. When I was a kid, I always wanted to have the power to fly like Superman, but right now, I would give a limb for the power to read minds, to know exactly what’s going on inside Hannah’s brain.
“Okay,” is all she says.
“Okay, what?” I ask, studying her face, looking for clues.
“Okay, let’s go in there and be readers.”
I feel the grin spread over my face. “You gonna let me buy you some books, Han?”
Her answering smile makes me feel like I could jump thirty feet. Scale an entire building. Lift a car. Like nothing in the world would ever be wrong again if only she aimed that smile at me every damn day.
“I mean, it’s a bookstore, isn’t it? It would be practically sacrilegious to leave without buying anything.”
I nod, pasting a serious expression on my face. “I’ve always been a religious man.”
Hannah laughs, and I can’t resist smacking a dramatic kiss to her cheek, my chest warming at the way her laughter kicks up a notch. The way she rests a light hand on my waist. The way I feel her warming up to this little game of ours that feels less like a game at all and more real than anything I’ve ever experienced in my life. To keep my brain from going too far in a direction it really shouldn’t right now, I turn to walk us towards the store.
“Noah?” Hannah speaks up just as I start pulling open the bookstore door, one hand on the small of her back to guide her into the store in front of me.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
“Anything for you, Gorgeous.”
She flashes me that perfect smile one more time, and together we make our way into the store.
CHAPTER NINE
HANNAH
“God, I just freaking love it here!” Jo exclaims, sliding in next to me on the long, velvet covered bench in the roped off VIP section of the Vegas club we’re gathered at while shimmying her shoulders to the beat of the music. The low, square table is covered in glasses and the remains of the appetizers we’ve been picking at for the last hour, laser lights shooting overhead through the darkened room, and below us, the dance floor teems with people moving to the thumping bass.
On the list of ways I like to spend my time, a loud club on the Vegas strip wouldn’t even make the top one hundred. I low key hate everything about this. But I would do anything for my sisters, and all Jo wanted before she got married was all of us together on a whirlwind Vegas weekend. The sheer delight on her face makes this worth it, even though I’ll need copious alcohol to survive it and a week to recover from it.
“Jordan really knows how to do Vegas right,” Amelia says, taking the last sip of her margarita and grinning at us from the opposite bench. “Vegas VIP style fucking rocks.”
“Only the best for my girl.” Jordan walks up to the table with a drink in each hand and slides in next to Jo. He hands one drink to me and sets the other down on the table, turning to Jo and tipping her chin up, kissing her in a way far more suited to a dark room behind a closed door than a crowded Vegas nightclub.
“Hydrate, Mystery Girl.” Elliot takes the seat next to Amelia and kisses her before handing her a bottle of water.
She shakes her head and reaches for the margarita in his other hand, scowling when he pulls it away and puts the bottle of water in her hand instead. “You’re doing that bossy thing again, El. I don’t need the water.”
He grins at her and kisses her again. “You like it when I’m bossy. Drink the water, then you can have the marg. You’ll thank me later.”
“Will I though?” she snarks.
Elliot’s eyes go molten. He slides an arm around Amelia’s waist and tugs her closer, leaning in and whispering something in her ear that has her face flushing red and her teeth sinking into her lower lip. When he’s done, she turns to him and takes the bottle, uncapping it and drinking deeply, her eyes never leaving his.
Elliot smirks at her. “That’s what I thought.”
“Jesus fuck, you guys,” Jo says, fanning herself. “I need a cold shower after that. Why are you, like, the hottest couple on earth?”
Jordan lets out an honest to god growl and leans down, kissing Jo’s neck. “Hurricane, no couple on earth is hotter than us.”
“No.” Everyone turns to me when I speak for the first time. “I love you all more than life, but while I’m fifth wheeling this little gathering, we are not doing the who is hotter than who thing. You’re all hot. I mean, god, just look at you. But let’s be, like, ten percent less hot until I’m not the only single girl at the dance.”
