Page 76 of Everything Has Changed
Gwen smirks, clearly unsure how to end this conversation as she gives a small wave and turns away from me.
“Wait.” I call out, causing her to stop on a dime and look back at me.
One of her brows quirks up as she darts a quick look around us. “I don’t think a goodbye kiss is in the cards for us, Logan. We aren’t quite there in this friendship.”
I smirk. “Yet.”
She rolls her green eyes and patiently waits for me to continue with why I stopped her.
“I heard back from Frederick Jacobs.”
Her eyes quickly widen, and her mouth drops open.
“Well, his team,” I add. “They said they have some merch and concert tickets if we want them for the silent auction.”
Gwen bounces on the toes of her boots. “And you said yes, right?”
“Of course I said yes. But there’s a catch.”
She drops back down to her feet. “There’s always a catch. I knew it was too good to be true. How much money do they want? I think we have some extra funds in the decoration money since we are going to reuse everything from last year. Though I’ll definitely have to run it by your parents first.” Her thumb goes to her teeth; this time nibbling on that instead of her lips.
I reach out and pull her hand down from her mouth. “No money. We have to go pick it up. They are on tour, and they can’t guarantee it’ll get here on time.”
Okay, that’s not completely the truth. But when they offered two backstage passes to meet Frederick and the band if we pick up the items, the thought of potentially taking Gwen there for a date formed in my mind.
“Oh,” she visibly relaxes. “That’s not terrible. Where do we have to go?”
“Lucky enough, he’s performing at the Orange Peel this weekend.”
Gwen’s green eyes squint. “I haven’t been there since high school. That’s easy enough. A couple of hours away is better than the few I thought you would say if we had to go to Charlotte. I bet Piper and the guys would love to go, too.”
“I thought we could make a night out of it.”
Her brows slammed down in confusion before her mouth popped open in a wide O. “L-like a date?” The stutter of unsureness makes me bite back a grin.
“If that’s okay with you. It would be away from these prying eyes,” I swirl my finger around to include all of Willow Grove. “And we could get to know each other better on a personal level outside of this place.”
Her lips purse. “That’s just another layer of the forced proximity trope,” she muses.
It’s my turn to roll my eyes. “You and that damn trope again.”
She slaps my chest, but before she can pull it away, I trap it there with my hand. Her eyes jump from my chest, around the street, and back to me again. I know she’s worried about someone seeing us so close, talking for so long, but I’ll blame it on festival planning if my father questions it. Not that it’s a total lie, just a bit of stretching the truth.
“Come with me.”
“Are we driving back right after the concert?”
“If that’s what you want to do. I’ll drive all night to get us back home, just say yes.”
She taps her fingers on my chest in quick succession, those damn perfect lips pursed again as she stares up at me.
“What if I want to stay the night?”
I gulp and try to be as gentlemanly as possible at the thought. “Then I’ll get us a couple of rooms in town.”
She shuffles her feet until she’s right in front of me. One deep breath from both of us and our chests would probably brush. She tilts her face up to me, and I fight everything within me not to tilt mine down and capture her lips.
“What if I want to share a room with you?”
