The Price of Love (A Price Novel Book 1) (24 page)

“Nah, we’re probably safe. Looks like he’s on a date.” I had to force a smile. Oddly enough, I felt a little twinge of jealousy. I didn’t want to date Eric, but I guessed I was just so used to having him following me around that I had never thought about him with anyone else before now.

“Are you OK?” Milly asked.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I guess because Eric is here with another girl.”

“Please. I wouldn’t trade Slayde for ten Erics.”

“I know that, but that doesn’t mean it can’t bother you to see him with someone else. Even just a little?” She held up her thumb and index finger about an eighth of an inch apart.

“OK, maybe a little.” I changed the subject. “So, why were you so short with Eddie?”

“I don’t think I was short with Eddie. I was just being myself, and he was just being Eddie.”

“You’re saying there is no attraction there at all? He is totally not your type?”

“I didn’t say that, but I just think Eddie is more into you than me.” She looked down and stirred her drink.

“Are you being serious? He was smiling at you and winking at you. He didn’t so much as say boo to me, and if you haven’t noticed, he has looked over here like fifty times already.”

“I don’t think so. He has asked me for your number twice. I think he likes you.” She looked sad. This was the first I’d heard of that, which let me know she did like him — otherwise she would have given me that information before now.

“That doesn’t mean crap. I’m off the market. So go after him. Ask him out. After all of the times you have pushed and lectured me about putting myself out there, maybe it’s time you took your own advice.” I shoved her out of the booth. “Now, go get us another drink.” I gave her a big smile and a thumbs-up. Reluctantly, she headed to the bar.

It was beginning to get crowded, and a long line had formed at the bar, but Eddie took Milly’s order first.
Now
that’s a good sign!
I was enjoying my feeling of accomplishment when Eric sat down in front of me. “No Slayde?”

“Excuse me?”

“No Slayde. You’re here without him?”

“I’m here with Milly, celebrating the end of finals. That has nothing to do with Slayde,” I said defensively.

“I see. I just figured that since he had forbidden you to be with your friends, then going to bars had to be completely out of the question.”

“Slayde doesn’t care if I go to bars, nor does he tell me who I can be friends with, but I don’t think being friends with you is the best idea. You so obviously don’t respect me or my relationship with Slayde, and I don’t blame him for what he said to you. You really didn’t give him any choice.”

“Whatever! I didn’t come here to fight with you. I just wanted to wish you a merry Christmas.” He got up and walked away.

Within minutes, Milly was back. “Was that Eric I saw sitting with you?”

“Yep.” I gave her a look to let her know it wasn’t a happy visit.

“Gotcha! You’d think he’d get the picture.”

“OK, so, what’s the scoop with Eddie?” I didn’t want to talk about Eric anymore.

“Well, as luck would have it, he asked me out for lunch tomorrow.” She was smiling from ear to ear. I hadn’t seen her this excited since — well, I didn’t think I had ever seen her really excited.

“And you said yes?”

“Of course I said yes. My flight isn’t leaving until tomorrow afternoon, so it works out just perfectly.”

Before long, Milly and I both had a good little buzz going. I felt my body relax as we sat and enjoyed each other’s company for a few more hours before walking home. When we got home, we piled up in my bed and passed out.

A few hours later, I woke up to Milly screaming and kicking wildly. I reached up to turn on my lamp before I had heart failure.

“Milly, what the hell are you doing in my bed?” I heard Slayde say before I could get the light on.

Once I managed to turn it on, I saw Milly laughing and running out of the room with her eyes covered, screaming, “I’m scarred for life!” Slayde was completely naked — he had obviously thought Milly was me. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“I’m glad you think that’s so funny.” Slayde was trying to act pissed, but he was really bad at it. He finally started laughing too. He got into the bed and covered up. “Do you think we should lock the door?”

“I don’t really see the point now,” I said, still laughing. “I highly doubt she will be back anytime soon.”

“It doesn’t bother you for your friends to see me naked?”

“Well, the whole world has seen you in your underwear.”

“That’s different.”

“Not really. If you study that picture hard enough, which I have, it doesn’t leave that much to the imagination. Just saying.” I tried not to let it bother me that other women had seen my man in his underwear, but sometimes it really did.

