Page 51 of The Puckable Playbook

“They’ll set off a siren when they do,” I tell her.

“Huh?” She points to her ear when the music picks up.

I lean into her. “They’ll set off a siren when they do.”

Her eyes light up, but then the waitress comes over to drop off our drinks. Adam immediately starts flirting and has the girl blushing as I give her my card.

“I got it,” Clark says.

I hold up a hand. “No biggie. You can get the next round.”

He sits back in his seat looking even more pissy than when we showed up. Len turns toward me and drunk-whispers, “I don’t think he’s having a good time.”

I lean over and say into her ear, “Maybe because he has a giant stick up his ass.”

“Huh?”

I smile. “Maybe it’s not his scene.”

“He won’t dance.”

Well, fuck that. I’ll dance with her. As if on cue, the siren sounds. I sit back and wait for Clark to ask her, but when he doesn’t move, I speak up. “Come on, fancy reporter. You have to get the full experience.”

“Yeah?” She turns toward Clark. “Do you mind?”

“What?”

“I’m going to dance with Zaiah, unless you want to?”

I swallow. “Come on, we’re going to miss it.”

Without giving him a chance to answer, I step around Adam and hold out my hand. She fits hers in mine, and I pull her to a spot on the floor as the bubbles start to drop.

She looks up, the bubbles falling all around us, the strobe lighting them up like a kaleidoscope. Holding her hands out, she turns them toward the ceiling.

For fuck’s sake… She’s beautiful. How could I have looked past her before?

I’m the biggest walking cliché in the world.

“You ready?” I ask her.

“Hmm?”

I step in close, wrapping my arms around her. “Let’s dance, Lenore.”

My hips take over, moving to the hard beats of Taylor Swift’s “Are You Ready For It?”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Len

I might be tipsy—andI am—but Zaiah dances like a dancing queen. No, that’s not right. Like Channing Tatum inMagic Mike. Or maybe a mix between the two. Whatever, I mean, Zaiah’s hips should definitely not be pressed this close to mine, but I can’t push him away.

It feels too good.

Like we’re in sync.

Like it’s only the two of us as a rainbow of bubbles cascade from the ceiling. The bubbles hit my arms and pop, making me giggle.

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