Over? Is he already looking forward to our week-long expiration date? Does he regret agreeing to this already? Is he going to stick around long enough for H.Y. to believe we’re together?
I swallow another sip, trying to force optimism into my smile.
“It’s a deal,friend.”
thirty-four
PRESENT DAY
BRANDON
When I was eleven, the Sandersons let me tag along to the county fair. We spent the day traipsing across uneven grass between rides shrieking with metal grating on metal. Heidi allowed Tuck, his sisters, and me to play rigged boardwalk game after game. Eric introduced us to the magic of deep-fried Oreos, and I was a goner. Tuck and I must have eaten twelve between us.
Right after, his sisters begged their dad to let them ride the Screaming Inferno—a flame-painted death trap that spun across the rails of a twisting roller coaster. He finally acquiesced, and that’s how I found myself being strapped to a seat thanks to the assistance of a teenager with bloodshot eyes.
The worker slapped a button. The cart began to spin as it followed the rising metal track, and every cell of my body twisted with it. By the time the contraption came to a halt and the teenager fumbled off my harness, I had point two seconds to make it to a garbage can before the Oreos found a new home.
I swore I’d never get on another roller-coaster in my life.
So why the hell am I dating Kate Chen?
Sorry,fakedating.
My wheeled suitcase catches on another divot on the airport floor, and I yank it so hard it almost takes out my knee.
Kate glances back from a few feet in front of me, the ends of her straight hair swinging in time with her hips. She offers a tight smile but simply turns back to navigate the crowds on our way to meet her family at the gate.
She’s spoken maybe nine words since we entered the airport, but she doesn’t seem angry. More like she’s lost in her wandering thoughts, not quite understanding how she ended up in this predicament.
I’m equally at a loss, and more than a little confused. I know we both carry our share of reservations about this façade, but there are maybe four more minutes before we need to act like the doting couple we very mucharen’t.
“Kate, stop.”
I don’t have to ask twice.
Veering to the banks of the passenger river and popping a hip, she blinks up at me. Her dark eyes are careful beneath the brim of her black baseball cap, her strawberry lips a tight line. She’s wearing those dangerous black leggings with crew socks again, but this time she’s got on a cropped white t-shirt. The orange, red, and yellow bomber jacket she often wears hangs tied around her waist.
“What?” she says.
I close my eyes for a second, praying to whatever god is responsible for complicated women with matcha addictions and daddy issues.
“You gonna tell me what’s going on inside that pretty little head of yours?” I say.
Her eyes dart everywherebutmy face. “What do you mean?”
“Kate.”
Behind Kate’s mask, there’s uncertainty. It’s written in the curve of her shoulders, the downturned edges of her mouth, the slight shadows beneath her eye makeup. Her left knee bobs as she finally meets my eyes.
“You don’t have to go through with this, Brandon. Not really. I can just claim you had to work or something. Once we get to the gate, there’s…no turning back. I guess I’m giving you an out.”
The bold girl that stole my heart six years ago looks so incredibly small. So insecure.
And dammit if it doesn’t melt me.
I tug her into my arms, and she doesn’t resist. She fits against me like a long-lost puzzle piece, her curves pressing into spaces that were only ever hers to begin with. I can’t see her face beneath her ball cap, but I can feel her weight as she sags against me.
“I’m not going anywhere, Kate.”
