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There was something he wasn’t telling her. She saw the hesitancy in his expression. “Why does it have to be me?”

“Because…” he said slowly, choosing his words carefully, “you don’t like me, so I won’t have to worry about some woman getting attached to me.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “It turns out I still know you well enough to tell when you’re hiding something. Why does it really have to be me?”

He sighed and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but back in high school, my parents didn’t think we should date. They worried about you because of the stuff that happened at Safeway.”

This was news to her, and it stung more than it should have. “Because I sprayed over a slur?” She hadn’t even realized they’d known about it.

He shrugged as though it wasn’t a big deal. “They thought the vandalism meant you didn’t have enough respect for the law, and when you walked out of the store with the protein bars, they were even more worried that you were a bad influence on me.”

“You told them I was the one who walked out with them?” She didn’t know why that surprised her. Of course he’d wanted to clear his name with his parents.

His gaze returned to her with an intensity that came with familiarity. “No, I told them the same thing I told Mr. Copley, which was part of the problem. They believed me right up until the time they saw your text. The first line was: Thank you for taking the fall for me. After that, they were upset that I’d lied to them to cover for a girl who they figured had probably meant to shoplift from the store.”

“They thought I was a shoplifter?” she squeaked. No wonder Mrs. Clark always insisted that Delancey cut her hair. She didn’t want a criminal doing the job.

Jace shrugged again. “You had a track record, and they were pretty mad I missed the SAT.”

“But you took the SAT.”

Jace ate a bite of salmon instead of saying anything, his attention suddenly on his plate.

“You even got a scholarship,” she added.

“Okay,” he said slowly, like he didn’t want to contradict her. “I nearly missed the SAT.” He lifted his eyes to hers, his gaze firm. “The point is, I prevented you from having another meeting with the police and whatever consequences you would’ve gotten for breaking your probation. Now I want to call in a favor. You’re the one woman in town who will worry my parents. After a few weeks with my fake juvenile delinquent high school girlfriend, they’ll be team Jennifer after all.”

This kept getting worse. “Not only am I supposed to be the fake girlfriend, I’m supposed to be the bad influence, fake girlfriend?”

He grinned that stupid boyish grin that had always set her heart beating. “Bonus points if you have a tattoo.” His eyes went over her, searching for one. “Do you?”

He wouldn’t find it. “Yes,” she said tightly, “but it’s a cross. Does that still count?”

“Probably not. Maybe we’ll just have to depend on the purple stripe in your hair to give you your bad girl vibe.”

She rubbed her forehead in frustration. “I have a purple stripe in my hair because I’m a hairstylist, not a biker babe. Do you even know what a bad girl looks like?”

“Good point. If I buy you a leather jacket, will you wear it?”

“Only if I can choose it.” She’d seen some pretty leather jackets and had a weakness for red ones.

“Deal,” he said. “When can I bring you around to re-introduce you to my parents?”

She blew out a breath. “You clearly don’t know the price of a nice leather jacket.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll pay it.”

Right he would. Time to make the guy put his money where his mouth was. “Okay, you’ll excuse me for ignoring you for a few minutes while I shop on my phone.”

He laughed and took another bite of his food.

Finding the perfect jacket didn’t take long. She sent him the link to a beautiful form-fitting red leather one that was just shy of five hundred dollars. When his phone dinged with the notification, he pressed the link. She expected him to choke on his fish and backtrack on his offer. And that would be the end of negotiations.

Instead, he typed in her address and hit the buy button. “Should be here in three days.”

Wait, what?

He put his phone away. “I’ll tell my family that we had lunch today and we’re going dancing at Legends on Friday.”