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We said goodbye after Miles assigned me the homework of learning how to remove wallpaper so he didn’t have to waste time teaching me.
It wasn’t until I was in my car that what I’d agreed to really sank in.
I was officially Miles Aldrich’s fake girlfriend.
Miles was now my fake boyfriend.
I waited for panic to take over, but it didn’t come. Instead, I experienced a half-manic kind of giddiness. This whole idea was crazy, outlandish, completely off the wall.
But what if it worked?
Chapter Twelve
Miles
“Die, duck, die.”
I’d gotten off track. The rubber ducks were still living in my house because the downstairs bathroom had called my name. Now that it had been demolished, I was back at the ducks.
This was why it took me years to finish a house. Undoubtedly, a squirrel or broken tile would distract me again.
The doorbell rang as I was preparing to launch a full-scale attack on the duck that had been giving me the side-eye for a solid week. I tossed down my scraper and wiped my hands on my athletic shorts on my way to let Daisy in.
Swinging the door open, I found my helper standing there, her hands crammed in the pockets of an oversized black hoodie.
“Hello, Cupcake.”
“Cupcake?” she repeated drolly. “I can handle Daisy-daze, but Cupcake?”
“I know for a fact I’ve called you that multiple times and you haven’t complained. Now that we’re exclusive, you’re trying to change me?”
She stomped her little booted foot. “You can’t nickname me after my job. It would be like if I called you…I don’t know, Spreadsheet. That would be weird.”
Reaching out, I grabbed the front of her hoodie and tugged her into my house. She stumbled over the door jamb and caught herself on my chest. Taking her by the shoulders, I steadied her until she shook me off.
“You can’t start complaining before you’ve even left my front porch.”
“Is that the rule?”
“It is in this house. There’s no complaining inside either.” I smiled down at her, pleased she’d shown up. Once she’d left my office yesterday, I had begun to doubt she’d go along with my plan after she put some thought into it, but here she was.
Without warning, she jabbed me in the sternum with her cute little finger. “Landry told me what you did.”
“What did I do?”
She poked me again. “That card you gave her had a voucher for a weekend getaway at a bed and breakfast. That was…”
“Kind? Thoughtful? Generous?”
She growled through gritted teeth. “Yes, Miles. All those things. Why did you do that?”
“She didn’t like it?”
I was rewarded with an epic eye roll. “Of course she liked it. It was kind, thoughtful, and generous. She and Tom really needed an excuse to take time with each other.” One more poke. “My whole family loves you, by the way.”
“Cool. I didn’t do it to buy their love, you know.”
“Then why did you? That’s an over-the-top present for someone you hadn’t even met at that point.”
