Page 72 of Structure of Love

We were practically the same size, and while I knew he was strong, I wasn’t a lightweight by any means. “I doubt—”

“Sure,” he said, cutting me off.

I froze. Sure? Eh, what? “Why are you so confident?”

“Well, I’ve picked up my friend in an emergency, and he’s way bigger than you, hon. If I can lift Nate, you’re going to be easy.”

Then, without even a by-your-leave, he swooped in and picked me up in a princess carry.

I scrambled, wrapping my arms around his shoulders for balance, huffing, different emotions warring in me. On the one hand, surprise was right there at the top, because holy hell, he was absolutely correct. This wasn’t even much of a strain for him! On the other hand, being held was kind of uncomfortable. I felt displaced in the air.

“Gage, bear with me another second,” Shanice begged. “Drop your head to his far shoulder so your face is hidden.”

Eh, okay. I did as bid but that didn’t feel comfortable either. Clearly I wasn’t the damsel in distress type.

“Okay, good!” Ami said. “Logan, you can set him down.”

“Naw, I like him up here.”

He was clearly getting payback for earlier, but two could play this game. I blew a raspberry against the side of his neck. Logan busted out laughing, almost dropping me, but he did set me back down.

I had a feeling Shanice had also caught those actions on camera, but that was a fun picture I’d like to have.

“What else is something you’d naturally do?” Ami asked.

“Well, I mean, we’d have to go outside for it, but I did bring my bike?”

They both lit up at Logan’s suggestion, which made sense. They’d dubbed him biker god.

“Outside!” Shanice said the word like a call to the battlefield.

Ami immediately grabbed a reflector screen.

Apparently, we were moving this outside.

By eight o’clock that night, they finally said they had enough shots to work with. I hauled Logan back to my house, escaping while the escaping was good.

We’d had an early dinner before the shoot, but I wanted munchies after being in front of a camera’s lens for hours. So I offered as we came in through the front door, “Beer, popcorn?”

“Beer definitely. You hungry?”

“Just feeling snacky.”

He followed me into the kitchen, but his phone rang and he answered it while accepting the beer I handed him. “Heya, Nate. Whazzup?”

Oh, same Nate who he claimed he’d had to lift?

“Yeah, man, I close on it Monday. Party?” Logan tilted his head like he wasn’t sure where the GPS was taking this conversation all of a sudden. “What do you mean, party?Oh. You got me there, man. It absolutely should be celebrated. Where? Yeah, sounds perfect. No, my day manager has it covered, I can do a Sunday. Hey, uh, want to meet my boyfriend? Yeah, that boyfriend. Why you acting like I got multiple men on the line?”

I threw popcorn into the microwave, but I paid close attention to Logan’s conversation. What was I being volunteered for?

“Sure, sure, what do I bring? Hardy har har, aside from Gage. All right, sounds good. See you there. About noon? Cool.”

He hung up, staring at the phone with a perplexed look. “Well, Gage, wanna meet my friends on Sunday?”

“Sure. Only fair, since you already met mine. What’s that look for?”

“It’s, uh, my friends heard I’m closing on the building, and they want to celebrate. I just…didn’t expect that.”