She was right. Derek and I were like adolescent rabbits. I’d never had so much sex before in my life, but I wasn’t complaining! I glanced down at her and laughed. “Yeah, we’re pretty gross, aren’t we?”
“No, you’re cute,” she responded as she waved me away with an unconcerned hand. “And to think you were so freaked out that he was going to lose interest in you!”
I sighed as I remembered the panic I’d experienced the morning after we’d had sex. I’d been completely freaked out for no reason at all because Derek was even more attentive and loving now, two weeks later. Our relationship had deepened into the most incredible sexual and loving friendship that I could have ever hoped for.
I didn’t get a chance to respond to her because I was interrupted by a quick knock on our door. Dani stood up, dropping my bag full of toiletries into my suitcase, and then opened the door, revealing Derek standing in the hallway. Luke was right beside him. Derek smiled at Dani, giving her a hug as he walked into our room and his attention shifted to my opened suitcase where it sat on the bed.
“You still aren’t finished packing?” he faux yelled, throwing his hands up in the air. “Nik, we’ve gotta be at the airport in an hour!”
“I know, I know,” I answered as I threw the pile of clothes beside the suitcase into it and then struggled with the zipper. Derek shook his head and walked over to me, giving me a kiss before he pushed me aside and zipped the thing up himself.
“Hi, Nik,” Luke said as he walked into the room and Dani shut the door behind him. I walked over to him and hugged him as Dani handed me my carry-on. Luke, meanwhile, walked across the room and gripped each of her bags.
“We are all packed up and ready to go!” Dani nearly sang. “Thailand, here we come!”
“I’m so excited!” I said as I turned to face Derek, who was already holding my suitcase and starting for the door. “I have a bunch of brochures for us to look through on the plane so we can decide what we want to do once we get there, and I went ahead and made an outline of all the things that I think look the most interesting. Just to make it easier on everyone,” I added with a smile as the four of us emptied into the hallway.
“She’s a planner,” Dani explained to Luke with a shrug as I turned around, remembering to lock our door. When I turned back again, I found all three of them facing me, and I suddenly found myself beaming from ear to ear.
“This is going to be a trip we will never forget, I can just feel it,” I said with a rush of excitement. And I really meant it.
The End
Thank you for reading The Handbook and I hope you enjoyed it! If you did, don’t forget to join my mailing list at https://www.hpmallory.com/mailing-list to be the first to know whenever I release a new book!
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About the Author:
H.P. Mallory is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author who started as a self-published author.
She lives in Southern California with her son and her enormous dog, where she is at work on her next book.
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The Handbook Page 26
