But, at that moment, we stood there for a good minute, neither of us pulling back.
That was until choking noises from the peanut gallery reached us, and like a fool, I pressed my lips harder against his and made an exaggerated “mwwwah” noise.
And then, just to hammer into my reputation that I was a total twat, I made it much worse.
Oh, so much worse.
Reaching up, I tapped his nose with the tip of my finger and shouted, “Boop!” Then I lightly tapped the top of his head with my fist and sang, “Knock, knock.”
The choking sounds got louder, and even Ava was making them now, as Logan’s eyes widened at what I’d done.
A glance behind him showed his colleagues either bent over with their shoulders shaking as they laughed quietly—with the odd snort or wheeze reaching us—or they were holding their side with one hand and covering their mouths with the other. Evil bastards! Not that Ava was much better when I looked over at her. She’d crouched down with her hands covering her face as she laughed and snorted into them.
Why does my life suck so much? For someone who woke up cringing and reliving awkward and embarrassing moments from her childhood, this one would haunt me until they put me six feet in the ground. Knowing my luck, I’d be stuck in the afterlife with it still chasing after me.
Clearing my throat, I threw a hand up and waved it frantically. “Okay, we need to go. If you need me, just text, and I’ll obviously answer… You know, by text? On my phone?” I pulled the device out of my purse and moved it around in front of him.
He knows what a fucking phone is, Bexley. Stop before you dig a deeper hole. Then again, maybe digging a hole and burying yourself in it might not be the worst idea?
“Uh,” he hummed, watching me warily like he was expecting me to run away. “I’ll definitely do that. Have a good trip,” he glanced at Ava, “both of you.”
The others were still laughing as I literally ran out of the building and back to my car, except as I got to the door, the laughter changed from the odd snort to outright bellows. Why didn’t the door close faster?
I managed to get into the car without knocking myself out on the roof, and was reversing out of the space before Ava even had her belt on.
“Don’t say a word,” I growled as we drove toward her and Mace’s house to pick up her bag. He was away just now doing something with some of his Marine buddies, which was why she didn’t even hesitate when I asked if she wanted to come with me to collect my stuff. Something that I was second-guessing the wisdom of. “If I don’t move back, maybe I’ll forget about it?”
“I doubt it,” she gasped, still laughing. “That was— I don’t think any of us will be able to forget that.”
“Shut up.”
“What were you thinking?”
There was a long pause, and then I sighed. “I wasn’t thinking. I panicked.”
“You—” she broke off with a wheeze. “You booped his nose.”
“I’m well aware of that.”
She only just managed to get out, “Knock, knock,” before she burst out laughing, full belly laughs. “His face!”
Wincing, I thought about his expression. It was a cross between shock, horror, and total confusion.
“My life sucks!”
“Girl, if that’s your way of seducing a guy, we need to work on your game while we’re away,” she snickered, wiping under her eyes. “I can’t unsee it.”
Neither could I.
Pulling into her drive, I cut the engine and dropped my head onto the steering wheel, ignoring the buttons pressing painfully into my forehead.
Four days was enough time for people to forget about it. They were law enforcement officers, for fuck’s sake, they dealt with bizarre and hideous things every day, didn’t they? Surely one of the cases would delete the memory of me booping Logan on the nose and then knocking on his head… Right?
Chapter Seven
Logan
Two days later…
“Okay, that’s the last of it,” Kenton sighed, dusting his hands off on his jeans. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be, but Dad put a majority of his shit in the attic.”
“Dibs, I don’t have to come and help out with that,” Tom Townsend yelled, holding his hand in the air.
Not missing a beat, Hurst clapped him on the shoulder. “So nice of you to offer. I’ll write your name down.”
Glaring at his grandpa, Tom stalked away to where his brothers were standing laughing.
Seeing DB, Garrett, Ellis, Alejandro, and Carter standing in a group, looking at something, I walked over to join them, squeezing in between two of them to see the screen of what turned out to be one of their phones.
“Pa-pa-pang pai,” Ava shouted, as the group behind her chanted, “Down in one, down in one.”
Squinting, I made out what looked like a restaurant with Ava and Bexley sitting at a table, surrounded by other patrons. On the table were plates with the remnants of what they’d eaten and numerous small ceramic shot glasses.
“What’s this?”
“Ava and Bex went to a Chinese restaurant last night and ended up doing Sake shooters. The video went viral on the internet because a news crew were visiting the building next door and heard the noise,” DB explained, bursting out laughing when Bex and Ava shot the contents of the little glasses down and fell backward off their chairs.
Only those two would go to a Chinese restaurant, get drunk on Japanese rice wine, and then get filmed by a news crew.
I was just about to call her dad over to join us when Ava squealed, “Totally! He’s right, Bex. We need to have a cigar to celebrate.”
That wasn’t what stopped me from showing him the video.
No, that was Bex shaking her head and saying, “I can’t. I’ve got the worst gag reflex. Even
