Page 63 of A Royal Promise
Her breath hitched.I wonder if he remembers that line is code for “I love you.”She brushed off the thought. There was no way he remembered that.
This new version of Drew continued to surprise her. He spoiled her with her favorite snacks. He flirted with her. He got her heart racing at the mere sight of him. He quoted her favorite movies. He kissed her, and she hadn’t been able to forget it since.
Bri was still staring at him when he tossed a few kernels of popcorn at her. “Are you going to watch the movie or not?”
“Yeah.” She straightened, turning her attention back to the television. “Yeah, of course.” When Bri leaned back into the couch, her shoulder pressed up against Drew’s. She didn’t shy away from the touch. She embraced it.
Drew shifted beside her until his whole arm was pressed up against hers. He brushed his pinky finger against hers, and they sat like that, brushing their fingers as they watched the movie.
The popcorn sat untouched on his lap as Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds faked their relationship and slowly fell for each other. It felt like déjà vu watching it play out on the screen. A little too familiar.
She was thankful when the fire scene finally arrived. Bri couldn’t wait for Drew’s performance of the “duet,” but it alsomeant Drew had to get up and give her a little bit of space to get her head back on straight before he sat next to her again.
Drew jumped up from the couch as Sandra Bullock encountered Betty White on the screen. He bounced his hips back and forth to the beat of the drum. Bri held her hand over her mouth to contain her laughter, not wanting the show to end early.
Drew jumped around the living room, shaking his booty with absolutely zero rhythm. He had a goofy grin on his face as he flailed his arms around like an air dancer, also known as a wacky waving-inflatable-arm-flailing tube man.
For someone who had just won a rowing championship, which required precision in his movements, Drew didn’t have one ounce of rhythm in his body. He could follow a routine dance like a waltz, but put on some pop music and he looked incredibly awkward…and she loved it.
Suddenly, he turned around and placed both of his hands on the built-in bookshelf and started shaking his booty. She hit pause on the remote, laughing so uncontrollably that she was unable to pay attention to anything aside from the wild dancing in front of her.
“What in the world are you doing?” Bri asked between gasped breaths and laughter, tears streaming down her face.
“Isn’t it obvious?” He shot a wry look over his shoulder before turning around and continuing to shake his booty. “I’m bookshelf twerking.”
“Bookshelf…what?”
“I’m twerking…while holding onto the bookshelf.”
She waited a second to see if he was joking, but when he didn’t say anything else, she burst into laughter. “I don’t know what it is you’re doing”—Bri motioned to him—“but it definitely isn’t twerking. It’s more like a toddler doing an ‘I need to pee’ bounce combined with a dog wagging its tail.”
He stopped and turned to her, forming a fist and hitting it to his chest. “You wound me.”
“I only speak the truth.”
Drew held his hand out to her. “Then get up here and show me how it’s done.”
She pushed up from the couch and took his hand. He twirled her around as they danced to a beat of their own. She threw her hands up in the air and moved her hips side to side, spinning around in a circle. When she turned back to face Drew, he was closer than she’d anticipated.
His hands landed on her waist, their faces mere inches apart. All it would take was the smallest of movements and their lips would collide. She could pull him in for a kiss she had no doubt would be world-changing, but she couldn’t do that.
So, instead, she took a step back and returned to the couch. “We should probably finish the movie.”
His lips pressed into a thin line. “Right.” Drew sat beside her again, leaving a little bit of room between them this time.
She played the movie but had a hard time focusing. Bri missed his touch, so she kept her hands busy in other ways, like eating popcorn.I shouldn’t be missing anything. He’s my best friend, not my real fiancé.
As they reached the grand gesture moment of the movie, Bri’s eyelids felt heavy. She yawned, and when the credits started rolling soon after, the music lulled her to sleep, and Drew’s shoulder felt like a nice place to rest her head…
Chapter Twenty-Four
Drew
When Drew woke up the next morning, Bri’s head was in his lap. One of his hands rested on her arm, and the other was tangled in her hair. It felt domestic, like they were an old married couple who had fallen asleep watching a movie together for the hundredth time.
He didn’t want to wake her up, but there was no way he was going to get out of this position without jostling her. If he had the time to let her sleep, he would. He knew better than anyone how Bri needed a full night’s rest to be a functioning adult, but he had a full schedule today.
Drew brushed stray strands of hair away from her eyes, tucking them behind her ear before rubbing his hand along her arm in gentle strokes.
