She shook her head, still not getting it.
“With your boyfriend,” he followed up.
What on earth was he talking about? “Boyfriend? What boyfriend?”
Why did he think…
“Oh God, you’re not still on this whole thing with Andreas, are you?”
“No, I’m talking about your guy back home. Your…your beau.”
“Mybeau?” She stared at him incredulously for a moment and then burst out laughing. He didn’t actually think Beau was her boyfriend, did he? By the utterly confused look on his face, Theo clearly had no idea what he was talking about.
“But—but your dad said—” Theo sputtered as Dani was trying to control her chuckles.
“And what did he tell you exactly?” She folded her arms.
“He’d said you were out with your beau. We talked about this.”
“And that’s how he said it? He said I was withmybeau?”
“Yeah…?” Now Theo was the one who wasn’t getting it.
“Well, mybeauis my coworker who happens to be named Beau. My verygaycoworker.”
Even under the moonlight, Dani could see Theo’s face turn white as a sheet. How was he not laughing? This was fucking hilarious.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Dani asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.
He blinked a few times, seemingly unaware he’d been looking at her in any particular way. “Looking at you like what?”
“Like I told you Beau is an alien.”
“Not an alien. Just confused. Your dad…he said he was your beau.”
Dani rolled her eyes.
“My dad is the one who’s confused. It’s like he’s never heard the name before. Every time I mention Beau, he thinks I’m referring to him asmybeau instead of that being his name.”
“Has your dad ever met him?”
“Yes, which makes it even more baffling. He came over for dinner one time when Eddie was in town, and it wasveryobvious Beau was much more into Eddie than he was me.”
Theo put his hands on his hips, tossed his head back, andthenstarted laughing. “Wow…I…I don’t even know what to say right now.” He ran his hands over his face and then through his silky dark brown hair, shimmering under the moonlight.
“Well, now that we’ve clarified that I’m not some Jezebel—”
“A fake kiss with your fake fiancé hardly makes you a Jezebel,” Theo said.
Fake. Right.
Dani…I…I can’t.
The last thing she needed was to languish over a fake kiss with the man who’d rejected her. Maybe this was her sign that it was finally time to get over him.
“Yeah, okay, well, since that’s out of the way, can we please pretend that tonight never happened?” she pleaded. “Like we forget about it forever and never breathe a word about it ever again, assuming we get out of this mess?”
“Forget tonight?”
