Page 71 of Blush Crush

It had nothing to do with the content—according to her, we hadn’t even reached anything spicy. It was her voice alone, the way she read so eloquently. She sounded like music, wrapped in that Regency-period formality. I couldn’t tell you what it was about, but I wouldn’t mind hearing it again.

It’s my saving grace when the lake house comes into view through the bare winter trees. It’s a beautiful house. Big, with a cabin-weathered look that’s still somehow modern, covered in large windows designed to view the water from several angles.The lake beyond it is gray and still, a thin skin of ice sits over the top.

Cars line the drive. More than I was expecting, and reality sets in a little more. This will be our first time truly performing as a couple, and a lot of the people inside aren’t going to be pleased.

“Here we go,” Ariana says. Her voice is small and full of worry.

I wish I could tell her everything will be fine, but I’m not entirely sure it will be. “Hey.” I reach over and squeeze her hand briefly before letting go. “We’ve got this. We’re a team and I’m not going to let anything bad happen in there. I promise.”

She groans, pressing her head back against the headrest, chin tilted up at the ceiling. “I hate confrontation and fighting and I just know there’s no way we’re getting through this without it. Why did you let me think this was a good idea? They’re going to take one look at us and either kill you or laugh in my face because it’s so unbelievable it’s obviously a prank.”

“Stop.” I capture her shaking hands. “Stop freaking out. I’ll do everything I can to get past the bumpy parts fast. Believe it or not, I’m actually friends with your brothers. It’s not like I’m the town pariah. I’ll talk to them. It’ll be fine. Just trust me.”

Her blue eyes meet mine, glossy with unshed tears.

I’m not someone who feels emotions easily. Years spent being the one forced to hold it together so everyone else could fall apart has left my heart calloused, numbing me to it all. But watching Ariana try her hardest not to cry breaks something open in me I didn’t know was still capable of breaking.

My first instinct is to kiss her, which I can’t. I want to kiss all these ridiculous fears away, sweep my tongue to hers until she’s lost in me. Our relationship is fake, but this need to take care of her isn’t.

I don’t trust myself to say the right words. But I know how to show it—I just can’t show it the way I would like to. But I refuse to let her face this alone. Whatever is waiting for us in there will have to get through me before I ever let it get to her.

I’m firmly team Ariana, and I’ll be damned if she walks into that gauntlet without me.

I want to say something that will actually help, but nothing feels good enough. Instead I stay holding her hands until the shaking slows.

Eventually she starts to slip out of my grasp.

“Let’s get this over with.” She groans, tugging her knit hat down over her ears.

I climb out and come around to her side before she can open her own door, which earns me a look.

“What are you doing?”

“Being a good boyfriend.” I hold the door. “Get out of the truck, Ariana.”

She gets out, pulling her pink peacoat around her. She looks beautiful, and my eyes linger long enough to get caught. I make myself stop before I freak her out even more.

Grabbing her hand, I intertwine it with mine, and she startles slightly at the contact, looking down at our joined hands before meeting my gaze.

“We have to look the part, right?” I say, because that’s an explanation she’ll accept right now.

She rolls her eyes but doesn’t let go as we walk up the porch steps.

The front door is unlocked and we walk in without knocking, which maybe I should have thought through more carefully because the room is full and loud and then very suddenly not loud at all.

I clock them in sequence. Ethan first—since he’s the one most likely to be a problem. His face immediately hardens.Gavin is beside him, eyes wide, fork frozen halfway to his mouth, completely still. Shane is already moving to stand beside his brothers, his stare the most menacing of the three.

The women look considerably less hostile. Maybe even a little pleased.

“What the fuck is this? Why is he here?” Shane asks.

Ariana’s hand tightens around mine. “You guys remember Cole,” she says with a false brightness.

“Hey, everyone.” I nod around the room, trying to look easy and unbothered even though this might be the most tense room I’ve ever walked into.

I slide my arm around Ariana and pull her into my side because she needs something solid right now and because it’s what a boyfriend would do and because—if I’m being honest—I feel better touching her.

“Can someone explain what the fuck this is?” Ethan grits. “Is this some kind of joke?”