“Cheese!” Mohamed called out before snapping one, then two pictures that had the flash blinding the shit out of me.
After saying bye, we hauled ass through the lobby, and it wasn’t until I got into the elevator that I realized what I’d done.
“I left my wallet in Connie’s trunk.”
Zac held his jacket in one hand and had a hip against the wall as the elevator took us up. His white shirt was unbuttoned at the throat and damp in a few places. “You need money?” he asked.
“No, my room key is in there,” I told him, even as I unlocked my phone and sent Connie a text message.
“Oh. Wait in my room ’til Connie gets back. Or you wanna go back and get it?”
Go back? It’d been hard enough to squeeze my feet back into the death traps called my shoes so that I wouldn’t have to walk barefoot outside of the hall and through the hotel.
“I’ll wait, if you’re fine with that,” I told him. “I just sent her a message. When we were at the hall, she said she was going to my uncle’s house, but I bet she can drop by first and then go over there.”
He was looking down at me. “I don’t mind, kiddo. But if I fall asleep, don’t take creepy pictures of me.”
The door pinged open. “No promises.”
He smiled, and so did I.
“Did you have an okay time?” I asked as we walked in the direction of his room.
“Touch my back.”
I pulled my arm into my side, not trusting him or this request. “Why? Because you’re sweaty?”
“Yeah, from all the dancing. Touch my shirt.”
I shook my head, wrinkling my nose. “Thank you, but no thank you. I believe you.” Because I did. His hair was dark and matted, and his neck still flushed. And I knew I was sweaty as hell too. I’d been holding my arms stretched at my sides to give them a breeze so they could dry off.
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
He winked at me as he slid his keycard into the slot at the door and flipped on the lights before gesturing me in. I went into the room that was pretty much a mirror of the one I shared with Connie and the kids, except that instead of two double beds, there was only a king. I didn’t think twice about toeing my shoes off right at the door as Zac flipped the lock and the metal safety bar above it. I sat on the edge of the bed as he flung his jacket aside and began unbuttoning his shirt.
I looked at my phone then, even though it hadn’t beeped or vibrated with a response from Connie… or from anyone.
Would they give me a room key if I didn’t have my ID? Probably not. And I definitely didn’t want to make Zac go ask in case he could get away with things that the rest of us couldn’t.
“I’m gonna take a shower,” my friend said as his fingers plucked at the bottom button of his shirt. He peeled it off. The thin white undershirt he had on was clinging to him, and I mean clinging to every single spot on his chest and abs, making it nearly see-through.
He was built like a wet dream I had no right having. His upper body was long and perfectly shaped. His waist trim and shoulders wide….
And that was when we made eye contact.
I smiled at him, and he smiled back at me.
Just checking him out. No big deal. He was probably used to it.
“I’ll make sure no one breaks in and tries to take naked pictures of you.”
He threw his sweaty dress shirt at me, and by the time I plucked it off, he closed the bathroom door behind him. I hung his shirt on the chair in front of the bed to dry and grabbed my phone again, going to the nightstand furthest from the door to plug my phone in to Zac’s charger. I sent Connie another text.
Me: I left my wallet in your trunk. Can you come drop it off, pleaseeeee
If she was dancing… fuck. It was going to take forever. One glance at the clock on the nightstand showed 11:15 on it. The party was set to go on until 2 and then… then maybe she’d look at her phone before they went to my uncle’s? I hadn’t thought this through.
I sent my nephew a text too. Richard and Connie hadn’t given Luisa a cell phone yet.
The sound of the water being turned on in the shower had me glancing toward the closed door.
And it had me sighing.
The next thing it had me doing was slapping myself on the forehead.
He was so much fun. We got along great, and he was one of my favorite people even after so long. The episode we had recorded for the orange cranberry pound cake had honestly been the most fun I had probably ever had doing Lazy Baker stuff. We’d laughed our asses off from the moment he’d come to stand next to me until we finished filming. We were always laughing.
And it just so happened he was easy to look at.
I was so lucky to have him around, period.
I wasn’t going to fuck this up. Not this time. It didn’t matter that his body had been blessed by Greek gods or that he was a wonderful person with a tremendous heart.
He was my friend, and that was it.
Reaching back, I grabbed the remote from the nightstand and turned on the television, waiting to hear back from Connie or Guillermo. I flexed my toes and feet, rolling my ankles from all the freaking dancing. Everything was achy, and goddamn was I sweaty.
I took my time flipping through the channels, leaving it on a rerun of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as I lifted my arms over my head and tried to stretch my lower back
