Page 72 of Let’s Be Real

Adrian barely looked up from the book in his lap. “Look at me, being an environmentalist.”

“How’s that?” I asked.

He flicked his hand toward us. “Imagine if I’d said no to Nate and he’d chartered his own jet. I’m single-handedly saving the world by plane-pooling.”

“I wouldn’t have chartered a jet,” Nate deadpanned.

“Sure, sure.” Adrian lifted his book to his face. “Quiet time. I’m almost to the good part.”

Since he was reading a Stephen King novel, I shuddered to guess what he considered the good part.

There were many things I wanted to say, but couldn’t, given Adrian’s presence. I tried to convey my questions with my eyes.

Why didn’t you mention this when we were together two nights ago?

Did you want to surprise me?

Can you tell how thrown off I am?

Do you realize how sexy you look in that button-down?

Hopefully he couldn’t read that last question. Everything else, though? Yes. I wanted answers. Nate and I had just spent the night together. I’d left his bed yesterday morning with a kiss and promise to see him when I got back, and he hadn’t said a thing.

To me, it was understandable why I was thrown off. Not that I wasn’t perfectly content to spend the next hour across from him, looking at his gorgeous face…that had been buried between my thighs a little over twenty-four hours ago.

Like he could read my thoughts, Nate’s mouth slid into a slow, easy grin.

“It was a last-minute thing,” he said quietly. “Planned yesterday afternoon. I hope you don’t mind me being here.”

“I don’t mind.” I crossed my legs, letting the tip of my shoe graze against Nate’s outstretched leg. “You’re probably more interesting company than Adrian anyway. All he does is read and leave me to my own devices.”

He opened his hands, showing how empty they were. “Lucky for you, I didn’t bring a book.”

“He doesn’t read,” Adrian chimed in. “Don’t let him fool you.”

I scoffed. “For someone who claims to be reading, you sure seem to be paying a lot of attention to the conversations around you. Don’t tell me you’re one of those men who always has a book as a prop so they can seem deep when they haven’t actually read a full book since Green Eggs and Ham.”

Adrian shot me a droll look. “You caught me. I’ve carried on this thirty-year ruse so the general masses will think I’m deep and intellectual. I care so much about what everyone else thinks.”

I finger gunned him. “I knew it. Glad you finally admit it. Now that you have, it’s time for you to live your authentic life as a mindless doom scroller like the rest of us.”

He picked his book back up. “I’ll get on that ASAP.”

Nate was still smirking when I turned back to him. I cocked my head to the side and mouthed, “What?”

He mouthed back, “You’re cute.”

Annoyed, embarrassed, and more pleased than I should have been, I nudged his leg with my toe again. His smirk grew into a true smile, and my stomach did a nosedive.

None of that, you.

It wasn’t long before we were up in the air, flying toward the West Coast. Nate cracked open his laptop, a line forming between his brows as he concentrated on his screen. Midway through the flight, I moved to the seat facing Adrian to talk to him about the building we were going to see.

“I checked with the city ordinances—”

He made a scoffing sound, interrupting my chain of thought. “Since when do you check ordinances?”

“Since you decided to go all-in on California—I’m covering our bases.”