The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club, #1)(55)

Gavin helped her into the car and then went around to his own side.

“So . . .” He did a throat-clearing thing after merging onto the freeway. “D-did you hear anything from Vanderbilt today?”

“Not yet. But it should be sometime this week.”

“W-what if . . .” He didn’t finish the question, but he didn’t need to. She knew what he was asking.

“If I don’t get in? I don’t know. I haven’t let myself think about that.”

“You’ll get in,” Gavin said with a confidence he couldn’t possibly have. “And we’ll celebrate when you do.”

Thea made a noncommittal noise.

A few minutes later, Gavin signaled for an upcoming exit. “Blindfold,” he said playfully.

“Here?” She looked around. They were in a nondescript, big-box store parking lot.

“Yep. Here.”

Heart hammering, Thea tied the bandana around her eyes. This was both ridiculous and endearing. Which made it dangerous. She was supposed to be going through the motions of this date, not actually enjoying herself.

“Can you see?”

“Not a thing.”

“Good. No peeking.”

The car turned two more times until Thea sensed Gavin pulling the car to a stop again. Bright lights turned her vision from dark to reddish through the fabric of the bandana.

Then she sensed him leaning toward her. “OK. Ready?”

She laughed. “Ready.”

Gavin’s fingers fumbled with the bandana. Careful to not pull her hair, he untied it and let it fall. Thea reared back for a moment in the suddenly bright light. Then . . . “You brought me to Art Supplies Plus?”

“I thought w-we could pick up some stuff for your classes.”

Thea stared at him, her heart thudding a warning. He wasn’t going through the motions. This was the kind of date meant to break her down. Her husband was seducing her with markers and blank canvasses.

A flash of uncertainty flickered in his eyes. “Is-is this OK?”

“Yes,” she said. “I . . . thank you.”

Inside, she grabbed a shopping cart and gave him an are you sure look. “You really want to do this?” she asked, trying to keep her tone light.

“Don’t you?”

“Yeah, but be forewarned, Gavin. I’m like a kid in a candy store in places like this.”

He smiled. “I know. I’ve seen our pen drawer at home, Thea. I’m prepared.”



* * *



? ? ?

    He wasn’t prepared.

Thea in an art supplies store was like watching a crazed animal released at the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona. Gavin offered to push the cart while she shopped. It was partially self-serving, because it gave him a better view of her in that dress.

Jesus, that fucking dress. The minute he’d walked into the bedroom, he turned into one of those cartoon characters whose eyes bug out and tongues hang from their mouths.

He followed her up and down several aisles before she let out a loving exhale. “Washi tape,” she whispered, her hand over her heart. There was an entire aisle of it. Rows and rows of the stuff in every pattern and color imaginable. Thea studied individual rolls of tape with a critical eye, throwing some in the cart and returning others to the display. As if they couldn’t afford to buy the entire inventory twice. But that wasn’t Thea’s style. Frankly, he’d been amazed that she’d spent as much money as she did on herself on Friday.

“Look at these.” Thea thrust a collection of school-related tapes in his face. “The girls would love these.”

Gavin returned them to the shelf. She watched him with a confused expression “Why’d you do that?”

“We’re here for stuff for you, not the girls.” He reached over her and grabbed some others that looked like re-creations of Van Gogh paintings. “What about these?”

She plucked them from his fingers and threw them in the cart.

“Have you ever heard of Pinterest?” he asked a few minutes later.

Thea looked at him as if he asked if she’d ever heard of Elvis. “Seriously? I live on Pinterest.”

“You have an account on there?”

“Um, yeah. Why?”

“What do you use it for?”

Thea let out a shrugged breath. “God, what don’t I use it for? Recipes. Craft projects I want to try. Parenting tips. Cute dog pictures. Why?”

His cheeks got hot. “There are . . . pictures of me on that site.”

Thea snorted out a laugh. “I know.”

“You’ve seen them?”

“Did you just discover Pinterest or something?”

“Sort of.” He tilted his head. “So you’ve seen pictures of me on there?”

She shrugged. “Yeah. I have a board dedicated to the Legends, so the site’s algorithm automatically sends me related pins to consider, and that often includes you. Especially since . . .”

She let the sentence drop. Since the grand slam, she meant. She did not want to go there.

“So, you’ll just be sitting at your computer searching for pot roast recipes or whatever, and suddenly there’s a picture of your husband that some woman has posted?”