"Wow," Riley breathed. "This is really impressive."
"Thanks." Grant leaned against the workbench. "Been working on it for about a year now. New beams, reinforced walls. That loft up there—" He pointed. "I'm converting it into storage."
"You did all this yourself?"
"Most of it. Dad helped with the heavy lifting."
Riley ran her hand along one of the beams. The wood was smooth, warm. "It's beautiful, Grant."
"You always liked this barn."
"I did?"
"Yeah. You used to come out here when we were in high school. Said it was quieter than your house."
Riley's chest tightened with the memory. She had. She'd spent hours out here, doing homework, reading, just existing while Grant worked on whatever project his dad had assigned him.
"I forgot about that," she said softly.
"I didn't."
Their eyes met, and something passed between them—something warm and dangerous and inevitable.
"Grant—"
"Your mom invited me to dinner on Sunday."
Riley blinked hard at the subject change. "She what?"
"Sunday dinner. She texted me this morning."
"Oh god."
"I said yes."
Riley's stomach dropped. "You said yes?"
"We're dating. It would be weird if I said no."
"But my whole family will be there. Tyler's going to interrogate you. Lily's going to ask embarrassing questions. My mom—" She stopped. "My mom's going to be insufferable."
Grant smiled. "I've survived your family before."
"That was different. We were actually dating."
"And now we're fake dating. Which means I have to beextraconvincing."
Riley groaned. "This is a disaster."
"It'll be fine."
"You keep saying that."
"Because it's true." Grant stepped closer, his voice dropping. "Riley. It’s no big deal. We know each other. We know our families. This is just…acting."
"Right. Acting."
Except it didn't feel like acting when he was standing this close, when she could smell pine and coffee on him, when his eyes were doing that soft thing that made her want to close the distance between them.
