Page 10 of Doing It for Love

There weren’t many empty seats and they were organized in kind of a group fashion, chairs randomly around the room, and it looked like people would just grab one and drag it to their friends. My eyes swiveled around at my classmates, who all seemed to have people to talk to. No loners out there, and really, there aren’t many shy people in theater, so I took a deep breath, found an open seat in a pretty large group, and marched over.

“Hey, I’m Liz,” I announced when I got there. They all were polite, waving and saying “hey” back, so I let go of my nerves and went to sit. But my butt hit nothing but air, and a yelp flew past my lips while my stomach shot up to my throat. I landed with such a loud thud that everyone in the room looked over while my face went instant flush. My hand fell on someone’s foot, and I glanced up at ratty jeans, a graphic tee, and a wide-open jaw, to gray eyes and baseball cap. His mouth looked stuck open, until he finally said something.

“I. Am. So. Sorry.” He let go of the chair in his hand and reached down to help me off my ass. “I didn’t know…I thought that chair was free.”

The laughter around us died a bit as people went back to their conversations. My tailbone throbbed, but I managed to semi-smile and say, “It’s okay.”

His face looked as red as mine felt, and he scratched the back of his hat. “Uh, here, it’s all yours,” he said, handing the chair back. Not wanting to make things even more awkward, I took it and joined the large group, who let me know that I’d fit right in because I knew how to make an entrance.

I spent the whole class trying not to look over at gray-eyed hat guy, but my eyes wouldn’t stop flicking in his direction. He totally had the Luke Bryan thing going for him, and he was always looking at me when I looked at him, then we’d both shoot our gaze somewhere else. To this day, I have no clue what we learned in that first class.

After the teacher dismissed us, I made sure not to trip over my heels as I made my way to the parking lot. But someone tapped my arm right outside the quad, and he fell in step with me.

“Would you like an opportunity to embarrass me? So we’re even.”

His voice was gruff and cool-like, and a burst of laughter flew from my mouth.

“You worked on that line for the last hour and a half, didn’t you?”

“Did it work?”

I smiled. “Maybe.”

He moved in front of me, walking backward. “I’m a terrible singer. We could go to a karaoke bar.”

“Hmmm…no good. I’m eighteen and no fake ID.”

“All right.” He smiled, and I can still feel the leap my stomach took when he didn’t care about how young I was. “Something else, then.”

I stopped walking, tucking my hair behind my ear and clutching whatever book I had in my hand to my chest. “How about bowling?”

“Ah, see, that wouldn’t work,” he said with a tilt of his head. “The point is to embarrassme. Not embarrass you twice, Tumbles.”

“Think you’re that good, huh?”

“I know I am.”

“Then embarrassing you will be more fun than I thought.”

His grin did me in, and I felt like a melted pool of butterflies on the sidewalk when he asked, “You free tomorrow night?”

And because I had lost control over my tongue I said, “I’m free right now.”

The second he called me “Tumbles,” he had me. He didn’t know it, but I sure as hell did.

I blink to the present, let out a content sigh, and click onBOOK NOW. Then I almost drop half our savings on theSAVE THE DATE, but I better make sure Landon’s okay with me swiping the card.

The bedroom door opens down the hall, and I get a wave of Landon’s cologne before he pops into the room. He pours two mugs of coffee, dumping four spoonfuls of sugar in mine and five in his, then sets the steaming hot deliciousness into my hands.

“Already planning?” he asks, gesturing to the screen. I blow across my mug and nod.

“Do you think five months is long enough?”

His brow crinkles. “Long enough to what?”

“Plan a wedding.”

He lowers his mug, a smile on the edge of his lips. “You want to get married in five months.”

---