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“Dinner parties? Sounds like you had fun as a teenager.”
“Oh, no. I was six.”
30
ASPEN
* * *
“Six?” he asked, staring at me wide eyed. “Did you even know what those phrases meant?”
I shook my head. “I had no idea. But that was the point. No one knows what they mean whether you’re six or sixty-six.”
He thought about it. “That’s true. You fucking stumped me. Lacey, too. Did you see her face?”
That bitch didn’t know what hit her.
I couldn’t help but smile. “I’m not sure what she’s going to post, but I’m sure it’ll be pretty obvious now that the two of you aren’t dating.”
“Well, history has shown we’re only human.”
I grinned at his well-timed phrase. “Well said.”
“I can see you at six, spouting bullshit to old people.”
“I had those phrases down.”
“What about when you were older? You didn’t peak at six, did you? I can only imagine the talent at thirteen with some sass added in.”
I shook my head, then took a sip of tea. “Thirteen? I was in boarding school. Those phrases only work on, like you said, old people.”
He frowned. “Boarding school? Dinner parties at six? I don’t think I like your parents much.”
“I don’t like them very much either.” I shrugged, remembering my mother telling me I was going to boarding school. That I needed to focus more on my ballet, that I had to perform at the Bergstrom best. Then being shipped off and discovering that the best was me trying to grasp a new life on my own. A new country. Rigorous classes. Intense teachers.
I rarely went home because the phrases weren’t enough. I needed to be perfect, and I wasn’t that, no matter how hard I tried. No matter how good I was. It took me years to figure out that I didn’t actually have a home. Not until Hunter Valley. “No cows and corn for me, but I had those phrases down.”
“What about that little threat you whispered there at the end?”
I rolled my eyes. “She was a bitch.”
“Tiger,” he said, but this time in a completely different way. Full of concern. Comfort. Whatever. My youthful heart needed that sympathy and I turned into his arms, and I accepted his hug. For the first time, I felt like I wasn’t alone. That I had someone to lean on. To confide in, although I hadn’t told Luke the truth. Not that I was lying, but who wanted to hear all about my not-so-fun relationship with my parents?
I was a fake girlfriend, not a real one. I didn’t like to share my embarrassing past with my friends. I wasn’t sharing all of it with a fake boyfriend. While his hug felt genuine, it was because Luke was a nice guy. Nothing more.
31
LUKE
* * *
“Who the hell is she?” Sam asked, eyeing Aspen out the floor to ceiling windows.
I’d been secretly watching her out on the deck for the past hour. She started with yoga and if I recognized it right, sun salutations. Then, for the past fifteen minutes, she’d been dancing. First, she warmed up using the railing for balance, then began to just… move. It was clearly ballet, but she did it in her bare feet and to music only she heard.
She was amazing at it, and I was in awe. The way she gracefully bent and moved was… beautiful. I pulled out my phone and recorded it, adding a short clip to my social media showing her off, making sure everyone knew she was mine.
My agent was eyeing her, but not in the reverent way I was. I knew the look of a man who was checking out a woman’s snug leggings and fitted t-shirt that rode up a few inches every time she bent forward.
