Tillie Jean releases Davis and spins to face Ray again, backing up against us until both Davis and I are forced to also step back toward the workroom.
“Sloane hasn’t had any other hot boyfriends.”
“There was that guy she was dating who was cheating on Ellie Ryder?—”
Davis clears his throat.
Lava replaces the blood in my face.
I don’t know what that noise meant from Davis.
Nigel clears his throat too, but this one, I can interpret.
This one meanssex before marriage is a sin, Sloane, and I’m going to punish you for the rest of your natural life.
It would be so much sexier if a hero from one of my friend Henri’s romance novels said that than it is when Nigel implies it.
“Go get Max,” Tillie Jean orders again. “And so help me, if you ruin this announcement for Sloane… I know things, Ray, and Iwillrepeat them.”
“Okay! Okay! I’m going. I’ll be back with Max in two minutes, I swear.”
“Stupid dresses without pockets,” Tillie Jean mutters. “I need my damn phone.”
“Right?” I gasp.
Gasping is pretty much all I’m capable of now that I’ve spilled the CliffsNotes version of our story to my fake boyfriend.
Especially with Nigel glaring at me.
And that pisses me off too.
We were friends once.
Friends should be happy for friends when they have good news.
Not that my good news is real, but I haven’t seen Nigel in far too long for him to know I’m lying.
Especially since Davis has an arm wrapped around my waist and is holding me close to his body.
He smells like camping in a forest. Like a starry sky next to a campfire. S’mores in the middle of summer.
And his arm—my god.
The man’s lean, but he’s strong.
Sostrong.
Stop it stop it stop it, Sloane.
I owe him an explanation.
Also some undying gratitude.
But wait—whyis he going along with this?
Does he…? I gasp again, this one more of a croaking gasp.
Does helikeme?
