He shrugged his meaty shoulders. “It’s fine. My mom never wanted me to go professional, anyway.”
“Why not? The money would have been phenomenal.” Plus, he was good at it.
His glance skated across the table. “I could tear a hamstring, get another concussion—”
Another?
“—and it’s too much travel,” he said, taking another bite.
I gestured to my phone, which was still playing the song he’d picked. “But aren’t you a musician?”
“At the bar and my friend’s garage.” He chuckled, pushing his food into his cheek so he could talk better. “We’re not gonna go on tour or anything like that. I’d rather be here for my family than shooting up for the mainstage.”
“So, you want to make an honest living in the warehouse and stay close to them,” I concluded, though that reasoning was kind of beyond me. Celebrity didn’t automatically mean messy. Or alone. Plus, hadn’t he gone away from them to State in the first place? Surely, he wanted more from life than to get by.
“Um, yeah. For now.” He knitted his brows at the blinking notification on his old phone, then glanced at the clock. “Hey, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Why do you want to be a model?”
Startled, I sat up straight. “I-I don’t know.” No one had ever asked me. They just said that was cool or gave me a lecture about the industry and my ability to meet its standards. “I guess I want to know what I do matters.”
“So why not be a doctor or a teacher?” It didn’t sound judgmental coming from him, just his usual straightforwardness.
“I don’t like homework. Or most people, to be fair," I said. At his laugh, I cracked a grin. “When there’s a camera between us, that feels like…a good distance," I said.
“I’m sure it does.” He glanced at his phone, then narrowed his gaze on me. “Do you also hate kids?”
Was he asking if I wanted them? I shrugged. “No. I’m an equal opportunist.”
“Good to know.” He smirked and texted someone again.
I bristled and nudged his leg. “Who are you talking to? I thought you hated people and technology.”
“My family.” He cracked his back with a stretch. “They, um, they wanted to check in about my first day.” His lip twitched as he set his phone so the screen faced the table. “They’ve also been hassling me about finding a ‘good woman’ in this new environment, especially as Valentine’s Day approaches.”
I snorted and re-crossed my ankles. “They must be over-the-moon that you work with the highest concentration of straight, single men in the whole mall.”
“Yeah, well, that’s the thing.” He tugged his ear and glanced at the analog clock. “I’m not interested in dating somebody I work with. That could get messy.”
“Okay?” I wasn’t asking him to be my fake boyfriend again, so there was no need to let me down easy.
“But I think, if you agreed, we could maybe…” His face reddened. Taking a deep breath, he glared at the table and spread his stance. “Maybe we could pretend to date.”
21
Checking In
I blinked, lettuce slipping farther off my fork as each second ticked by. Was Zack kidding?
He rubbed his ear on his shoulder. “It wouldn’t have to be a big thing. If I did your social media stuff, that might ‘prove’ we were dating.”
I pulled my feet from the chair and sat up straight. “I thought you said that was ‘stupid’ and ‘unnecessary.’”
He rolled his eyes. “It's weird, to me. But Shelby would see it, and she’d back me.”
“Why go to all this trouble for your family instead of saying you don’t want to make babies?”
