Page 22 of The Plus Ones
Those ice blue eyes are fixed on mine in something between a glare and a dare, and I cannot look away.
I take a step back when she opens the door. Fucking hell, she looks good. Even in a puffy coat and winter boots. I haven’t seen her since the Christmas party and that weird argument or whatever it was in my car afterwards. “Your hair’s different” is what I say before I can think of something a little less lame.
She brushes a few loose strands out of her face and says, “Yeah. This is your dog?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure?”
“Would you like to see the adoption papers?”
“I think he’s the one who needs to see them. What’s his name?”
“Jackpot.”
“Hey, Jackpot.” She bends down, and all of a sudden, Jackpot’s tail is wagging and he turns around to jump up on her legs. “Hey, boy. You’re so cute. Look how cute you are! Look at you in your little coat and your little boots. We match! We match, don’t we?” Jackpot barks once in agreement, and then Roxy stands up and gets in my face. “I don’t want to go with you.”
“But you want to go to the resort, I mean—have you seen how gorgeous it is?”
“Aimee sent me a link to the website. Of course it’s gorgeous. I’m sure I’ll go there someday.”
“You want to go with Chase and Aimee and Matt and Bernadette.”
“Yes, I do. I just don’t want to go with you.”
“We’ll both be asleep for most of the time we’re alone together.”
“I doubt that. They’re all going to want to spend time alone together as couples. That’s kind of the point.”
“Not only. If that were the point, they would have all taken separate vacations.”
She purses her lips and looks down at Jackpot, who’s still staring up at her and wagging his tail. She’s got nothing to say to that because she knows I’m right.
“Aimee really wants you to go. I’m sure Bernie does too.”
She looks off into the distance, at nothing in particular, just not at me.
“I’m paying Vince for the cottage, and I will cover all of your travel expenses.”
“I have money. I don’t need you to pay for my plane ticket.”
“I know you don’tneedme to pay for your plane ticket, Roxy. I’m offering to buy your plane ticket. There are no strings attached to the offer. I won’t expect anything from you, other than your usual charming and delightful company. No one will think any less of you because you accepted a man’s offer to pay for your travel expenses.”
She fans her face. “Oh my God, I think I just swooned.”
“Just go. Come on. I’m begging you. I appreciate that you have your principles and you know what you want and what you don’t want. But there is no ideal situation that I can create for you right now that will make you happy. However, I know for a fact that both of us will feel better about literally everything if you just go.”
She blinks twice, and those words have the exact same effect on her as they did on Jackpot. “Isn’t there some other girl you can pay to pretend to be your girlfriend or something?”
“Honestly, I don’t think it would be right to go with anyone other than you. None of us like the idea of you being here alone while we’re all out of town.”
She scoffs at that. “I won’t be alone.”
I sigh.Here it is:“Consider this my way of making amends. I don’t like the idea of you being mad at me for not calling you after Chase and Aimee’s wedding.”
She narrows her eyes at me, and her fists go straight to those hips that are really fucking sexy, even though they’re completely hidden by a padded winter coat. “I thought I wasn’t allowed to be mad at you for that.”
“To be clear, this does not mean that I believe you have a valid reason for being mad at me for this long. But whatever else I may be, I am a gentleman, and a gentleman always calls after…that kind of thing. No matter what. It was wrong of me not to. And I am apologizing for that now.”
