This amazing guy who just kissed me like he’s been wanting to kiss me for years.
This amazing guy who isn’t really mine and who wouldn’t have kissed me at all if there wasn’t an audience.
I blow out a breath and, still not looking behind me to see if Tripp and Delany are watching, I smile up at Nick, doing my best to sell the hell out of this.
I take a sip of the mimosa I was just handed and hide behind the flute as I murmur, “I told you I didn’t want you to come.”
His lips quirk. “No. You told me I didn’t have to come. That’s different. If you’d expressly said you didn’t want me here, I wouldn’t be here.”
Have you ever tried to fake a smile and glare at someone at the same time?
It’s hard. Trust me.
“Didn’t we agree you should leave lawyering the rules to the professional?”
“Nope. I don’t remember that at all. And if you really didn’t want me here, you wouldn’t have called the terminal ahead of time and added my information to the guest list.”
Hmm… he has a point there.
“I just didn’t want you to face the humiliation of being turned away if you showed up. I didn’t really think you would do it.”
Before he can respond, one of the flight attendants wrangles us out the door and onto the tarmac and up onto the stairs to the plane.
Nick shoulders his duffle before taking my bag from me and slinging it up with his. Then he turns me toward the exit. His hand rests on my hip and I swear I can feel the heat of each of his fingers through the thin fabric of my sundress.
As we walk out onto the tarmac, I murmur, “So, you just went with the whole fake boyfriend ploy.”
He leans close, so that only I can hear him. “Guess that’s how it looks.”
“This is not what we planned.”
“Oh yeah. This is much better than what we planned.”
“How? How much is better?”
As if on cue, Tripp and Delany walk around the group of us waiting to board the plane. It’s my first glimpse of them since they left for their engagement vacation ten days ago. Tripp looks like he rolled in honey and wandered through a Tommy Bahamas while blindfolded. