Page 33 of Suddenly Dating
Harry didn’t say anything. She looked at him in the darkness of the truck cab, trying to read his expression. “For what it’s worth, I did try to get a cab,” she added. “But get this—they don’t operate after midnight in this stupid little village.”
“Good to know,” he said.
“And I would have called my friend Mallory, who was supposed to be there by the way, but she lives with her parents. I didn’t want to be the girl calling the house at two in the morning, you know?”
Harry slanted a look at her that felt withering even in the darkness. “So you calledmeat two in the morning.”
Lola winced. “Okay, I know, I know. I didn’t want to be that girl with you atall,” she said, slashing her hand through the air for emphasis. “But by then I’d made it to Juneberry Road, and I thought, it can’t be that far, right? I’m sorry, Harry. I amsosorry. I swear it won’t happen again. Scout’s honor,” she said, holding up three fingers.
“I don’t think you’re allowed to throw the Scout’s honor sign if you’re not a Scout,” he pointed out. “Are you a Scout?”
“Then I’m swearing it on the grave of someone important. You can choose the important person.”
He smiled and propped his wrist on the steering wheel. “It’s okay this time, roomie,” he said congenially, and patted her knee. “Just please don’t make a habit of it.” The dazzling smile he flashed her after a dismal night made Lola feel a little woozy. See,thatwas how you lured a girl into one of the back bedrooms at a party. There should have been a sign hanging somewhere in that party house—Don’t be gropey, be sexy! Be so sexy that the girl sitting next to you is forced to look out the passenger window or risk drooling all over your shoulder!
Lola looked out the window.
“Sounds like your night really sucked,” Harry said sympathetically.
Lola snorted. “You have no idea.”
“I guess the only bright spot was hanging out with Amy Schumer.”
Lola shot him a dark look; Harry laughed. “Sorry,” he said, holding up a hand. “I couldn’t help it.”
They reached the lake house a few minutes later. Harry parked, opened the door, and got out.
Lola grabbed her shoes and purse and inched her way across the driver’s seat, but Harry was still standing in the open door. “You know how to ride piggyback?”
“Excuse me?”
He pointed to the ground. “It’s gravel from here to the door. Unless you want to walk barefoot, you’re going to have to hitch a ride.”
Lola glanced at the door. He was right; she couldn’t bear the thought of her blistered feet on gravel. She scooched over to the opening and stood up on the running board. Harry presented his back.
She put her arms around his neck, then her legs around his waist.
He grabbed onto her thighs and hitched her up her like she were a backpack, and walked across the drive. Lola tried desperately not to think of all the other reasons she might wrap her legs around a guy like him, but she couldn’t keep all the ideas from slipping into her thoughts. One would think that after her awful evening, the last thing Lola would do now—exhausted, embarrassed, still a little shaky—would be to imagine this man on top of her. But that was exactly what she was doing. He was so firm and so strong, and he smelled so enticing. Oh yeah, it had been a while. She was thankful the walk across the drive was very short, because she might have done something really stupid to top off this ridiculous night—
“Are you nibbling myear?” he asked incredulously.
“What? Is that yourear?”
Lola was suddenly on her feet again. Harry frowned at her as he fit the key into the door. “What is the matter with you?”
“Sorry!” she said, throwing her hands up. “But you smell really good.”
“Hmm,” he said, and pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Well then. Crisis averted.
Harry was long gone the next morning when Lola finally roused herself from bed. She padded into the kitchen for a cup of joe, and noticed that the kitchen was as sparkling clean and neat as it had been the first day she’d shown up here and thought the house had been closed for the season.
She made some coffee, found her purse, which she’d fairly thrown across the living room when she’d come in last night, fished out her phone, and called Mallory.
“Hola!”Mallory said cheerfully.
“Hey, where were you last night?” Lola asked. “I thought you were going to the party.”
