There were a lot of people already inside.
And like he could read my mind, Zac leaned in real close, the light wisp of his breath tickling my ear as he reconfirmed, “Hang with me, all right?”
I had already been contemplating this since I’d heard about this thing. “That’s okay. You don’t need to babysit me or anything. I know you might have to do your thing. I’ll be okay for a while. If I want to leave, I know how to get home.” I smiled at him.
His eyebrows went flat under the low brim of his cowboy hat. “Get home? By yourself?” he asked like I’d just said I was going to compete in the Olympics for gymnastics.
I glanced up at his handsome face and nodded. He really was the perfect Woody. But, what? Did he think I was going to go home with someone? He knew I had to work the next morning; I’d mentioned it a minimum of six times. I wasn’t going to stay here all night. He hadn’t planned on it either from what he’d said.
Zac moved closer, dipping his head so I could get a real good look at his lips. “How about this: we’ll stay for an hour, and then we’ll get outta here like Trev is plannin’. We can do whatever you want after that. Deal?”
The “yes” was there, but so was the knowledge he knew people here. “Zac, you know my feelings won’t be hurt if you would rather hang out with—”
He pressed his index finger against my lips.
I blinked at him and said with his finger still over my mouth, “I will lick your finger, and you know I will.”
Zac laughed, booping me on the nose. “I would rather hang out with you than here. You got me? Or do I gotta say it again for the… what? The fiftieth time?”
I didn’t need to watch his face to know he was telling me the truth. So I nodded and asked, “Whatever I want?”
He nodded pretty seriously.
“Okay.”
“What are you thinking?”
“Drive-through Taco Bell.”
Zac blinked. “Drive-through?”
“What, you’re too good for drive-through now?”
“I created a monster.”
“Travis!” someone hollered out of nowhere.
It was some big, burly guy who came walking over. Big. Real big. As Zac turned us toward him, his arm didn’t move an inch.
“’Sup, man?” the man asked. “Are you… Woody?”
“Woody, and I got my sidekick, Buzz, here.”
They hugged each other, and the other man glanced from me to Zac and then back to me again.
Zac slipped his arm over my shoulders before leaning his head against mine. “Bianca, this is Milton. Milton, Bianca,” Zac told him.
I stretched my hand out toward him, and he took it in his huge one, the arm on me not going anywhere. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you.” The other man jerked. “You’re the Bianca?”
The Bianca?
“Yeah,” Zac was the one who answered. “The one I was tellin’ you about.”
He was talking about me?
“No shit.” He suddenly seemed so much more interested. “The Baker?”
“Lazy Baker,” Zac corrected him for me. “She’s got more than two million followers on WatchTube. Get it right.”
Here I went keeping my life a secret from just about everyone, and here he was telling everybody.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” the guy snapped his fingers. “With the recipes. Zac showed me your page.”
He had?
His smile was so sweet, I had to blink. I stayed there as they talked about something, but I was too hung up on him telling his teammates about me that I stayed pretty quiet, absorbing it all.
Marveling at it.
He really was the best guy.
And not for the first time, my heart gave a little twist at the fact.
But the second the other man walked away, I snuck out from under his arm and asked, “You told people about my channel?”
He gave me a funny little smile. “Yeah, why?” He ticked his head to the side. “Did you not want me to say anything?”
I had told myself at least twice a day for the last month that I wasn’t back to being in love with Zac. That I wasn’t. No way. No how. It wasn’t happening.
Sometimes I managed to believe myself; other times, I knew I was full of shit.
And he was making it really hard to go with option A. Really hard. “No, I mean, you can do whatever you want. But it’s no big deal—”
“Why are you always tryin’ to downplay it, huh, darlin’? It is a big deal, and I’m so damn proud of you, even though it isn’t like I had somethin’ to do with it.” He moved his head to the side. “Well, you did used to make me things, so I was kinda your early guinea pig, huh?”
I…. Well….
“And you never downplay me,” he argued.
“Because there’s nothing to downplay.”
“I’m only in the organization now because the White Oaks lost both their quarterbacks, kiddo.”
He was about to get jabbed in the side. “And? You’re amazing. You’re awesome.”
“You think I’m amazing?” this dummy asked.
I kept my face even; I wasn’t about to egg him on. “I know you are. You’re the one that seems to forget that.”
He watched me closely with those eyes. Just as he opened his mouth, someone to the side stumbled backward into me.
But just as I was shoved by the stranger’s weight, Zac’s hand struck out, pushing the person back to where they’d come from before he, or she, could fall on me. I looked up at him and didn’t miss the frown on Zac’s face as the man turned around to look at who’d pushed him.
From the face he made, he recognized him. “Sorry, sorry,” the guy apologized quickly.
Zac didn’t say a word as he grabbed onto my shoulders and moved me closer to the wall beside us, putting his body between me and the crowd.
“You okay?” he asked when the guy turned back around and moved away.
“Yeah, I’m all right. He just stomped on me a little.” I glanced up at him as I kneeled to rub the top of my foot. “Thank you for protecting me.”
One side of his mouth tilted up. “Peewee, I’d never let a thing happen to you.”
There went my heart again, and I tried to hide it with a grin. “Like you know I’d never let anything happen to you?”
He nodded once. “Just like that.”
He held out his hand and helped me to my feet.
And that was when I saw them.
I knew immediately who they were under their costumes of Morticia and Gomez Addams. The skintight, clinging black dress and black lipstick didn’t hide who she was. The black suit and what I knew was a fake black mustache didn’t hide his identity either.
I squeaked, and Zac gave me an interested look. “What is it?”
I grabbed his forearm. “Oh my God, Zac, that’s Jasmine and Ivan Lukov!” I whisper-hissed.
His head turned in the direction I was staring, and I wasn’t even sure he was looking at the same couple I was, because he asked, “Who?”
Who? Was he kidding me? “They only won a fucking gold medal! Oh my God, I’m going to faint. They’re only the greatest figure skating pair of all time!” I wasn’t kidding. I might faint. I had watched every single figure skating competition they were going to participate in, just to see them skate. I’d watched a WatchTube video of them once that happened to come up two years ago, and they had sucked me in completely since.