"I know, but will she expect us to be together all the time? Because that's going to be difficult to explain to my parents."
He shrugged. "I have a busy schedule, so maybe we can just plan on spending time with my mom and sister on Saturdays or Sundays?"
Paige slowly nodded as she chewed on her lip. "That's doable, but it's going to be tricky to hide from my parents."
"I realize I'm asking you to do a lot more than lie to my mom, and I'm sorry for that, but I could lose my job if your father or Dr. Stoker find out I'm dating—well, sort of dating—a patient."
"I know." Her already slow pace slowed even more. "So, we play our parts and keep this a secret for…a few months. Then what? Do we stage a breakup?"
She thought about Riley's comment that maybe her and Gabe’s paths crossed for a reason. What happened if she opened her heart and fell in love with him only to find out he reallywasafraid of commitment?
Gabe's posture stiffened, and his Adam's apple bounced. "That won't be necessary."
"What do you mean?"
He didn't intend to carry this ruse out indefinitely, did he?
He blinked and shook his head as if pulling himself from a stupor. "We'll play it by ear. If necessary, we'll break up." His voice was flat as he stared off into the trees.
"Will that keep your mom off your back for a while?"
He gave a small, sad-looking smile. "I won’t have to worry about her after that."
Paige kept glancing at his face as they continued to walk and discuss plans to join his mom and sister for dinner the next evening. For someone who was desperate to find a fake girlfriend, he didn't look very happy to have one.
CHAPTER 14
"How long have we been dating?" Paige released the balled-up fabric from her fist and smoothed the wrinkles from the front of her summer dress for the third time in as many minutes. She still couldn't believe she'd agreed to this hare-brained scheme.
She'd driven to Pasco to meet up with Gabe before driving to his mother’s house together. That way, they didn't risk her parents or a member of her extended family spotting her getting into her physical therapist's car.
As it was, she'd almost turned around twice on the drive here. But she didn't, and now she sat in Gabe's car surrounded by the smell of his woodsy cologne, her attraction to him growing by the second as they fabricated a relationship.
"Six months?" Gabe gave her a questioning look. "Does that sound like a plausible amount of time?"
He'd told his mom he was dating a former patient, so they'd decided to tell her—if she asked—that he treated Paige a year ago at the office in Pasco. Otherwise, they figured it was best to stick as close to the truth as possible.
"That’s too long, considering I haven’t met your mom yet. Threemonths?" Paige returned his questioning look. "If your mom asks, do I tell her I live and teach school in Seattle? We could say this was a long-distance relationship, and I came home as often as I could to see you. That would explain why you haven't introduced me to her yet."
"I like that." Gabe's lips turned up in a semblance of a smile as he nodded. "Three months it is." His two-handed grip on the steering wheel remained so tight his knuckles turned white.
It was nice to know she wasn't the only one who was nervous. Paige's stomach was so tangled in knots, she wasn't sure she'd be able to eat dinner with Gabe's mom and sister. Knots that formed the moment she told her parents she'd be spending the evening in the Tri-Cities area celebrating the birthday of a former college roommate.
She'd even made a cake—as a front—that she hoped would earn her brownie points with Gabe's family. If anything could help her impress Gabe's mom, it was her sister-in-law, Amy's, triple chocolate cake. If she'd enlisted Amy's help, however, she would have had to lie to yet another person about where she was going and what she was doing, so Paige had made this one. It didn't turn out as pretty as Amy's always did, but hopefully it tasted good.
They continued to make up details for their fake relationship as they drove; concocting dates and activities they enjoyed doing together. Paige was surprised to learn how much they had in common, but she hoped she didn't actually have to remember all the details they discussed.
Dread tightened her knotted stomach as she worried what they would have to do to sell their relationship. How serious did his mom think they were? Would she expect them to hold hands? Or maybe kiss? Paige couldn't make herself ask the questions because she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answers.
The fabric of her dress bunched in her fists again, and the knots in her stomach tangled tighter the closer they got to the suburbs of Richland.
Searching for a distraction, she let the curiosity that had been eating at her, ever since Gabe first mentioned his mom and sister, push to the front of her mind.
"So…uh…I've only ever heard you talk about your mom and sister. Where's your dad?" Paige didn't think it was possible, but Gabe's grip on the steering wheel grew even tighter. As though it was a snake and his grip on it was the only thing keeping it from striking him.
Obviously, a sensitive subject, but it was a detail a girlfriend should know.
The muscle in his jaw jumped several times before he answered. "He walked out on us just before I turned seventeen."
