Page 126 of All This Time
Her voice comes out as a whisper. “Okay.”
Turning for the door, I flash her a wink before leaving her in the storage closet, even though that’s the last fucking thing that I want to do.
But when I close the door behind me, I run smack dab into Rhonan.
“There you are,” he says, his brows drawn together.
Clearing my throat, I struggle not to freak out. “Uh, yup. Here I am.”
“What were you doing in the storage closet?”
Quick, Fletcher. Think.
“Uh, Laney asked me to look for something, but it wasn’t in there.”
“Well, what did she need?”
I scratch the back of my head, trying to buy time. “You know what? I don’t even remember.”
Rhonan eyes me curiously. “You forgot what you were supposed to be looking for?”
“Yeah, I think my lack of sleep has finally caught up to me.” I force out a yawn.
“Okay then.” Rhonan pushes his shirt sleeves farther up his forearms. “Well, the boys want to play blackjack. You in?”
“Naturally.”
“Then let’s do it.” Rhonan motions me to follow him back to the party as I release the breath I was holding in. But as I do, I glance over my shoulder to the closet where I know Laney is still hiding.
Running into Rhonan just made the consequences of my actions more real.
I have to figure out how to make this work.
I need to figure out how to convince him that our pact was juvenile and doesn’t make sense anymore.
But more importantly, I need Laney to see what can be possible between us, because if she doesn’t want the same things as me, the rest doesn’t matter.
Chapter 24
Fletcher
Spaghetti and Hot Tub Admissions
I fluff the pillows on the couch for the third time as I walk past them again. Fuck, I’m nervous. I don’t know why, but maybe it’s because tonight I’m going to lay everything on the line with Laney, and I only hope that she’s open to a future for us.
When I texted her this morning to let her know where I was staying and when to be here, she insisted that we at least use this time tonight to work on a few wedding things so we don’t have to scrape anything together at the last minute like the bachelor and bachelorette party—even though everyone had a great fucking time last night, Elliot and Tori especially.
I had planned on ordering dinner for us since I’m not that great of a cook and didn’t want to risk food poisoning, but Laney insisted she cook for us instead. And as I stand in my rental cabin, waiting for her to arrive, that gesture makes me feel even more inadequate.
What I have to offer her isn’t much. In fact, besides the size of my bank account, I have a grueling career, a lack of relationship experience, an alcoholic father who puts me in a bad mood any time we speak, and a group of friends that all agreed we would never date each other’s sisters—a detail I’m choosing to ignore as I ask Laney for a chance for us to be together.
A knock on the door pulls me from my thoughts. I race to answer it, and when I see her on the other side dressed in a simple navy cotton dress with her hair pulled back from her face and a nervous smile on her lips, my chest instantly relaxes.
“Hey, angel.”
“Hi.” She holds out a grocery bag to me. “Can you take this, please? I need to get the wedding stuff out of my car.”
“I can get it,” I say, preparing to drop the groceries on the ground and retrieve the rest of the stuff for her.
