“How screwed am I? Be honest,” she whispers as we follow Wendy through the side of the farmhouse.
“Less screwed than any girlfriend I ever brought around before. You’re acting human, and that’s the important part.”
“Fiancée, Brady,” she hisses. “That’s way bigger than some date.”
“Fake fiancée,” I growl. “Yeah, shit. Seeing as you’re the first woman I put a ring on, you’ve set the bar pretty high. But don’t let it go to your head.”
I just wonder if I’m following my own advice when it’s too easy to forget this is fake, dammit.
“Holy shit, the ring!” Her eyes bulge as she holds her hand up and stares at it miserably. “Can they evencleanthis?”
I take her dirty hand and bring it to my lips, gently clasping the muddy ring with my finger.
“The jeweler I went to can work miracles. Don’t worry.”
“That’s a relief.” She flashes me a laughing look as we step inside.
“I’m sorry as hell for skipping the warning, though. Feel free to murder me later.”
“No—what? Are you telling me you set this up? I thought it was a coincidence!”
Guilt slams into my gut again.
“The mud was a coincidence. Meeting my mother ... I put a little more thought into that,” I admit.
Her face heats as she pulls her hand back, then flicks mud in my face. Probably the least I deserve.
“Right. So, setting up a nice surprise meeting between your mom and me was the whole point of this outing? And you didn’t think totell me?”
“I knew you’d stress if you found out in advance. Didn’t want to put you through a whole thing like the engagement announcement again.”
“Brady! I’m stressednow.” Her face is flushed, but she can’t help smiling bitterly behind her scowl.
“I thought it would be better to introduce my mom somewhere casual. Somewhere you can both—”
“If you’re about to say somewhere we could both make a good impression, do you even see this?” She waves a hand at the mud she’s scraping off her jeans before we head inside. “I wish you would’ve warned me. I never would’ve tried to get on that horse.”
“How was I supposed to know you’d fall, Sass?”
Her eyes are lasers.
She pierces me with a glare so fierce I chuckle and hold up my hands.
“Okay, fine. If it helps, I’ll give you a list of places to dump my body once you’re done dismembering it.”
Rolling her eyes, she huffs a breath and turns back to the bottom of her shirt, which is smeared with yet more mud on the inside.
“At least it’s just mud and not horseshit,” I whisper.
She’s so not amused.
I sincerely hope the animal smell around here isn’t just concealing it, though. I wouldn’t be surprised bythateither.
“Well, what am I supposed to talk about? Tell me,” she hisses, rinsing out the hem of her shirt with a nearby hose. “Your mom is ...”
“Just another human obsessed with her appearance. Pretty old-fashioned. Talk to her about animals. She loves them. Trust me, she’s easier to win over than my old man.”
Lena grunts. “You wanted real, huh? You’ve got enough to choke.”
