Back to Me (Book Three ✓)

seventeen

EMMA

The door slams shut and I lean against it, giving myself a minute before rejoining Adam in my living room. Shame washes over me. I should have just told Beau the truth about why he's here.

But something about the way he asked bothered me. Shaking my head at the immature side he seems to bring out of me, I plaster a false smile on my face and make my way back to where Adam is waiting, my vision boards scattered on the coffee table in front of him.

"What's that?" He points to the gift bag Beau gave me. Again, my curiosity is piqued. But I want to open it alone - Beau has a way of making me emotional in only a way that he can. I'd like to suffer in solitude, if I must.

"Not sure," I shrug, placing it at the bottom of the steps before I sit beside Adam. "So bachelorette party games not involving strippers - what do ya got?"

I was surprised when Gemma told me that she and Connor decided to forego the risqué tradition at their parties. I guess I was only really surprised that Gemma seemed not to mind. I always thought she'd be surrounded by sexy men, dancing her last night of being single away in a dim limo or something.

"I don't know - that's your problem. Mine," Adam runs a hand over his face. "Is how I'm going to get all these bars into our bar crawl, and still get back in time for Gemma's curfew."

"Their curfew. They both agreed." I point out defensively.

Perhaps less surprisingly, Gemma and Connor are tossing out another tradition: spending the night before the wedding apart. Gemma said they wanted to bring in their wedding day the right way. I could tell by her wiggly brows that she meant sex, so I didn't bother asking for more details.

"I guess it makes up for the strippers." Adam mutters, revisiting the meticulous agenda he's been working on.

"Let me see." I reach for the paper. "I think 2AM is pretty generous time-wise." Biting the tip of my pencil, I remove one of the bars from his list. "That one stinks. Gemma hates it."

"Connor was sort of excited for that one," Adam laughs. "They are really different, huh?"

Trusting my judgement, he amends the agenda accordingly and finally seems to make it back in time for their motel meet-up.

"Now - games. How can I help?" Adam refocuses on my issue and I dive right in.

For the rest of the evening, we plan out the rest of the girls night and coordinate so that our groups don't run into each other until we're supposed to. Once we've come up with a list of PG-13 questions for Adam to film Connor answering for the newlywed game, and a list of must-have photographs for the scavenger hunt, it's already almost midnight.

"Well, I'll get out of your hair. Let you get some sleep." Adam says, quickly scanning over all that we've accomplished. "I can't wait till I get married and can make Connor do all this stuff for me."

I stretch my arms above my head and let out a yawn, following Adam to the front door. "Gemma and Connor in charge of our weddings... That could be scary." I shudder, thinking of the bill Gemma could rack up left unsupervised.

Adam laughs, meeting my eyes as he steps through the doorway. "Goodnight, Emma. I had fun. I always have fun," He stammers. "But you know, I just mean... I like spending time with you."