Page 5 of Anger Bang
“We love you, too!” Nola and Astrid said together.
They said their goodbyes, and Thea made the short walk back to the RV, while giving herself a mental pep talk about how fine everything was. Going with the flow just worked. It was fine.
Old habits really were a bitch to break.
She was hesitating outside of the RV when a large, man-shaped shadow fell over her. Startled, she did a little jump-turn thing while letting out a high-pitched squeak.
What she saw next didn’t make her panicked pulse slow down, though; it sped up. No man should look that good in a tan tux with a powder blue ruffled tuxedo shirt.
He was tall enough that she had to take a step back to get a look at his face, but it was worth it. He had tropical paradise blue eyes, a square jaw covered in salt-and-pepper scruff that managed to look accidental and deliberate at the same time, and a nose with a bump that told tales about it being broken at least once but probably more. It was enough to make her breath catch. Then, one side of his mouth went up in a crooked smile, and her pink panties embroidered withAlways The Bridesmaid—thank you, Jackie—went up in flames.
“If you don’t laugh at what I’m wearing, I’ll share my flask.” He unscrewed the top and held it out. “You look like you need it.”
“It’s that obvious?” she asked as she accepted the offering, a sizzle of awareness zinging up her arm when their fingers brushed.
He chuckled, a deep rumbly sound. “Only to anyone with eyes.”
Bracing for whatever was about to burn all the way down her throat to her empty belly, she took a swig from the flask. Lemon. Lime. Bubbles. The shock of soda when she’d been expecting whiskey or gin or even straight-up lighter fluid sent the liquid down the wrong pipe as she spluttered and gasped for air.
“That,” she said, using the back of her finger to dab at her watery eyes, “wasnotwhat I expected.”
He gave her an intense look, as if he needed to check for himself that she was okay, then gave her a lazy smile. “The best things in life rarely are.”
“Sorta like this wedding?” The words—which were the very opposite of reality, considering the air around them reeked of rotten eggs—tumbled out of her.
“This,” he said, leaning over and lowering his voice, “isexactlythe nightmare I expected.”
Eyes wide with shock at someone actually saying it out loud, she stared up at him, and a laugh—her real one that was loud, nasally, and gave off more than a little hint of woodpecker—burst out. “Itis.”
She slapped her hand over her mouth and stifled the last of her chuckles while they shared a knowing glance.
“With the exception of getting to meet you, of course,” he said, watching her as she started to take another drink from his flask. “You have to be the one person in the world who could make that outfit look good.”
Shocked at his words and the shiver of anticipation they sent up her spine, she did a shit job of using her depth perception and bonked the lip of the flask against her teeth.
Wow.
Watch out for Thea Pope, world. She’s setting a land-dork flirting failure record and putting her dentist’s kids through college at this rate.
“You’re kidding, right?” He had to be.
He shook his head and winked at her. “Not in the least.”
Was he flirting with her? No. People didn’t do that. They flirted with Jackie. They ignored Thea, which was more than fine by her. Dinosaur bones, she got. People? They left her at a total loss.
In her head, she said thank you with an air of confidence and mystery before flirting right back. In real life, she made some kind of gurgling, grunting sound and took another drink from the flask—at least this time she didn’t make a total fool of herself by forgetting how to swallow or breaking a tooth.
Instead, she just took the drink and then stood there about as useful as the itty-bitty arms on a T. rex while the man looked at her with an amused grin. Wow. Her minor in communications with an emphasis on public speaking (a hell only made worthwhile by the hope that she’d someday make a discovery so important that she’d have to present at academic conferences) was really coming in handy.
Yep. It was just her, the hot guy who carried a flask full of Sprite, the sulfur stench of the fumaroles and hot springs dotting the landscape, and the silence of a shy paleontologist who couldn’t string two words together.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
Just when the moment was on the verge of morphing from awkward to downright pitiful, the RV door flew open, slamming against the outside of the RV with a metallic thump. Jackie stood in the doorway, her hands on her Disney-princess-levels-of-poof wedding dress.
“Youare not supposed to be here,” she said, looking directly at the guy. “It’s bad luck. Plus, you were supposed to shave off that stupid scruff before filming started.”
Unlike nearly everyone else who’d ever been told to do something by Jackie, though, he didn’t cower or immediately agree. Instead, he threw back his head and laughed. Loudly. Right into the cloudless blue sky. Then, without a single word, he turned and started walking toward the groom’s RV.
