Page 60 of Away Game

“You surprise me sometimes.” I could hear the smile in his voice, which made me happy. Even though I could be an asshole, West deserved to have someone, even if that person was me, treat him nice.

“Good, I like keeping you on your toes. Plus, I wanted to go somewhere nicer than what Willow Bay has to offer.” Our town was limited to only bar food and barbecue, and there was only so much I could eat of it before I got tired of it.

25

Fin

“I thoughtyou’d pick someplace within driving distance for us to go to, not that we’d fly,” Fin squeezed his eyes closed as our plane took off.

“Well, I thought this weekend deserved something special, and there wasn’t any place nice around us except LA, and while I like LA, it’s nothing new.”

Placing his hand over mine, West leaned in so only I could hear him. “Fin, you don’t need to spend money on me or take me on fancy trips. I’m happy holing up in one of our rooms and spending time together.”

“Me too, but I wanted this to be special so let me try.”

“This is my first time on a plane,” he confessed.

“Well, I’m glad I was with you for your first time. Are you nervous?” I asked, even though I knew he was. I just couldn’t determine how nervous he was.

“Not now that we’re in the air and we didn’t crash immediately after taking off. Ask me when we’re landing.” Despite his words, West still sounded anxious.

Reaching over, I gave his hand a squeeze. “You can always hold my hand if it makes you feel better.”

“I might take you up on it.” West flashed me an uneasy smile with his eyes trained on the window.

“Did you want the window seat? I’ll trade you if you want.”

His eyes came back to me and then to the window again. “No,” he drew the word out. “I’m okay where I am.”

“Let me know if you change your mind.” I checked the time on my watch. “It looks like we’ll be able to make our dinner reservation.”

“Is dinner a surprise as well?”

I felt like I had to give him something, and I hadn’t planned of keeping everything a huge surprise, but damn, was it fun. “It’s called Waterfront restaurant.”

“Going by the name, I’m guessing it’s by the waterfront.”

Smiling, I tapped my nose. “You guessed it. I haven’t been, but I’ve seen it a couple of times when I was there, and it looked nice.”

“I’ll take your word on it since I’ve never been to San Francisco.”

My eyes widened. “Really?”

West shrugged, his eyes trained on the seat in front of him. “It’s an expensive city.”

Before then, I hadn’t thought about how much the weekend would cost, but now I was starting to get nervous West might balk at the hotel and restaurant when he saw them. At least I could hide the price of the hotel, but there was no way to get a menu without prices.

After a few moments of silence, he asked. “Are you nervous?”

“No, why?” West’s gaze drifted down toward the seat in front of me. When I looked, I was shocked to see my leg bouncing. Pressing the heel of my foot into the floor, I tried to keep my leg from moving.

“What’s that about?” He placed his hand on my knee with a grin.

“Not what you’re thinking. It’s about the whole weekend in general,” I admitted. Lying now would be futile.

“There’s no reason to be nervous. It’s just you and me. I don’t expect anything but your time.”

I flashed him a smile and hoped he wouldn’t get upset later.

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