Page 69 of Wedding Bet

I woke up the next morning still feeling surreal. I slowly woke to reality with a warm weight behind my back and a cloud of cozy sheets above me. I took a deep breath in and smelled Landry’s scent all around me, woodsy and lightly spiced and like a small slice of heaven.

He was still asleep. I turned over gently in the bed, trying not to wake him as I opened my eyes and shifted so that I could see him. I watched his span of golden skin in the low morning light, the gentle dips and curves of his bare abdominal muscles.

It was strange that this was nothing like my everyday life, and yet it felt so much morerightthan everything I’d been doing for years. I wished I could freeze us here, to stay in this moment in this bed for as long as I wanted.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Landry’s phone let out a series of soft noises, intermittently, like he was getting text messages rather than having an alarm go off.

Soon after, I heard Landry murmur and hum, and I knew he was waking up.

“Mmh,” he hummed, reaching his arms out for me in bed and tugging me closer toward his warmth. “You. I like you.”

A fizzle of excitement ran through me. A little more stolen time.

“I like you too, you know.”

A small smile appeared on his face as he slowly opened his eyes. “We should do what we did last night again. And again. And again…”

I puffed out a laugh. “I don’t think we’d ever stop, if we could be trapped in this hotel room together forever. I mean, what more do we need? We have a kitchen, a beautiful view, a bed, and each other.”

He bit his bottom lip gently, and it sent me right back to last night, desire rippling through me. He moved his head onto my pillow and kissed me, softly and gently, then kissed the top of my head, breathing deep.

Beep beep beep.

“Do you think you should get that?” I asked.

Landry groaned. “No.”

“Really, though.”

“Yes. I should, even though I don’t want to,” he grumbled. “Can you get it for me? It’s on the other nightstand.”

I reached over and grabbed his phone to hand to him, but he didn’t take it from me, instead just reaching up to rub at his eyes.

“Passcode is 682614,” he said. “You look at what it is. I don’t want to.”

I lifted my eyebrows as I tapped in the code on his phone. “Whoa. Trusting me to open up your phone, huh?”

He shifted on the bed, propping himself up on one elbow. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“I’ve had guys in the past yank their phones away from me if I even dared pick them up,” I said.

“Jesus,” Landry said. “No wonder you didn’t feel ready to date. I won’t do that to you.”

I noticed how he was saying it as if there would be plenty of future moments like this between us, and more hope smoldered in my chest.

“It’s mostly texts from someone named Carla,” I said. “She says that the paperwork will be at your house when you get back from the wedding tonight, that your flight is set for 1pm. And… she says that Sprinkle was in the yard again last night?”

Landry puffed out a low chuckle. “Good ol’ Sprinkle.”

“Dare I ask what the hell that means?”

“Sprinkle is the stray cat that runs through my yard sometimes. He especially likes to fuck with my tulip garden. I spent so long trying to get them perfectly spaced out.”

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