Page 70 of Wedding Bet

“Wait a minute. Yougarden?”

“Yeah,” Landry said, matter-of-factly. “I didn’t tell you that?”

Oh God.

Abort mission.

You’re falling for him even harder with every little new thing you learn about him.

“You definitely did not tell me that,” I said, feeling myself slip further under his spell.

“Carla’s my assistant, by the way. She’s a superhero. But yes, Jamie, never feel bad about looking at my phone. Mi casa es su casa, and all that.”

I let that thought swirl around in my head as I set his phone back down.

“Is that what we’re doing, by the way?” I finally asked.

“What do you mean?”

“What you said earlier. Um. Dating,” I forced myself to say.

For a moment, it was as if last night had never happened.

I felt just as small as I had the first time I’d met him. I knew he had the power to make the bond between us evaporate in just one sentence, and I chewed at the inside of my cheek, expecting him to do just that.

He pulled in a breath, sitting up in bed. His tanned skin looked practically golden with a halo of sunlight behind it, and he looked at me calmly, considering.

“When you get back to California,” he said, his voice low. “I’m going to spend some time at my house there, too. I want to drive down to Stellara Beach and take you on a real date.”

I was flooded with pure, lightning-hot relief, which was quickly followed up by a new form of panic.

“In Stellara Beach?” I asked. “Why not Los Angeles? I can take a drive up there on my day off, and,yeah, the gas is going to be expensive, but I can put in another few extra hours at the restaurant to manage it—”

“I want to come to you,” Landry said, his gaze placid. He reached out and ran his thumb along the side of my face and down to my jaw, looking at me like I was something worth looking at. “I want to see your wholelife, Jamie. You’ve seen some of my coworkers, the work I do, a good few slices of the ridiculous life I lead. I want to know so much more about your world.”

My heart lurched inside me. “It’s nothing special, I promise you.”

“I think I’ll feel very differently.”

The thought of Landry seeing my work, my car, or God forbid my living situation turned my stomach into knots. I didn’t want to think about it. Certainly not right now.

“I wish we could just stay here forever,” I said, my voice coming out barely louder than a whisper. “It’s never going to get better than this, right?”

“I think it’sonlygoing to get better than this,” he said.

I hoped he was right.

I’d been afraid that our turning-into-pumpkins time was barreling at us fast, and now I felt it more than ever, knowing that I really did have to get back to my room, pack up, and leave the idyllic world of the ski resort.

The snowglobe was disappearing.Oursnowglobe.

18

LANDRY

I reclined on the soft leather seat, taking a sip of a fresh apple and ginger juice that I’d just ordered. I’d never loved plane rides, but I’d gotten pretty used to them over the years, after having to travel for business frequently enough to have platinum status rewards points with the airline.

But I’d never hated a flight more than this one.

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