“Well, I take it your final went well?” he said. “Did you have fun tonight?” He started kissing my neck and trying to slip my pajama bottoms off.

“Yes, we had fun. I ran into Eric at the bar.”

He stopped kissing me. “Really? How did that go?”

“Fine, I guess. He was on a date, but he did stop to wish me a merry Christmas.”

“That was it?”

“Yeah, he left us alone after that. What time is it?”

“Four forty-five,” he said.

“What are you doing home? I thought you weren’t going to be home until almost lunch.”

“We all decided to work late and finish tonight instead of going back in the morning for only a few hours. Remember, I told you that earlier when I called you.”

“I guess I forgot. I must have drank too much.”

“I hope that’s all you forgot. I know how you get when you drink too much.” He laughed, and went back to kissing me.

We slept in the next morning and woke to an empty house. Milly had already left for her lunch date with Eddie. Slayde and I lounged around in our pj’s for a while, enjoying our alone time in our new house.

“You know, this is the first time we’ve been alone since we moved in,” Slayde said, kissing the back of my neck.

“I know. It’s kind of weird.”

“Weird, huh?” He laughed. “You want Milly to move with us when we get married?” There he was, talking about getting married again.

“I don’t know. I guess we can talk about that if we decide to get married.” I knew that sounded kind of shitty, but I didn’t really know what else to say. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t love to spend the rest of my life with Slayde, but I just couldn’t imagine it somehow. I would always be waiting for the mystery and allure to wear off before he moved on to bigger and better.

“Why do you always say stuff like that? Can’t you see yourself with me for the rest of your life?” He had stopped kissing me, and turned me to face him. “Baby, do you not feel that way?” He took a step back from me, crossed his arms, and started chewing the inside of his mouth, which told me he was nervous about my answer.

“I never said that. I guess I’m just living in the here and now. Trying to get through school first. Who knows what is going to happen down the road? You’ll be famous and off filming all the time, and I’ll be living in the hospital during residency for the most part.” I couldn’t look him in the eye. He didn’t say anything else. He went into our bedroom and shut the door.

This is not how I wanted to start our vacation.
I knew I should go in there and talk to him, but I had no idea what I would say. I tried to call Milly for advice, but it went straight to voice mail. I hoped her date was going better than things were here.

Eventually, I decided I had to go talk to him. When I opened the door, I could see he was packing. His suitcase was on the bed, and he had it almost full of clothes. I felt sick. “Are you leaving? Slayde, I don’t want you to leave. Can we please start this day over?” I could feel the tears start to run down my cheeks. I really didn’t know what I would do if I wasn’t able to be with him forever. He started smiling and walked over and hugged me.

“I’m not leaving, silly,” he said.

“Then what were you doing?” I knew I sounded frantic.

“Packing for our ski trip, remember? I know we aren’t leaving until tomorrow, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to head to my parents’ tonight so that we wouldn’t have to get up as early in the morning. Dad said we were flying out at one.”

“Your dad is going?”

“Well, of course he is. It is a family thing. Is that OK?”

“Of course it’s OK. I just haven’t seen him in years, that’s all.”

“He’s the same old Zac Price, selfish as hell.” He went back to packing. I decided to leave that subject alone and start packing. When he saw me pulling out my old suitcase I’d had for years he said, “Oh, that reminds me. I got you something.” He went out, and through the window I saw him walk out to his Range Rover. He came back a minute later with brand-new Louis Vuitton luggage. It was the LV-monogrammed large rolling suitcase; it was big enough that I could have easily fit inside and still zipped it up. He threw it on the bed.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s luggage. You don’t like it?”

“Of course I like it. Actually, I love it. You didn’t have to do that. That’s crazy, but thank you so much.” I reached up and kissed him.

“You’re going to be traveling a bunch, so I figured it would come in handy.” As he said that, he unzipped it, and I could see that another suitcase exactly like it but a size smaller was inside, and then he pulled out a matching large carry-on.
Do I really need all this?

“Traveling? What are you talking about — and do I really need that many?”

