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FIFTEEN
GRANT
Rhett wouldn’t just beproud of me, he would build a statue in my honor.
Agreeing to pretend to be her boyfriend? I’ve already started pretending because that’s not remotely what I want. We were supposed to come back to town, get that boba tea she’d talked about, and I would set my caution aside to ask her on a date. Anactualdate, not some ruse to save face in front of her mother and her ex.
But maybe this is the better option. We can spend time together and enjoy ourselves—and I’ll know where I stand with her from the beginning. Not especially comforting, but I’m not ready to simply walk away. At least like this, I’ll know in advance exactly when our cozy little bubble will burst.
It’s better than being blindsided.
“Hop in.” I gesture at the SUV and climb inside. I plug Moonlight Lodge’s address into my phone while Lila gets in on the passenger side. After being closed up in the sun for several days, the rental’s new car smell is overpowering.
She starts to dust off her leggings, but stops herself. “I feel bad for the guy who has to detail this car later. My boots are filthy, and I stink.”
I back out of the parking space and head down Maple Street. “You smell great. Where do you live?”
“Uh, back there.” She tosses a hand behind us. “An apartment on Maple. But it’s okay—I can get a ride share from Moonlight Lodge.”
“I’ll turn around and take you home if you want.”
“That’s okay. My mom’s probably hanging around my door to ambush me with more questions. I don’t mind going up to the lodge.” She faces me as much as she can. “Unless you don’t want me to go with you. I know this is a crazy thing to ask of you. We don’t have to?—”
“Princess.” I side-eye her at a four-way stop. “Relax. I want to.”
“Oh. Okay.” She settles against the car seat again. “I keep saying okay. I swear I know other words.”
I grin at her. “It’s okay.”
Her laughter doesn’t last. “We should probably talk about how this is going to go.”
“Going to the lodge?”
“The fake dating.”
The concept already sits wrong with me, and it’s only been five minutes. “Right. What do you want to talk about?”
“Well, most rom-coms make it kind of transactional—you’ll be my date to my sister’s engagement party if I’ll be your date to the big company event that will get you a promotion, something like that. Except, in this case, both those things are mine.”
“This is a common theme in the books you read?” And yet she teases me about the magic and swordsmen in my books.
“Sure. It’s one of the biggest trope pillars. It would be juicier if we were enemies to lovers, too, but we didn’t really hit those notes.” She shakes her head. “Never mind all that. Thepoint is, you don’t get anything out of this. What’s in it for you?”
Oh, nothing. Just the chance to spend more time with the most enticing woman I’ve met in years.
“I can’t do it because I want to?”
She makes a face like she’s weighing that possibility and finds it lacking. “That would feel a lot like pity. And no rom-com heroine worth her salt wants to be pitied.”
If she’s the rom-com heroine, then this hero doesn’t want to be pitied, either. Which, strangely enough, is exactly why this absurd situation holds any appeal for me. If she knew my past, I’d be tempted to think she suggested this pretend relationship to get me back in the dating game. As it stands, she’s doing it for herself. I can live with that.
Following my phone’s instructions, I take us out of Sunshine proper and back into the forest. We’re headed in the opposite direction from where we camped, winding our way up into the foothills. Foothills I intend to explore over the next few weeks.
If she would feel more comfortable keeping this an even exchange, I have a few ideas for her part, after all.
“I have some things I was hoping to do around here on my vacation. Might be nice to have someone with me.”
She stares at me until my skull prickles. “What kinds of things?”
