“In Canada,” I finished for him, trying not to laugh at the way he was rambling.Too cute.
“Yeah.” Carter rubbed the back of his neck, a blush creeping up the shell of his ears. “Like I said, it’s stupid.”
“So you just wanna take a friend, or…?”
“A date,” Carter clarified. “I know, Iknow, okay? But the ex-girlfriend my mom wants me to marry is going to be there, and if I show up free and single I’m gonna walk away with a wedding date set. You’ve met my mother.”
I had. Overbearing was putting it mildly.
“A date,” I repeated, since my brain was struggling with the idea that Carter wanted to takemeto a wedding. As his date.
Fifteen-year-old Aiden was doing a happy dance in my heart.
“Not, I mean…” Carter scratched his neck again. “Just… stand next to me? Tell people we’re dating if they ask? Maybe imply you do actually like me?”
“I do like you,” I said. Carter clearly needed to hear that, and what was the point in lying to him?
I wasn’t telling him I’d had a hundred wet dreams about him, just that being around him wasn’t a hardship.
“Kieran said.” Carter licked his lips, and I wondered exactlywhatKieran had said.
He’d given me no end of hell for having a crush on Carter when we were kids. As far as I knew, he hadn’t said anything back then—probably so it wouldn’t scare Carter away from coming over—but now…?
“I’ll do it,” I said without pausing to think any more carefully. I’d have to move some clients around and make my excuses, but how often was I going to get this chance?
Besides, all the travel I’d done in the last three or four years had been for work. This wasn’t exactly forfun, but it beat working. No matter how much I loved my job. Everyone needed a break sometimes.
“You will?” Carter raised an eyebrow, like he hadn’t expected me to agree. “It’s a whole week. We have to leave early tomorrow.”
“I’ll reschedule everyone this afternoon,” I promised.
The look on Carter’s face made it all worth it. Relief, awe, gratitude, maybe even…
The faintest spark of attraction?
No. No, he wasn’t into me. I knew better than to think that.
“So… you’re gay? Or bi, I guess, if we’re trying to save you from your ex-girlfriend.”
Carter shook his head. “No, uh. No, not… really. I just figure thinking that might be the only thing that makes my mother back off. Is that… horrible?”
“It’s understandable. I’ve met your mom. She yelled at me about not wearing a shirt in my own yard once.”
Carter winced. “Yeah. Sounds like mom. Did you put a shirt on?”
I chuckled. “No. What, you’ve met me. You think I’d let someone else’s mom tell me what to do?”
Only my own mother got to do that, and she was a saint. Even when I’d been… less than angelic.
“I don’t think you let anyone tell you what to do,” Carter said, a hint of awe in his voice.
“I don’t,” I agreed. “So… pretending to be hopelessly in love with the local screwup? That’s your game plan?”
Carter shrugged. “It is now, I guess. Kieran’s idea, blame him.”
I laughed again. “Sounds like the level of thought he gives most things. Okay. You got a place to stay?”
“I’m meant to be sleeping on Kieran’s couch.”
