The Bookworm's Guide to Faking It (The Bookworm's Guide 2)

I nodded. “It was towed this afternoon. It’ll be ready on Sunday morning.”

He smiled, and I was struck by how alike he and his son were. They had the same eyes—their smiles always reached them, making them seem even brighter than they were. “Good,” he said. “Go and rest. And I promise I’ll try and stop May gossiping,” he finished dryly. “At the very least, I’ll cut off the champagne.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Seb gave him a weak smile and all but dragged me from the room and out into the much quieter hall.

I blew out a long breath. “Oh, sweet silence.”

Chuckling, he pulled me over to the elevators. “You’re welcome. Dad will talk to her and rein her in some.”

“He couldn’t have done that three hours ago?”

“You’d think.”

The elevator dinged, and I tugged my hand out of Seb’s. His skin was far too warm and his grip far too tight for me to feel even remotely comfortable with that level of closeness, mostly because I actually liked how it felt to have my hand in his.

The elevator took us up to the floor that housed the suites. There were four on here—we had one, May and Ben had the second, and Spencer’s parents had the third. The fourth was reserved for Spencer and his brother-slash-best man for tonight, and tomorrow, it would just be his brother’s.

We stepped out of the elevator, and a trolley was already outside our room. It wasn’t the one we’d left, because that one hadn’t held four beers and a bottle of wine in an ice bucket, plus a bunch of snacks.

Seb wheeled it inside, leaving me to shut the door, and I went over to inspect the snacks.

Cheetos. Pretzels. Popcorn. M&Ms. Hershey’s.

And a tub of chocolate ice cream.

“Can I get this to my apartment, or…?” I looked up at him. “Popcorn and ice cream? This is heaven right here.”

Seb looked up at me, his lips pulling to one side. “I told them to send a selection of junk food. Apparently, they took me literally.”

“I don’t care how they took you,” I said, grabbing one of the pristine white bowls. “They put a woman on this. No man could effectively grab these snacks from the very vague guidelines of ‘junk food.’”

“Hold on.” He pulled his phone from the pocket of his pants and held it over the cart.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking a photo,” he said, leaning back. “So if you ever ask me for junk food, I know exactly what you mean.”

“Nah. They’re missing Sour Patch Kids.” I shrugged and put a spoon in my bowl, then grabbed the salted popcorn. “There we go.”

“You’re taking all the popcorn?”

“Did you want some?”

“No.”

“Then yes, I’m taking all the popcorn.”

“You were taking it anyway, weren’t you?”

I kicked off my heels, sending them scattering across the living room until they rested at the foot of the curtains, leaving me a good four inches shorter than I normally was. “Yep.”

He laughed as I took my goodies into the bedroom and kicked the door shut behind me. There was a small table next to the armchair by the windows, and I put my snacks on there so I could drag the table over to the bedside.

I’d already taken off my shoes, and it took me far too long to remove my dress. It was all but stuck to me, but I was grateful to finally kick it off and replace it with a pair of shorts and my favorite ‘book lover’ tank top.

I unplugged my tablet from where I’d charged it earlier. The screen blinked off, so I turned it on and nestled myself into the bed while it loaded.

My phone blinked from the side table, and I grabbed it.SAYLOR: How did it go? Did you lose your temper and blow the resort up?ME: You are about as helpful as an STD.SAYLOR: Thank you.ME: What makes you think that’s even close to a compliment?SAYLOR: Depends on the situation. If you want a guy to leave you alone, an STD would be VERY HELPFULME: Your brain is a very strange place.SAYLOR: I know. Try living with it.ME: I do.SAYLOR: I’ll ignore that. How did it go?ME: Hell. It was absolute hell. I was introduced to everyone as Seb’s girlfriend and his GRANDPA WASN’T EVEN THERESAYLOR: Ouch. Well, if it makes you feel better, Tori is going to be at the reception tomorrow.ME: Really? That’s random.SAYLOR: Apparently she manages the website Kate uses for her business so she got invited. Must be nice to live a fancy lifeME: I’ve seen Tori work. There’s nothing fancy about holey sweats and Cheeto dust in her hair.SAYLOR: It’s like you can see me.ME: Again, there’s nothing fancy about it.SAYLOR: I’ve seen you relax. I bet you’re wearing old sweats and eating junk food right now.ME: Go away.SAYLOR: LolololololololSAYLOR: That’s one way to scare Seb off