Page 68 of Never Really Over

“Am I on a football team now or something?”

“May as well be. You’re heading into battle, right?”

I breathe out a laugh and shake my head. “You’ve been around Dalton too long.”

Bridget wrinkles her nose. “You might be right. Now, I must say that while I don’t disapprove of your choice of outfit, it’s definitely not va-va-voom enough.”

I point around us and notice Colt coming back outside with a fresh face and cleaned up Poppy, this time in clothes. “It’s a one year old’s birthday party. What did you expect me to wear? A mini skirt and tube top?”

“Of course not!” she scoffs. “That would be awful under any circumstance. But you could have at least worn something more,” she gestures to my chest, “boobish.”

I’d just taken a drink of the seltzer that Corey handed me when I showed up and it almost ended up getting spewed all over Bridget. “Boobish?” I ask, giggling and wiping my mouth.

She presses her own boobs together and wiggles a bit. “Yeah. Boobish. Show ‘em off, girl. You’ve got a good set there.”

“Okay. That does it. No more Dalton time for you.”

She grins. “Though, those cut-off shorts are fucking fabulous.”

I look down at my shorts that I paired with a simple white v-neck t-shirt and a pair of teal flip-flops. The shirt is fitted, but not so much that my boobs are pushing out of the top. “Thanks. I actually agree with you about the shorts. I might have worn them on purpose. He used to love it when I wore cut-offs.”

“Thatta girl! I knew you had it in you!”

Dalton saunters over, kissing Bridget on the cheek. “What are you two going on about?”

I take another drink for a bit of liquid courage and point to his fiancée. “She wants me to change into something more boobish.”

He nods. “Wouldn’t have hurt, but Colt’s already staring at your legs so no need to worry there.”

Heat rushes to my cheeks. “He is not.”

“Would I lie about that?”

Actually, no. No, he would not. Dalton might be a lot of things, or was, anyway, but a liar isn’t one of them. It’s one of the changes I’ve seen in him over the past few years, and especially since getting together with Bridget. He’s a straight shooter and tells it like it is. He also cares enough about me that he wouldn’t have encouraged me to come tonight if he thought it would explode in my face.

“Okay, I suppose I should go mingle.” I finish off my drink and hand the empty can to Dalton.

Bridget fixes my hair quickly and I bat her hand away with a scowl as I walk toward Colt. I turn around to see Bridget and Dalton with their arms around each other looking like proud parents. Dalton wipes away a fake tear. At least, I think it’s fake. With him, one can never be certain.

Before getting to Colt, I grab another drink. I haven’t eaten much today so I also fix myself a plate of food, knowing that today is definitely not the day for Drunk Layla to make an appearance. I’m not quite ready to sit and talk to Colt, so I decide to chat with the girls, taking a seat in an empty lawn chair.

Missy shoots me a sweet smile and reaches over, rubs my back a few times, then continues in on the conversation they’re all having.

“I don’t care what any of you say, that commercial is downright scandalous. I swear they’re actually having sex on camera,” Tori says.

“They are not! That can’t be a thing. Right?” Missy questions.

“Which commercial are we talking about?”

“The one for the body wash where the guy comes out of the steamy shower and the woman practically attacks him. She’s leaned over the sink, putting on makeup and takes one look at him and it’s on. He presses against her from behind and…”

“Oh, they weren’t having sex but it’s meant to suggest they are for sure. I worked on the campaign. Not the actual commercial, but I helped lay it out.”

The women gape at me. And a second later, I’m being peppered with questions. All the way from if I touched the guy’s abs to if they did it after the cameras stopped rolling.

“No to the abs and I’m guessing yes to the sex. They’ve been seen together on social media since and they either are better actors than we thought and their chemistry is just off the charts, or they couldn’t resist. I don’t think they were that great of actors so I’m thinking they’re together now.”

“I can’t believe you worked on that campaign! I bought Drew that damn body wash after I watched it.”

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