“You know, Ethan Greene, I’malsolooking for something more permanent these days.” Felicity did the eyebrow thing again. “You’ve become very domesticated. It’s... new. I like it.”
That was his cue to move along.
Careful not to offend, he disentangled himself from her grasp. This wasn’t easy, but he managed it with a little finesse. “Great to see you, Felicity.”
She got the point and with only a small pout she faded back into the crowd.
“She’s perfect for my pretend girlfriend suggestion.” Jack said. “I could reach out to her team and propose a mutually agreeable promotion between you? Or, you know, you can continue getting pelted with panties. Your call.”
“No.” Ethan shook his head. “She’s interested. I need someone uninterested.”
“Good luck with that,” Jack muttered. He glanced around the gathering and there was a concocted vibe of those searching to find a reason to approach him without being shot down like Felicity.
Eyes all over him, people smiling warmly but with a nervous energy and a side of clear apprehension that they might face rejection.
And not because he was a celebrity—no, because here nearly everyone had a level of fame. Most of them greater than his own.
A woman to his right seemed to rally and headed his direction. He pasted on a grin and refused to give her anything but a shining Ethan Greene experience and memory. Unfortunately, this was the same story, different person.
Though, this time they’d never met and she didn’t throw her knickers at his face.
They parted ways amicably and he rearranged his features into masked neutrality.
“No woman without a significant other owes you a favor?” Jack asked with that cheeky grin of his.
Of course, Ethan had told him that Em owed him something of a favor. They were mates, after all, and Em had a decent role in his life at the moment.
Though, he’d left out the bits she’d probably find embarrassing. He kept his word on that part.
“No.” Ethan shook his head. “I mucked that right up with Em.”
He gave Jack the run down.
“But you didn’taskher,” Jack said. “You made it clear you are not interested in each other that way, which makes her the perfect person to not get the wrong idea, yeah?”
“No.” Ethan cleared his throat. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why he didn’t want to make the ask, but call it pride? He’d already drastically misread that once. Didn’t need a repeat.
But, then, twice more he repeated the same scenario with more women dressed to the nines like Felicity. Gorgeous women who wanted in his bed and in his life and who he knew deserved more than he could give them. They deserved a partner, and Ethan couldn’t be that guy. There wasn’t enough of him to be that guy.
Jack stared him down as the last woman walked away with a big smile because Ethan had ensured the letdown wasn’t prickly and, really, didn’t even feel like a letdown.
He clenched his teeth because… bugger him and call him stuffed… he’d have to swallow his pride and ask Em. There were no two ways about it. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place and he needed to make a decision.
Together he and Jack spent the rest of the evening crafting a plan that might actually staunch the bleeding of this hashtag storm, and the crux of it involved Ethan asking Em to play his girlfriend.
Em, who did owe him that favor she’d promised and who made it abundantly clear she had no interest in anyone famous. At all. Ever.
Chapter Eight
ETHAN
It’d beenan awful few weeks, what with his social media storm brewing up right toward hurricane status. He hadn’t asked Em yet. Though Jack was on his case about it all the bloody time.
“Ethan.” One of the room mums for Annie’s class—Tiffany—waved him over the second his sneaker touched the sidewalk at the park where the girls liked to hang out after school.
He gave a grin, but pointed to Em and the girls over on the soccer field.
That did nothing. Tiffany trotted over to him, huge smile, and a hope in her gaze he’d become entirely too accustomed to at this point.