“Well, we are going to Breckenridge and New York, of course. But also, now that I’m finished filming, I have a ton of stuff coming up all over the place, and I was thinking you would go with me when you could. And you have a lot of shoes.” He laughed.

“Oh, OK!” I smiled and kissed him again. “Thank you!”

Milly, apparently home, called out cheerfully, “Hello, roomies, don’t you want to know how my date was? If you want to talk to me, you are going to have to come out here, because I am definitely not coming back into your room.” She was laughing.

“Aw, Milly, you sure you don’t want to sleep with us?” Slayde said when we emerged. He playfully punched her on the arm. “How was your date?”

It must have gone well, because she was standing there, smiling like an idiot, looking happier than I’d ever seen her.

“Absolutely not. I saw way more of you than I ever needed to. Thank goodness I’m a light sleeper, or we could have had a whole different relationship this morning.” They both laughed. I could tell Milly was a little embarrassed, but Slayde didn’t seem to be. “And my date was fabulous. Eddie really is a nice guy. I was pleasantly surprised.”

“How about I told you so,” I said. “Don’t I have good taste?”

“Oh, so he’s your taste, huh?” Slayde said. “Maybe I need to meet this Eddie.”

Milly looked at her watch and frowned. “OK, just not today, because I have to get to the airport ASAP.” Milly ran into her room and came out with her bags. She hugged us both good-bye and flew out the door.

After Milly left, Slayde pulled a map out of the luggage.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It appears to be a map.”

“Are we going on a treasure hunt?” I asked sarcastically.

“Not today. Maybe another day.” He handed me the map and got a pen off the counter and handed it to me too. “OK, since you’re about to have very limited time for the next few years, we need to sit down and figure out all the places we are going to go whenever you get a little break.” I looked at him as if he were crazy. “Oh, come on, Arden, everyone’s gotta die with a passport full of stamps. Let’s go somewhere cool.” Grabbing my hand, he led me back to our room.

“And where would that be?”

“It doesn’t matter to me, as long as you’re there.” He looked over my shoulder as he lay the map down on the bed. “Get to circling,” he whispered in my ear, which gave me goose bumps, and he kissed my neck.

“You’ve been everywhere already.”

“No, I haven’t, and if I have been there, I want to go again with you.”

Now that was just sweet. I wasn’t about to ruin the moment by telling him sleep would be the only thing I was going to want to do in my time off. So I started circling.

Slayde just lay there beside me and watched me and periodically made comments about places he had been.

We got to be alone for a few more hours before heading to Slayde’s parents. On the drive over, I finally got up the courage to ask, “When you said this was a family trip — that doesn’t include Brady, does it?” I had been skirting around the subject for days, but I needed to know what to expect.

“Does it matter? Will it bother you to be around him?”

“I guess it doesn’t matter, but I think it could be awkward.”

“No, he isn’t going. He’s doing something with his mom, I guess.”

“Have you talked to him since we started dating?” I asked. I knew Slayde didn’t like thinking about Brady and me together, and I got that. However, at some point we would be forced to see each other.

“Of course I’ve talked to him but not about you. I don’t think it matters.”

“It may matter to him,” I said.

“So, you do still care about him?”

“No, Slayde, but I do care about causing a huge scene in front of your parents. I really don’t want to be embarrassed.”

“I guess you have a point. I don’t think he has a right to be mad, but knowing Brady, he might.”

When we arrived at Slayde’s parents’, his mom was waiting for us at the front door, looking like Barbie in her perfectly put-together designer outfit, perfectly flawless blond hair, and great big smile to match it all.

When we got out of the vehicle, she ran over and hugged us. “I’m so glad you’re here. I have been waiting for you all day.” She squeezed us both again. “I have supper ready, so come eat.”

Taylor and a thin red-headed girl with a messy bun on top of her head were sitting in the living room, watching TV and eating pizza. They didn’t even notice when we walked in the room.

I’d forgotten how beautiful Slayde’s parents’ house was. It was huge and sat in the back of a gorgeous neighborhood in the hills, inside its own private set of gates. Their yard was perfectly manicured and overlooked the valley below. The living room had huge windows that gave you an amazing view of their beautiful yard with a gorgeous infinity pool.