Page 8 of I Need You Tonight
They hadn’t left me much choice.
Nicole slid me a quick glance, and I had to look away before the sadness in her eyes gutted me. “That’s too bad. I don’t know what I would’ve done without my brother.”
I expected her to explain, but she returned her attention to the movie and sipped her wine.
“Oh, I love this part,” she said a short time later as Bruce Willis crawled under a conference room table to get away from a bad guy who was walking on top of it, machine gun in hand.
The man arrived at the end of the table and aimed the gun at where he assumed Bruce was located. “Next time you have a chance to kill someone, don’t hesitate.”
Before the bad guy could fire a round of bullets into the table, Bruce shot up through the wood, killing the man, and then thanked him for the advice.
Nicole laughed. “That’s what I love about this movie. Everyone is trying to kill Bruce Willis and he can still be funny.”
I had to admit that was one of the reasons I loved it too. The explosions and the feds looking like a bunch of dumbasses didn’t hurt either.
We finally got to the part where Bruce was in the bathroom, talking on the walkie-talkie to Al the cop, who was outside the building with the FBI and police. Bruce’s feet had been cut beyond belief and he had a bad feeling things weren’t going to end well. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to a punk like me,” he said in obvious pain—pain from the wound and pain from suspecting he would never see his wife again. It reminded me how my family had seen me as nothing more than a dumbass punk who had done nothing but screw up. But unlike with Bruce’s wife, I couldn’t see them ever forgiving me. The worst Bruce had done was put his career before hers.
Nicole hung on his every word, and I could see clearly in her eyes what she was thinking as Bruce told Al what he wanted him to tell Bruce’s wife when everything was over. Nicole thought it was super romantic how he admitted that he should’ve been more supportive of her career. I could almost hear her sigh. But it wasn’t until the end of the movie that she teared up. It was the scene where Bruce was meeting Al for the first time.
She brushed the tears from her face and gave a small chuckle. “You probably think I’m lame for crying.”
“No, not lame at all,” I said, voice low. Tears glistened on her eyelashes and in her eyes, but humor was also there, challenging me to say something.
And that wasn’t the only thing there. Lust and need flirted at the edges. My gaze dropped to her lips, and a sudden urge to kiss her took over.
I shook it off and practically leapt off the couch. “Well, I should be getting back to L.A.”
“I have a spare room. You’re welcome to stay there tonight. It’s nothing much, but it will save you from having to drive all that way in the dark.” She looked so earnest—and completely uninterested in me in the way that my body was interested in her.
“Are you sure?”
She pushed herself off the couch. “Of course. And you know if Zack was here, he would insist on it too.”
That was probably true, but for different reasons.
Nicole led me upstairs to a small room that didn’t look much different from the rest of the house when it came to the era it had originated in—except this room had obviously belonged to a teenage girl. The carpet was Pepto-Bismol pink, with matching floral wallpaper on one wall. Strips of paper had been torn away—the work of Zack, no doubt. Like me, there was no way he would’ve fit on the couch downstairs. Which meant he had stayed in this room.
Going insane.
“It’s very…um…,” I started to say.
“Pink?” Nicole laughed. “Yep, that’s the exact same face Zack makes every time he stays here. I’m almost considering leaving it as is, just because he loves it so much.”
“I’m sure he’d appreciate that.” Like he would appreciate a lobotomy…without anesthesia.
Nicole laughed harder. “Anyway, the bathroom is across the hallway. If you need anything, just let me know.”
Before I could thank her, she was out the door—leaving me to wonder how I’d gone from a wedding with no possibility of getting laid to spending the night in Pepto-Bismol land.
