“Next time you want a coffee girl, call somebody else.”
Thea looked up from her precariously balanced cardboard coffee-cup holder to find Faith’s identical carrier about to implode under the weight of the full take-out cups.
“Suck it up!” she chirped. “We’re spreading joy.”
Her friend glanced down at her pearly white jacket. “We’re spreading coffee stains.”
“Grump. One of those cups is for you, you know.”
Faith leaned over the cups and inhaled. “It’s the least you can do.”
By now they’d reached the exhibit building in the Cavelier County fairgrounds, where Beaucoeur’s massive home expo was underway. It was only twenty minutes away from the official throwing open of the doors for the crowds to float from booth to booth, picking up ideas for spring home-improvement projects from the eighty-some vendors inside.
At the entrance, a bored-looking security guy stopped them. “It’s not open yet.”
Thea lifted her chin toward their ready-to-topple coffee deliveries. “Right, of course. But can we maybe deliver these to the Murdoch booth and then come back out to wait for the official start?”
The guard’s face lit up. “Oh, you’re with the Murdoch team! Sorry about that. Go right ahead.”
And like that, they gained entrance to downstate Illinois’s premiere home renovation destination.
“Wow,” Faith said as they weaved through the displays to the Murdoch kitchen in the back corner. “Is that what it’s like to be treated like royalty?”
“You tell me. You’re the daughter of the Fox empire.”
Faith shuddered, risking more coffee to the torso. “I renounced that filthy money years ago.”
Thea’s joking tone fell away at her friend’s genuine disgust. “Yeah, I know.”
Part of Faith’s post high school emancipation had involved walking away from a sizable trust fund after her overprotective parents sabotaged her relationship with the love of her life. She’d cried for weeks afterward, and Thea knew not a single tear had been over that money. They’d all been about the boy.
“So we’re both nobodies here to check out what’s new in residential siding. What a time to be alive!” Thea gripped her coffee and spun in a circle, giddily happy to be out with her friend at an event she’d never been to before. And truth be told, she was giddily happy to be walking in the direction of her fake boyfriend.
When they were a few feet from the booth, Thea said quietly, “Remember, you’re the only other person who knows about the…”
“The ridiculous scheme that will absolutely blow up in your faces?” Faith asked. “Yeah, got it. Not a word until I can say ‘I told you so.’”
“Thanks for the support!” Thea singsonged her response to cover her nerves. Aiden had just caught sight of her and waved in welcome, and damn, but he was nice to look at in his company polo and worn-in jeans.
“Morning.” He ambled over and plucked the tray from her hands, giving her a quick kiss that set her heart pumping harder.
This kiss didn’t come close to the one that threatened to scorch the paint off the side of Juniper on Tuesday, which was probably for the best. If they went around kissing like that whenever anybody needed to be reminded about their relationship, she was going to combust. His pheromones were off the charts, and she wasn’t going to survive if he kept turning them on and then switching them off again once the show was over.
Brain-scrambling kisses or no, it was time to be her breeziest, best-girlfriend-iest self. “I figured you’d appreciate some caffeine. We brought enough for an army.” She gestured to where Faith was handing out cups to the workers putting finishing touches on the under-cabinet lighting.
Aiden draped an arm around her and dropped a kiss on her temple. “This is really public. You good?”
His whisper stirred the hair next to her ear, and she whispered back, “I appreciate you always checking in with me, but I agreed to this. You don’t have to ask. You can justdo.”
When his brows arched in amusement, she flushed as she replayed her words. She’d basically just given himcarte blancheto do, well,anything, and she’d bet the title to Juniper that whatever he’d do to her would be better than anything she’d experienced with any of her actual boyfriends.
But this line of thinking wasn’t going to help her keep her cool around him, so with a short clearing of her throat, she gestured to the tray he was effortlessly balancing in one hand. “Make sure to grab one for yourself.”
“So thoughtful,honey bear.” He set his tray next to Faith’s empty one on the marble-topped island in the center of the Murdoch display and snagged a cup. When one of his workers called him over with a question, Thea took the chance to lean an elbow on the countertop and simply watch him as he listened to his guy and drank his coffee. At one point he tipped his head to down a long swallow, and her gaze zeroed in on the strong column of his throat.
Lickable, it was. Suckable. Bitable, even.
“Good morning, dear.”
