“Anytime,” Morgan called. “Later, Devin.”
I watched him leave, the bell over the door jingling cheerfully as though it wasn’t an omen that I was about to have my heart shattered into a million pieces.
“He really does have a great butt,” Marta said, resting her head on my shoulder.
In hindsight, I could see why Morgan thought we were dating.
“You’regay,” I said, like she needed the reminder.
“I’ve got eyes,” Marta said. “He’ll say yes. Trust me.”
“Oh, Itrustyou,” I said, which was true—I would’ve trusted Marta with my life. “I just think you’re wrong.”
“We’ll see,” Marta said, patting my shoulder and then heading for the sale rack.
3
Morgan
I gotto the corner of the street before my feet refused to take me any further.
What the hell just happened?
Blood was still pounding in my ears, too loud to think past.
Devin asked me to go on a trip with him. Topretend to be his boyfriend.
I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. After the last handful of months, I could hardly believe that he’d eventhinkto ask that. Hadn’t he seen what happened to his brothers when they tried it?
Not that it’d happen to us. There was noway. Aiden and Kieran had found people they already had something with, people wholikedthem, who they were meant to be with.
That wasn’t me and Devin. I was pining quietly, and he was oblivious—which was exactly the way I wanted him. Being his friend was enough. I’d get over the stupid crush one day.
If I ruined our friendship before then, I’d never forgive myself. Devin was a bright spot in my life, and the last thing I wanted was to lose him by freaking him out.
He wasn’t interested in me. He’d make it obvious if he was.
On the other hand…
If he really needed my help, I wanted him to have it. And I’d been hiding my feelings long enough—I could handle another few days, right?
All I’d have to do was show up. Devin could tell people I wasn’t really into big public displays of affection, and I was big enough and scary enough to convince almost anyone that they should leave my boyfriend the hell alone.
Maybe if we played pretend for a few days, I’d get this whole ridiculous crush out of my system.
It wasn’t even as though Devin and I had anything in common. My thing for him was just… athing, an irrational thing based on the way my stomach fluttered when he smiled at me or laughed at one of my jokes.
There was no long-term potential there.
He was this stunning, graceful, athletic, adventurous guy, and I had trouble putting one foot in front of the other in a straight line some days. Eventually, if I reminded myself of that often enough, I’dhaveto get over him.
Right?
And this sounded like the perfect opportunity to remind myself that there wasno way in hellDevin would ever want me.
Besides, he couldn’t miss out on this kayaking competition. I remembered him telling me about it now, how long he’d been training, how he’d gained nine pounds of muscle and he was so proud of himself for it.
One asshole ex-boyfriend shouldn’t have stopped him going.
