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Jace waved away her words. “I don’t think she’s had any recent convictions.”

Lucas sat up straighter. “Well, I’ll definitely be checking now.” He’d been a police officer before managing Carson’s inn and still had friends with access to those databases.

Jace doubted a search would turn up much. “Isn’t it illegal to use your police connections to check on people’s pasts?”

Carson blew out a breath. “Now you’re concerned with what’s legal?”

“Checking people’s pasts isn’t illegal,” Lucas said. “Arrests are in the public record.” He dipped his head at Jace. “Mr. Copley hasn’t forgotten you were Marlowe’s boyfriend, by the way. I can tell because every time I go to Safeway, he gives me squinty-eyed glares, trying to tell whether I’m you or not. He’ll probably have a coronary if you show up there with her.”

Jace leaned back in his chair and put on a relaxed air. “There are other places we can shop.”

Everyone stared at him. Growing up, Jace had hardly ever been the center of the family’s attention. Having brothers like Carson and Lucas ensured that. It felt odd, but not entirely horrible, to have everyone’s attention now.

Jace held his hands up. “Marlowe is a nice, interesting woman, and if I’m willing to give her a second chance, you all should too.”

The group exchanged unhappy glances.

Project Jennifer isn’t so bad after all was well underway. Jace smiled graciously and made a note to talk to Marlowe tomorrow. They had important things to discuss. Bargains to make. Schemes to enact. Because somehow, he was going to convince her to be his fake girlfriend.

CHAPTER 4

The next morning, Marlowe was halfway through sweeping up after one of her regulars—Mrs. Tanner came in every month, more for the conversation than the trim—when she heard the jingle of the front bell. She looked up and momentarily froze.

Jace Clark. He’d actually shown up. She inwardly groaned. He didn’t need a haircut, which meant he was here because she’d been so surly to him yesterday. He probably thought he needed to offer her an olive branch, or an explanation, or recommendations for a therapist.

Why couldn’t she have just smiled and nodded and acted like their breakup hadn’t mattered to her?

Even as she asked the question, she knew the answer. She couldn’t pretend because he’d been her first love, the one she’d been so completely smitten with she was sure things would last forever. That sort of love always broke harder. She hadn’t realized back then that she ought to keep part of her heart in reserve to protect herself.

When she was a sophomore, half the girls at school had crushes on either Lucas or Jace—or both. The two moved through the hallways like tall, blond, teenage icons. Lucas’s fan club was larger because he was funny and outgoing. Jace was the one who spent more time studying, the quiet and thoughtful one. She liked that about him. He cared about his grades and didn’t have to be in the spotlight all the time. When one of his friends needed encouragement, he noticed and was there for them. You could depend on Jace.

She’d never spoken to him except in passing. She wasn’t even sure he knew her name, so when she saw him standing by her locker the day after her run-in at Safeway, she assumed he was waiting for someone with a locker nearby.

She said a tentative, “Hi,” before she started twisting her combination but didn’t expect anything more than a nod in reply.

“Hey,” he said. “How’s it going?”

“Good, well, as good as it can go considering the criminal justice system.” Her time with the police was all anyone had asked her about since yesterday.

She immediately regretted her words. Jace might have no idea what she was talking about and now assumed she threw references about the criminal justice system into casual greetings. She felt her face flush. “See, this thing happened yesterday⁠—”

“Yeah, I saw the pictures.”

Oh, right. Of course he had. She turned back to her locker. He didn’t move away. She could feel him watching her. Had he come to talk to her about her stint with the spray can? Why else would he be watching her? “You’re about to tell me that Mr. Copley is your uncle or your employer, and I had no right to touch his wall, aren’t you?” She held up one hand to stop any lectures along those lines. “Don’t worry, he yelled at me about it for long enough. Trust me, never has a criminal been so happy to see the police car show up. Also, I don’t think he actually has the authority to ban me from all the Safeways across the country. Seems like an abuse of power if you ask me.”

Jace chuckled and leaned against the wall of lockers. “He’s not my uncle or my boss. And after hearing the way he treated you, I’m super glad for that. I definitely won’t apply for a job there.”

“Yeah. I wish I had that choice. It turns out spray paint is really hard to get off brick walls, and in an attempt to placate Mr. Copley, my parents told him I would pay for the cost of fixing the wall by working at his store.” Even the thought of the miserable little man as her boss made her inwardly cringe. “This may be proof that my parents don’t love me.”

“I’m sure they do.”

She scoffed and shook her head. When her parents had come to pick her up from the station, they’d shown very little love. They’d gone on and on about how she shouldn’t act so impulsively. She should have just told Mr. Copley someone spray-painted a slur on his wall and left it at that. They were positive she’d tanked her future and reputation by committing this crime. “You’d think they would have been a little bit proud of me for trying to spare someone a lot of humiliation, but no.”

“I’m proud of you.”

He was just being polite to the stranger ranting about her parents. This was not a way to make a great first impression. He probably thought she was one of those needy, dramatic girls who badmouthed their parents to get sympathy.

She went back to twirling her locker combination. “I shouldn’t complain about them. Yesterday wasn’t one of those days you take pictures of to share in your Christmas cards.” She opened her locker. “Although if they did want one, plenty are out there.”