Page 26 of Sure, Pal

I grinned at her. “I’m proud of you, Sienna.”

She laughed and said, “Thank you. I mean, it’s not anything mind-blowing, but it’s fun to sing for an audience, even if it’s only ten people.” Then she shook her head. “Of course, Ava’s the one that actually got famous. Little miss ‘I show people how to put on fake eyelashes and make $500k a year doing it.’ Of course, it would be Ava that got famous.”

I laughed and shook my head. I’d seen some of Ava’s make-up tutorial videos, as well as her massive crowd of followers. “You’ll be bigger than her. You do real shit, Sienna, and that means more to people.”

“I don’t want to be bigger than her. I just want…” Sienna looked down at her hands. She scoffed and said, “Ava always gets everything she wants.” Her eyes flashed up to meet mine, and I desperately wanted to know what she was thinking.

“Well, what do you want that Ava has?” I asked.

Sienna smiled and shook her head. “Nothing anymore.” She blew the hair out of her eyes. I always thought that was adorable back in high school. It turned out it was still adorable four years later.

“Let me buy you a drink, Sienna.” I smiled at her and let my eyes travel over every curve and angle of her beautiful face.

Sienna bit her pretty little lip and nodded. “Okay, Evan.”

“I’m assuming you don’t really like the cheap piss beer we drank in high school. What do you drink now?”

“Jack and Coke.”

“I’ll be right back. Don’t move.” I rested my hand on her shoulder for a moment before I walked up to the bar. Electricity crackled through me when I felt her skin. Since when were shoulders so fucking sexy?

When I returned with our drinks, Sienna gave me a bright smile. “Okay, dude, are we getting drunk and talking all night, or is this a mature, quick chat over one or two drinks?”

I grinned and slid my chair closer to Sienna. “The first one. Definitely the first one.” I wanted to hear every tiny detail about Sienna’s life. I wanted to hear about college, her parents, her music, her fucking dog if she had one. Just the sound of her voice had me smiling more than I had in weeks. “Tell me everything that’s happened to you in the last four years.”

Sienna laughed out loud. “Everything?”

“Everything.”

“Okay, so I went to college here, at UCC, dated a few losers, and got a boring-ass job as an executive assistant for an educational software company.” Sienna shrugged and took a sip of her drink. “Oh, and I started playing covers at bars like two months ago.”

I shook my head and scooted my chair even closer to her. “You left out way too many details. Try again.”

Sienna laughed and shook her head. “My life is pretty sad and boring, Evan.”

My eyes traveled up and down her body. “Okay, you can leave out the details about all the guys you dated, but nothing about you has ever been boring.”

Sienna’s eyes flashed up to meet mine, and I held her gaze. Fuck. I wanted her. I rested my hand on her arm and heard her breath catch. Was I flirting too much? Did she want me, too?

Several rounds later, Sienna was laughing and practically sitting in my lap. She told me about her mom’s new art studio in New Mexico and how neither of her parents had shown up for her college graduation. She told me about the very first time she played in front of people and her painfully slow build of confidence. She didn’t have a dog, but she wanted one — a chocolate lab.

I was mesmerized by her lips while she spoke. I adored the way her eyes sparkled and crinkled at the corners when she laughed. Fuck, she was beautiful.

The more I drank, the harder it became to resist touching her. Before I knew it, I was lacing my fingers through hers and playing with her hair. She was leaning into me and touching my chest. There was some serious fire building between us.

At the end of the night, I almost kissed her while we waited for her Uber driver to show up. She was pressing her body into mine and gazing up at me with her gorgeous eyes, her lips slightly parted.

But I resisted. I wanted to be sober the first time I kissed Sienna Black. I wanted to remember every tiny detail.

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