Tall Cool One by Zoey Dean Read Free Book Online Page A

change their money.
    As for the nonevent on the beach, she had no doubt that he’d be ready for a rematch at the soonest possible moment. Every guy Cammie had met since eighth grade wanted to get his hands on her. Adam might be a great guy, but he was still a guy.
    “I don’t know anyone else in Los Angeles who would have brought me here,” she told him.
    “Yeah, I’m up for anything,” Adam joked. “That is, if we don’t count last night.”
    Cammie shrugged. “Already forgotten,” she lied.
    He grinned at her. “If at first you don’t succeed . . .”
    She stood on tiptoe to kiss him. “My sentiments exactly.”
    Ten minutes later, armed with the plastic money chips, they’d visited several of the open-air food vendors arrayed around the plaza and loaded up on pad Thai, meat satays, papaya salad, and sweet pancake rolls. By the time they found some unoccupied space on the grass under a huge eucalyptus tree, Cammie’s mouth was literally watering at the luscious aroma from the food. Meanwhile, Adam extracted a thin ground cloth from his backpack, along with linen napkins, silverware, and two small thermos bottles.
    “The fair lady said something about a mimosa?” he asked, offering Cammie one of the thermoses.
    “You’re kidding. You mixed mimosas?”
    “I’m a guy of many talents.”
    Cammie bit into a forkful of pad Thai. “Delicious. But I don’t get it. You moved here last year from Michigan, I’ve lived in L.A. my entire life. Why didn’t I know about this place?”
    “Umm . . . because there are no waiters and no valet parking?” Adam quipped.
    “That must be it.” She leaned over to kiss him. What started out as a peck turned into the real, pad Thai–flavored thing. “Yum.”
    They ate for a while, watching the passing parade. When Cammie recognized two cast members from
Saturday Night Live
with an Endeavor agent named Ari Something-or-other who had once threatened to put out a hit on her father, she knew this had to be an actual Hollywood insiders’ hot spot. Eventually she put her food aside half eaten; there were only so many calories she was willing to ingest while the sun was still up.
    “So, what would you like to do
now?
” she asked, keeping her tone low and suggestive, though there was a definite answer she was looking for. From their spot under the tree, she could see the tops of both the Universal City Hilton (decent, though it catered to too many tourists) and the Universal City Sheraton (somewhat less nice, but hey, for what she had in mind, they wouldn’t be spending a lot of time in the lobby). It was a Sunday; people checked out early to catch their planes, so there would certainly be a suite available.
    Adam took way too long to answer. “I don’t know how to ask you this,” he began, “but . . .”
    “Ask,” Cammie commanded. She could already picture them inside a suite, already imagine the look on his face when he realized he’d just lucked into the sexiest girl on the planet.
    “I do some work for Habitat for Humanity,” Adam went on. “They’re building houses for two homeless families on this vacant lot in South Central. How ’bout we go down and help out? I’ve got a few hours before I’m supposed to run hoops down in Venice with some guys from the team.”
    A house? He had a few hours, and he wanted her to help build a
house?
Was there something wrong with him? Maybe he was gay. No. Couldn’t be. Cammie’s gaydar was better than that. Her friend Dee was the one who hooked up with gay guys. What could the problem possibly be? Her? What if it
was
her? What if he’d decided that she wasn’t a charitable enough human being or some such shit? Well, she would change, if that was what it would take to get this guy to want her.
    Pushing aside thoughts of what hell would be wrought upon her French manicure, Cammie smiled and did her best to look enthusiastic. There was something touching about a guy sincere enough to believe that pounding nails in