Page 84 of Sour Notes

“Ohhhh shit, the itinerary! We didn’t even look at that yesterday.”

He chuckles as I leap off the bed to grab the laminated—yep, laminated—breakdown of our two-week stay. I quickly scan the sheet and snicker in amusement.

“Well, they’re easing us in slow—Nick actually wrote that on here, in case you were wondering. We’ve got a pottery class and wine tasting scheduled for this afternoon, then a beach BBQ tonight. Cars pick us up at 2 p.m.”

“A pottery class? What the fuck, like Patrick Swayze in Ghost? Nick’s gotta be messing with us.” He stares at me in slack-jawed shock.

“Close your mouth, Swayze, you’ll catch flies.” I giggle as he snaps it shut. “Maybe this is Nick’s ode to you. So… you gonna fondle my clay, Wolfie?”

“If you’re lucky, I might.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me, and I lose it, full-on belly laughing, snort and all. After everything that happened yesterday, it’s so damn good to laugh.

While he studies the itinerary like a police case file, I root through my bag, pulling out a bikini and my unicorn slippers.

“Since our morning’s free, I’m gonna grab a shower, then do some work by the pool, if that’s cool with you ‘Ze?”

He looks up, his eyes automatically dropping to my feet, and he laughs. Hard.

So hard he falls back on his ass.

“You did not bring the fucking unicorns on vacation. It’s like eighty degrees out there.”

“And? Life’s too short for boring footwear.”

His eyes rise from the slippers, slowly scanning my body until they reach my face, and my skin burns under his slow perusal.

Is he checking me out?

My cheeks flush, leaving me a little discombobulated.

That's a good word. Why don’t we use it more?

“Believe me, Mia, there’s a lot of words I could use to describe you. Boring would never be one of them.”

Swoooooooon.

I barely suppress the sigh that wants to slip out.

Wait, why am I swooning? There needs to be no swooning in private.

Actually… nor in public.

This needs to be a swoon-free zone.

Okay, let’s not panic. It’s the trauma bonding. I’m just a little attached after last night. No one else knows the full extent of what went down with the toad. They all think he’s a toxic asshole because of the cousin cheating thing and his general dickish personality, but Swayze knows everything.

Well, almost everything anyway.

It’s natural to feel closer to him because of that. It doesn’t mean anything.

We’re friends.

We joke.

That’s all.

We just need to keep things normal and friend-like. I got this.

“Oh yeah? What words would you use to describe me? Pain in your ass? Wrecking ball? Ridiculous?”