AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’d catch her,” I answer automatically. I look up to meet his gaze, and I see he’s smirking. “What?”
“Nothing. It’s just interesting.”
“Oh, here we go. What’s interesting?”
“There’s no press around. Your family isn’t here, and neither is our boss. You don’t have a reason to pretend like you two are dating, and yet you can’t stop looking at her. It’s okay to like her, Shawn.”
“I don’t—we’re having fun. Asfriends,” I add, and his smirk doesn’t go away. “We don’t like each other.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Of course I’m sure. Yeah, we’ve been spending more time together, but hanging out doesn’t mean we’re falling in love. She’s… it’s nice to be around someone so down to earth, you know? Someone who calls me out on my shit and isn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with me. It’s refreshing, honestly. Did you know she doesn’t know how much money I make? I blew her mind with that one.” I run my hand through my damp hair. Sweat clings to the strands from a half an hour of exertion. “Can’t you let us be?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to meddle or make a mountain out of a molehill.” He holds up his hands in apology, and I nod my forgiveness. “It’s good to see you happy. That’s all.”
“I’m always happy,” I answer, and Aiden levels me with a knowing look.
“Not like this, you aren’t,” he says, and he clasps my shoulder. “You lost your first game of the season, but you haven’t stopped smiling. When you played in the league, you moped around for a week before you let that shit go.”
“I’ve grown up. I have to show the team that it doesn’t bother me, otherwise the guys will hold on to the loss, too. We won’t be able to move forward.”
“Right. Yeah. And it has nothing to do with the five-foot-six brunette who’s waving at you from across the way?”
My gaze travels to the other side of the farm. Lacey is leaning against the wooden bar with Maggie, a smile on her face and a hand on her hip. Sheiswaving, and I glance over my shoulder to make sure she’s waving atme. I lift my hand and wave back, and a grin creeps onto my lips.
Now she’s holding up a chalice, a drink that looks suspiciously different from the water she said she was going to get. She pretends to chug it, and I laugh.
“No,” I say. “Notjustbecause of her. Because of other things, too.”
“Got it. Well, the good news is you shouldn’t have a hard time selling your relationship to your parents or Director Hannaford,” Aiden says. “I just hope you two remember this is fake. I don’t want either of you getting hurt.”
“Of course we remember it’s fake. There’s only twenty-five days to go until we can give up this ruse,” I say, and I kick the blade on my skate into the ice. “The next few weeks are going to fly by.”
TWENTY
LACEY
“Shawn has a nice ass,don’t you think?” I ask Maggie. I lean against the bar and take a sip of my water. “Objectively speaking.”
Maggie lifts her eyebrows. “Objectively speaking? What does that mean?”
“Just, you know, if you weren’t dating Aiden, you’d think Shawn has a nice ass, right?”
“Sure, I’d think that. But when didyoustart thinking that?”
I glance across the farm to the rink where Maven and Shawn are doing laps around the ice. He looks steadier on his feet now, and more confident in his movements. I bite back a smile as I watch them.
“It might be a recent development,” I admit, and Maggie drags me to a small corner underneath a piece of mistletoe.
“Spill,” she says, and I kiss her cheek before plopping onto a bench.
“I don’t know what’s going on. It feels like we’re flirting with each other, which is something we’ve never done. It’s almost like there’s this unspoken game we’re both playing, and we’re trying to see who’s going to crack first.”
“Game?” Maggie stares at me, confused. “What kind of game?”
“I don’t know. Sometimes I think he’s about to kiss me. Other times I kind of want to climb him like a tree and—” I take a breath. “Whatever it is, it’s because we’re spending time together, and I haven’t been laid in averylong time.”
“Okay, that’s a possibility.” She nods and swirls her drink around in her glass. “But what if you’re attracted tohim, Lace?”
