Page 12 of His Fake Fiancé

He bent his head so he could whisper in her ear. “I think we surprised her.”

She nodded, but kept her face buried against his chest.

For a moment, he just held her, let the rest of the world fall away. This was good. An intimate public embrace on a busy street. If they were lucky, tongues would be wagging at dinner tables tonight.

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, her silky hair tickling his lips and chin. “Let’s go seal this whole date deal with a movie. What do you say?”

She nodded again and then pulled out of his embrace.

And he was not disappointed by that in the least. No matter what the feeling in the pit of his gut was telling him.

Chapter 5

Two days later, an innocent dinner and movie date was the last thing on Claire’s mind. She wiped her palms on her dress as Jake pulled his truck into the parking garage at the Shasta County Superior Court. Then she had a quick panic about sweat stains marking the fabric, but luckily, there were no marks.

She jumped out of the truck without waiting for Jake to come over and open her door—the Callahans were nothing if not chivalrous. Her heart was currently having a tea party with her tonsils, and no matter how hard she tried to swallow it back down, it refused to budge.

Claire came around the truck, and Jake slipped his hand into hers and led her through the parkade, across the street, and into the building.

The place was busy, people rushing around doing legal and court-y stuff. The family court building offices were on the third floor. The elevator was packed, not that she knew what to say, anyway. They stepped out of the elevator and into something that seemed even busier than the main courthouse.

Jake led her over to their assigned meeting room. As she looked around at all of the people, her lungs froze, making it hard to breathe. All of these people needing the courts to decide what was best for their families. It was heartbreaking.

He urged her to sit on a bench outside the meeting room. She glanced at her watch. They had half an hour to kill before their interview was scheduled to start. Say what you wanted about Jake, but he was always punctual. And then, when something was super important to him or meant a lot to him, he was always super early. It was almost like he was afraid he was going to be late and lose out on whatever it was he wanted, that he overcompensated to the extreme.

She couldn’t blame him in this situation. At least here, she could people watch and distract herself, which was way better than sitting at home and letting the nerves eat through her stomach lining.

Jake paced the length of the bench in front of her, nervous energy bouncing off him with every step. She could almost feel it, like a blast to the face from one of those little space heaters she kept under her desk in the ranch office, for when it got frigid in the small clapboard building in the middle of winter.

She grabbed his arm and pulled him down beside her. His energy was feeding hers, making her insides jump around like water on a hot skillet. He sighed and thrust his fingers through his hair. It was a reflexive action, because he’d spent a long time making sure his hair was perfect this afternoon. She wanted to reach over and fix it, because it was currently sticking up all adorable like, but she didn’t think he’d appreciate it.

He crossed his arms and glanced around. His knee bounced like he was running the Preakness. She reached over and put her hand over top if it, pressing it to a stop. His thigh muscle tensed, and she tried really hard not to notice. Not to fixate on his body, so close to hers on the bench. Or the way his heat soaked into her, sinking into the cold, hollow places inside her.

He stiffened beside her and she looked up. Gina walked toward them, hand in hand with a man Claire didn’t recognize. She met Claire’s gaze for a heartbeat, and then looked away. She wasn’t fast enough to mask the surprise, though.

A sliver of guilt slid under Claire’s skin. The weight of what was happening here finally hit her, and she was glad she was sitting down, or it would have staggered her.

Yes, she knew they were pretending to be a couple so Jake could maintain custody of Olivia. But that meant Gina, Olivia’s mom, wouldn’t get to see her every day, be with her every day. While it wasn’t quite the same, Claire understood what it was like to not have a mom as a girl, and it sucked. Could she really do that to Olivia?

But, if Gina gets custody, that means you won’t get to see Olivia, spend every day with her. And Jake will be devastated. Not to mention Mrs. C, who adores that little girl.

Claire let that thought fortify her, push the guilt aside. It wasn’t like Gina was blameless in this. She was the one who’d left her baby on Jake’s front porch. She was the one who’d decided she didn’t want to do this. There was no reason for Claire to feel guilty. She loved Olivia, and so did the Callahans.

Gina and her friend sat on a bench across from Claire and Jake, but Gina deliberately didn’t look their way. And Claire really needed to stop staring.

She tore her gaze away, glanced over at Jake. Apparently, he didn’t get the memo about not staring, because he was staring at Gina so hard, it was surprising the other woman hadn’t burst into flames already.

This wasn’t the first time he and Gina had been in the same room together. Gina had shown back up in town just over a month ago, demanding to have Olivia back. Jake had gotten all defensive and had refused, which Claire completely understood. He’d been Olivia’s primary guardian since last August when Gina had left the baby on the Callahans front porch. Jake wasn’t complete jerk, though. He’d let Gina see Olivia a few times, but always made sure she was the one who came to them, and they never left the ranch. And, they’d already met with the mediator a couple of weeks ago to see if they could come to some sort of custody arrangement.

That had crashed and burned spectacularly, from what Claire could gather. Jake and his lawyer had met with Gina and a court appointed mediator, as per California Family Court requirements. Because they couldn’t come to an agreement, the court had mandated an outside evaluation of both Jake and Gina in anticipation of deciding what was best for Olivia.

Jake slid his hand into hers, interlocking their fingers. Her chest squeezed, her pulse fluttering, like it always did when Jake touched her. It was almost like the feel of his skin against hers sent all of her nerve endings into a swoon. He leaned over, pressed a kiss to her temple.

The feeling of euphoria lasted for all of twelve seconds, because she quickly realized it was all for show. Jake was just making sure the lie was believable. There were no underlying feelings or motivations.

Claire’s stomach lurched, splashing sourness into her throat. She swallowed it down and tried to keep the disappointment off her face. It wasn’t that hard. She’d spent the last decade pretending she didn’t love Jake Callahan. How hard could it be to turn that off? To let how she felt about him actually shine through?

Because that wasn’t a recipe for disaster or anything?