Page 46 of In His Skates

“How about we all head back to Leigh’s place and talk there?” Leigh interjects.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Bobbi sighs loudly. “Are you going to let a man talk for you now?”

“Of course not,” I say. “But now that Trina knows I’m dating Keanu, he’s joined the circus. I need to talk to him too.”

Bobbi spends a couple of seconds glaring at me before he finally relents. “Okay. Fine. I’ll see you at the house.”

He strides away, his phone already glued to his ear. God, does he ever relax?

“Let’s go. I want to get out of here.” Leigh veers toward my car.

Damn. She seems fucking angry now.

“I know you’re mad, but maybe save that for when we’re out of here? There are security cameras in the garage. I wouldn’t put it past Trina to look at the footage to gain more intel on us.”

Leigh stops in her tracks and turns to me with eyes a little rounder. I was just teasing, but maybe I’m not wrong.

“Shit,” she mutters, then surprises the hell out of me when she pulls me into a tight hug and kisses the top of my head.

I’m tense for more reasons than one. There’s the proximity with Leigh that I didn’t expect, and the weirdness of being small in comparison to her. Even with the high heels from hell, I’m still much shorter than her in this body.

“Hug me back or they’ll think we’re fighting,” she whispers in my ear.

“Right… sorry.”

I wrap my arms around her waist and lean into her with my eyes closed. Like this, I can pretend I’m me and that everything has returned to normal. A tingling sensation spreads up my arms, and for a moment, it does feel as though I’m back in my body.

Holy shit. Could it be?

I open my eyes as I step back, but disappointment floods through me. I’m still in Leigh’s body. What’s even more surreal is that she seems equally disappointed.

I force a smile. “We’ve known each other our entire lives, and this is the first time you’ve ever hugged me.”

She scowls. “Bullshit. Surely I’ve hugged you before.”

I shake my head. “You haven’t. Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

“Can you drive? I’m not in the mood.”

“Sure.”

Once we’re both in the car and no one can overhear our conversation, I say, “Before you yell at me, let me say I’m really sorry I fucked up the interview with Trina.”

“What? I wasn’t going to yell at you.”

“You weren’t?” I glance at her.

“No. I’m angry as hell, but it’s mostly toward that bitch. All she wanted to talk about was my love life. She didn’t care about my career or my new role in the movie. No, all she cared to know was if I was going to screw my new costar.”

“Yeah, I caught on to that too. I’m sorry she was horrible to you. But I’m also sorry I tripped and almost face-planted.”

To my surprise, Leigh chuckles. “Honestly, that was pretty funny. And when you made that comment about the shoes… priceless.”

My jaw drops. “You enjoyed that? Hell, I thought you’d rip off my nutsack in retaliation, and considering you’re currently wearing them, it’d be pretty easy to do.”

She wrinkles her nose. “I’m not into self-harm.”

“That’s good to know.” I laugh.