Page 51 of Now or Never

She had just zoomed way, way too far in to the shot and leaned forward to the screen to count his abs when she heard a throat clearing.

She looked up and saw Adam’s smiling face just on the other side of the porch.

“Hey, whatcha doin’?”

Chelsea had a mild panic attack, sat back, and started closing tabs. She looked over her shoulder, wondering whether he’d have been able to see his abs on her screen when he came around the corner of the house. It was hard to tell.

“Uh, I’m just editing some videos.”

Adam stepped forward and leaned against the railing with a smirk. “What videos?”

He knew.

“Ben’s biking video when he crashed into you. And Float Fest.”

Adam laughed. “Can I see?”

She hesitated but didn’t want to seem even more suspicious, so she casually said, “Sure,” and patted the seat beside her.

“I’m pretty dirty,” he said, climbing the stairs. “Is that okay?”

She looked him up and down. His worn jeans, dirty work boots, thin white tee.

Fuck yes.

There wasn’t a single thing about him that wasn’t okay.

“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s just outdoor furniture.”

Adam sat down beside her, taking up all the space, and then some. He was much closer than they’d been on his deck when they had armrests between them. His jeans pressed up against her bare thigh, warming her skin. She tried to ignore the sensation by slipping off her headphones and passing them to him. But when she saw how dirty his hands were, she twisted around and put them on his head herself.

Once the headphones were on, she made the mistake of looking down at his eyes. He was watching her. His smile was long gone, and his warm green eyes were moving all over her face. They finally settled on her eyes before he blinked.

“Uh,” she said, breaking eye contact with a hard blink and turning back to her laptop. “I’m still working on the Float Fest one, but you can watch the biking one.”

She twisted the laptop in her lap toward him as he leaned in closer to her, then she opened the video and hit Play.

The video was only a minute and a half, but it had turned out great. She had a brief interview with Ben at the beginning before he started, then GoPro footage of him falling repeatedly. She put it in slow motion just before Adam came into the frame and added the theme fromJawsbefore the crash.

Adam was smiling while watching, then burst into laughter when the foreboding music started. He was still laughing when it was done but started shaking his head.

“There’s no way I swore that much,” he said.

Chelsea laughed. “I guess you’re not very self-aware, then.”

“You added extra beeps,” he said, gently elbowing her ribs.

Chelsea couldn’t stop laughing. “Maybe a few. For effect.”

His laughter settled into a handsome smile. “Can I see what you have so far with the Float Fest one?”

“Sure.”

She closed the biking video, opened the Float Fest one, and clicked Play. It was only forty seconds long and ended on the guys standing on the edge of the boat, Adam looking back at her with a smile right after he’d said no.

“Can I have a copy when you’re finished with it?” he asked.

Chelsea shrugged. “Sure. What’s your email?” she asked, typing what he told her into her notes file.

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