“He wanted to make sure I’d save a dance for him at the wedding in a few weeks.”
“Someone wants to dance with you.”
I scoff. “He’s just being friendly,” I tell her and me both.
She grins. “Friendly or not so friendly, sounds like the start of a good story,” she says, trailing off subjectively.
I shrug, carefully noncommittal. “You never know.”
“You never do.” We reached the theater, and she throws me a smug look. “But I’d be willing to bet on it.”
“Bet on what?” Daniel asks as he catches up to us, reaching past Scarlett to open the door in that way some guys can do without being awkward and some absolutely cannot.
“That it’s going to be a great show,” she says smoothly, kissing him warmly before we head inside.
Soon we’re watching the rock star as Stone launches into his show, and I sing along, getting lost in the music. It’s loud enough to drown out everything else, and it’s not until I’m lying in bed with ringing ears that I think about what Scarlett said.
Would I bet that this is the start of a new story with Crosby Cash?
If it were only money, then maybe. Problem is, what I’d be laying on the line is my friendship with Crosby. And that, I’m not willing to risk.
8
Crosby
A little later
I close the lid of my laptop, and hopefully, please, God, on a painful chapter of the Crosby Cash story.
This is why I should never gamble.
My judgment is shit, and I don’t know a good bet from a terrible, awful, and costly one.
Never again.
I’m giving up on women for life.
Okay, not for life.
But for a long time.
Okay, probably not a very long time.
Then my thoughts drift to Nadia. That keeps happening, and there’s no rhyme or reason. But in this case, it’s not hard to connect the dots. When I think of why I’ll never give up on women entirely, I think of Nadia.
Nadia, moving back to San Francisco.
Nadia, being amazing and fun and comfortable and trustworthy and sexy as hell all the times I’ve seen her over the last two years.
Do I wonder if something more could have come of those times together?
Hell yes.
But right this minute, I choose to focus on the sure thing— I’m damn happy that she’s my friend.
That’s not a judgment call. No intuition needed. It’s a fact.
I’ll see her soon at Eric’s wedding, just after she’s moved here officially. I’m happy to see my pal getting married, but I’ve been dreading the reception, navigating that sea of bad dating decisions waiting to happen. Nadia will be the bright spot there.
Bottom line is I’m damn happy to have her as a friend.
Lord knows I don’t want to go to the wedding and run into other women.
She’s the one I want to talk to at the wedding. The one I want to spend time with. So much more than on a phone call.
Though I do enjoy chatting with her when she calls me that afternoon as I’m heading to the gym.
“Don’t make me wait. What lucky socks are you wearing today?”
“The luckiest ones,” I say. “The giraffe socks you retrieved.”
“Then maybe today is another lucky day,” she says.
“Of course it is. In a few more days, you’ll be here, and soon we’ll be dancing the tango, the polka, and the macarena at your brother’s wedding.”
“Or maybe just the wedding pretend-we-can-dance-well dance.”
“I can dance well, and I bet you can too,” I say.
As we chat longer, I picture dancing with her, bringing her in close, feeling her lush body against me.
And I like that idea.
I like that idea a lot. It’s not the first time I’ve thought it. Doubt it’ll be the last.
I wonder if there are rules for being friends with benefits.
That is, if that’s what I want to be.
Friends with benefits? Or more?
But for the first time, it seems riskier than it ever has before.
There are a ton of reasons why it would be dangerous to act on these feelings. Reasons that should keep me in place.
But maybe it’s the kind of risk that I want to take.
A few weeks later at the wedding, I roll the dice, and I take it. Oh hell, do I ever take it, when I walk her back to her room at the end of the night…
***
What happens when Crosby takes Nadia to her room? Will they discover the rules of friends with benefits or the dangers? Find out in the full-length, sexy, swoony romance The Virgin Rule Book! Available everywhere!
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