Page 38 of Off Camera
“I think you’re going to need something more heavy duty than that.” I nudge him out of the way with my hip. “I’ll handle this.”
“Are you sure? Your shirt looks really nice.”
“I could take it off if you’re so worried about me staining it,” I tease, and he fiddles with his glasses.
“You, uh, could if you wanted to. But then you might get burnt, and I’ll feel like an asshole. You could also borrow one of mine.”
“As tempted as I am to add to the collection of your shirts I have in my possession, I’ll be fine.” I turn the burner down to low and wipe up the sauce splattered across the cooktop. “How long until everything is ready?”
“Fifteen minutes. Do you want something to drink? I have wine and beer. I also have some whiskey.”
“How about a tour first? I ask. “Can I see your place?”
“Sure.” Reid motions to the space to the left of the kitchen, a large living room with floor-to-ceiling windows and two leather couches. There are plants everywhere, a dozen varieties arranged in a position where they’ll get lots of sunlight.
“Wow. It looks like a greenhouse in here.”
“I’ve always liked plants more than people. These ones are easy to take care of when I’m away for work.”
I walk to the large shelf on the far end of the wall. There are hundreds of books stacked up, everything from nonfiction to thrillers to?—
“Romance?” I ask. “You read romance books?”
“Yeah. Maverick wanted to start a book club with some of the guys on his team, and Dallas and I joined too.”
“And all these men—men who can bench press my body weight and play hockey for sixty grueling minutes—sit around and talk aboutromance novels?”
“Once a month. We try to keep it structured, but most of the time, it turns into a huge debate. There’s a lot of yelling. We had to get rid of alcohol because there was almost a fistfight over whether the girl should choose the hero or the villain. Someone ended up with a black eye, and Dallas—who tends to be the most level headed of the bunch—busted his lip.”
“Oh my god.” I stare at him, flabbergasted. “What the hell are you all debating?”
“Everything. What weapon we would use if we were in the story. Which friend in the group is going to be next in the series. Ranking the sexual positions mentioned on a scale from one to ten. Asking ourselves if we’d want a masked man to chase us through the woods.” He clears his throat. “We all signed NDAs.”
“Wow.” I run my finger down the spines. They’re the same books I have on my nightstand, marked up and annotated with some of my favorite quotes and scenes. “I’m impressed. I’m used to people telling me romance books are stupid and I should read something with real substance.”
“That’s fucked up, isn’t it?” Reid says, frowning. “I hate that we live in a world where people like to shit on the things that make other people happy. It’s like with my comic books and LEGO collection. Some of the looks I get in the checkout line are so irritating. I’m not hurting anyone. Let me buy them in peace.”
“You like to put together LEGO sets?” I ask.
He points to the section of the shelf covered in glass doors. “I’ve been doing them since I was a kid. It’s another thing I got into instead of sports. Helps turn my brain off when it feels like there’s too much going on up there. It’s also a nice break from staring at my phone for hours on end.”
“Which one is your favorite?” I look at the skyscrapers and battleships with tiny flags, wondering how much time Reid spent crafting each structure. “I like this medieval castle.”
“That one is cool, isn’t it? I put it together last year. Took me about six hours on a rainy afternoon.”
“Are those actual dragons in the courtyard?”
He laughs. “Yeah. Maverick added them. Said it made it lookcool as shit. He’s not wrong.”
“These are all so neat, Reid.”
“Thanks,” he says sheepishly. “There’s a Millennium Falcon set I really want, but it’s hard to track down. They always sell out seconds after they go live.”
“That’s fromStar Trek, right?” I ask, and his eye twitches. “Kidding. I know it’sStar Wars.”
“You scared me there for a second. Okay, enough nerd shit. I want you to stick around for the rest of the night, and showing you my comic book collection will send you packing.”
“I thought they’d be out here. Where are you hiding them? I want to see.”
