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“My mistake,” he said, letting his drawl run away with the syllables. “I thought you were trying to sell this marriage as real. For as long as it serves you, anyway.”

As he watched, her face changed again, and he could have sworn that she was flustered. And he didn’t know how he knew that Kitty Bennett wasn’t usually flustered by much. He liked that he was the one who could make it happen.

“I do. You’re right.” She clearly didn’t like saying that, either. “But I don’t want to waste any time. I want to get right to it.”

“I guess my next question is, are you looking for something like this?” He jutted his chin around to take in the party on all sides of them. “A big wedding with the whole town?”

Kitty looked horrified. “Absolutely not. I told my sisters years ago that we should all elope. Weddings are a ridiculous waste of money. They’re not practical and they serve absolutely no purpose in the long run. Think about it. They don’t have anything to do with the marriage. They’re all about other people’s perceptions, not the couple themselves.”

Finn didn’t disagree, so there was no reason that hearing Kitty say that should land in him strangely. He ignored it.

“I’m not sure today’s couple would agree with you on that one,” he said. After a moment of simply frowning at him, she followed his gaze to where Knox and Ramona were dancing close together, holding their baby girl between them and looking about as happy as two people could.

“That’s different,” Kitty said crossly, though she did not elaborate on how. “Anyway, no, I don’t want a party, I don’t want a fuss, I don’t want any nonsense.”

“Then I think you and I should have dinner,” Finn told her. “It doesn’t matter where. Somewhere people around here will see us together. We can talk logistics but I warn you, Kitty, you’re going to have to sell the romance of this a little better. Most folks are sentimental. They don’t want to know that a relationship is for show. They want the real deal.”

Kitty looked up at him as if she didn’t understand what he was talking about.

“What exactly do you mean by that?” she asked, warily. “Because if you think that I’m going to crawl all over you in public, or make a fool of myself, you have another think coming. I will never do any of those things.”

He could feel his smile curve his mouth. “Why would you make a fool of yourself?”

“I won’t,” Kitty said. “That’s what I’m telling you.”

“I think maybe we could hold hands,” he said, and he couldn’t help but laugh while he said it. “And maybe you could try to look as if you like me. Just a little, that’s all. Just to sell this.”

“I don’t…” She never finished that sentence.

Instead, she stopped talking and she considered him for a moment, and he wondered if she was having the same odd sensation that he was—that they were all alone here. When he knew very well that they were not.

“Tomorrow night I was planning on going to that new restaurant in town,” she said instead of whatever she’d been about to say. “Crowded Table. I want to meet the new owners, but I also want to try the food. They’re having their soft open this weekend.”

“I thought you had to stay here and cook,” Finn said. “Pretty much every single day of every single week.”

“They can handle the restaurant without me for a night,” Kitty said, with a shrug. But her hazel eyes stayed intense on his. “You can come with me and we can kill two birds with one stone.”

“So romantic,” Finn murmured.

He expected Kitty to say something cross at that, but she didn’t. She only peered up at him. “There’s nothing romantic about this. You know that, don’t you? It doesn’t seem like you know that.”

“I understand that you’re hiring me to fulfill a position,” Finn agreed. “What I’m suggesting to you is that public perception of that position needs a little finessing. That’s all.”

“You can pick me up tomorrow at the restaurant,” she told him. “I’ll be doing my prep work.”

“I will pick you up at your house,” he countered. “You’ll be finished with the prep work, wearing something pretty.”

“You can be one thousand percent certain that I will not do either of those things, as I don’t like being told what to do,” she retorted.

“Kitty. Once again, I thought the point of this is making people believe that we’re actually having a whirlwind romance that can only end in marriage, and fast. So I’ll say it again. I’ll meet you at the front door to your house. You’ll be wearing something pretty. I won’t be able to keep my eyes off you. The entire valley of Cowboy Point and all the hills around will be talking about it within the hour. More than they already are.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, that frown taking hold again.

The band slowed it down, so he pulled her closer. He wrapped his arms around her back and held her against his body, which he found he liked entirely too much. And he could see her wind up to start complaining—but maybe the heat that he could feel between them got to her, too.

Because as the singer sang passion and need, Kitty got quiet. That frown disappeared from between her eyes.

The eyes she couldn’t seem to pull away from his.