She shakes her head. “It’s nothing. You just… it’s nothing.”
“Tell me,” I press.
“You just have a special way of irritating me, that’s all.”
Laughter escapes me despite our current situation. Briefly, I wonder if the way I irritate her is the same way she irritates me?
The best kind of irritation.
Irritation because of desire.
“But I’m really sorry,” she tacks on sheepishly.
I sigh and step towards her. “It’s okay. All’s well. But can we go?” I sniff my shirt. “I stink.”
She glances up at me through thick eyelashes, and I offer her a reassuring smile. She returns the smile and nods, then she scrunches her nose in that cute way that melts any remaining frustration from the crab incident. “Yeah, you do stink. This will be a fun ride back to work.”
As we exit, I turn over a million words in my brain—a million different ways to ask Lucy to be my stand-in date this weekend. I already know if I ask her in the sense that I’m asking her out for real, she will say no and bolt as she has in the past. I need to approach this like it’s all pretend. She will pretend to be my girlfriend this weekend, that’s all. Nothing real. Nothing permanent. Heck, I don’t want something permanent with Lucy. Yeah, she’s captivating. Yeah, I think about her even when I’m with other women. Yeah, I think she’s somehow written her name on my soul, but all that could go away in an instant. It has before. There have been a few women in my life who have made me feel this way, but those deep feelings end up dissipating. Usually once the high of the chase was over. That could happen with Lucy, too.
Itwillhappen. Love never sticks around.
Simply put, it’s smart of her to keep fending off my advances. Even if I didn’t want to, I would still break her heart.
The thought of adding another crack into Lucy’s golden heart sends a wave of anger over me. I glance at her, walking with her head tilted down and hands clasped in front of her as she matches me step for step.
I really don’t want to hurt her.
But I also really want toexperienceher.
Maybe a weekend away playing pretend will put these feelings to rest so I can move on and not lose control when it comes to my pretty employee whose company I genuinely enjoy.
An all too familiar voice calls out my name. It freezes me in my tracks, and I’m instantly transported five years into the past to high school graduation night for Dasher Valley High where that samevoice uttered words that completely derailed my life plans as I was down on one knee.You’re not enough for me, Stone. A real man…That night I realized just how much pain my now brother-in-law, Lucas Grady, must have been in when my big sister left him for her career.
Something akin to horror flashes before my eyes as I realize I have no choice but to address her. I could have kept walking, pretending that I didn’t hear my name, but now that I’ve stopped, I have to face her. I wonder if she has the man whoisenough for her on her arm.
Lucy elbows me, ripping me from my nightmare.
Lucy…who is already my girlfriend in my family’s eyes, though she doesn’t know I’ve been using her as a shield against the desires of my family. The woman I want to play pretend with anyways…
I slip my arm around her waist and tug her close before leaning down to whisper in her ear. “Lucy, are you truly sorry for leading me into the women’s bathroom?”
“Of course,” she says, looking up at me perplexed while also trying to step backwards.
I tighten my hold around her.
“Stone, is that you?” The ghost of my past is now right behind us.
Once more, I whisper in Lucy’s ear. “Play along.”
As I bring my other hand to her waist, I spin her around, take a steadying breath, say a quick prayer that this won’t go to hell in a handbasket like the rest of this day has, and then I turn around.
Sliding my arm back around Lucy and splaying my fingers across her hip so she doesn't attempt to move, I muster all the courage I can find and paste the biggest of smiles to my face.
“Lacey, it’s good to see you.” I nod once then shift my attention to the shorter, stockier,olderman clasping her hand. “Jordan.”
“Good to see you,” Jordan says, stretching out his hand, doing an admittedly good job at not looking me over in my nasty crab-soaked state. I shake it with a firmness I didn’t know I had. He turns to Lucy. “I’m Jordan Hopper.”
She looks up at me with questions in her eyes. I relax a little, confident enough that she will play along with me. She takes that as the go ahead and grabs his hand, giving him her full attention. “Lucy Spence.”
