Page 115 of Shy Girls Can't Date Celebrities
He cuts me off, pulling me into his arms with a tight embrace. “I’m sorry. I sh-shouldn’t have left you.”
“You were excited,” I mumble into his shoulder. “It’s so good to see you so alive.”
“But you’re scared.”
“I have you.” I pull my arms around him, pressing my fingers into his back. “As long as I get to be with you, everything will be okay.”
He strokes my hair and kisses the top of my head. “You’re ev-everything to me, Josie. I promise to get you to safety before ever doing that again.”
“It’s okay,” I whisper. “It wasn’t planned. I get it.”
He pulls his arms away and tilts his head to view my face. “We should’ve gone out the back. You were sh-shaken up when it was just t-two girls in a store. I’m a dang idiot.”
I caress his face. “Don’t do that to yourself. You were excited. I didn’t want to take that away from you.” I suck in a breath. “Your memory. Did anything come back to you?”
He shakes his head. “Nope. It all felt new. But...” He bites his lip as he thinks on it. “It felt normal, if that makes sense. Like, comfortable. Like, I’d done it before. Does that make sense?”
I lift onto my tippy toes and squeal in delight. “That’s amazing. So, in a way, something did come back to you.”
He grins. “I guess.”
I lean in and kiss him. “This makes it all worth it.”
His eyebrow raises. “Allworth it? I think we could do without any Josie panic attacks. Don’t you?”
I bite the inside of my cheek, lowering onto my heels like a limp balloon. “Yeah, I agree.”
“Let me make this up to you.” He smooths his hands against the sides of my face. “You’re looking fab, so why don’t we turn this into a real date and find a nice restaurant?”
“I could go for something to eat. Why don’t we check out the restaurants back to the hotel?” I suggest. “Randall said they had some of the best food.”
Wyatt winces. “The hotel? I don’t want to risk running into Erika and the other suits. This is supposed to be our day away from them, remember?”
I sigh. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“We’ll just get a nice, quiet table in a cozy corner,” he says, hooking an arm around my shoulders. “What do you say? We’ll find somewhere romantic.”
I shiver in delight. “Romantic?”
“Sure,” he beams. “I want to spoil you, and this is our first time out as an official couple.”
“Well, okay. If we find somewhere not too overcrowded, it sounds good to me.”
He wiggles his eyebrows. “Just good?”
I giggle and peck his cheek. “It sounds stupendous.”
He laughs. “Now that’s a top tier word.”
“Sir,” one of the security guards pipes up. “If you want to dine somewhere your fans won’t bother you, there’s an Italian restaurant up the block you and the Circle 8 crew like.”
“How do you know the fans won’t be there?” Wyatt asks.
The security guard smirks. “They’re priced out.”
I wince. “Can we afford it?”
“Like I said,” the security guard replies, “the Circle 8 crew are regulars. All the bills go straight on the account.”
