“I know that.”
“So tell them.”
“Ican’t,” she says, frustration flaring. “Do you understand how fast this town turns? One second you’re a cute story, the next you’re a liar who tried to steal money. And I just losteverything.”
The wobble in her voice hits me harder than the fire did.
She looks so small suddenly. Still mouthy. Still bright. But small.
“The investigator’s gonna be looking for a reason to deny me,” she says, softer now. “He sees I have no family here, no fiancé, no roots? He might think I set it. I didn’t. I swear to God, Clay, I would never—I love that studio. I built it. It was my dream.”
Her eyes shine. She blinks fast.
Damn it.
I curse under my breath and pace away, then back. The place is tiny; I’m too big in it. I glance out the window. Across the road, Mrs. Vance is on her porch,watching. Of course she is.
I look back at Ember. “So what. We fake it.”
“Yes.”
“For how long.”
“Until the claim clears.”
“That could be weeks.”
“Yep.”
I stare.
She folds her arms. “It’s not like we’d have to…you know.”
I lift a brow. “Know what?”
Her cheeks pink. “Kiss. Or anything.”
“You started telling people I got down on one knee in the snow,” I remind her.
“Okay, that was Tina, but I didn’tcorrecther,” she says. “Anyway, we don’t have to make out. Just…go to a few things. Be seen. Look coupley. Convince people that I’m stable and not some weird arsonist.”
“You’re not stable,” I mutter.
She tilts her head. “And you’re not nice, but here we are.”
I bite back a smile.
This woman is gonna kill me.
I scrub a hand over my jaw, weighing it. On one hand: I hate lies. I hate drama. I especially hate my name in the damn Gazette. On the other: she’s right. Investigators look for people who are isolated, stressed, desperate. A fiancé with a solid job and a reputation for being boring and reliable?
That helps her.
And—if I’m being honest, which I hate—it helps me too. Because right now I look like a hard-ass who dragged a crying woman away from her life and then left her. If the town thinks we’re together, they’ll stop asking why I didn’t let her save her work.
“Fine,” I say.
Her head snaps up. “Fine?”
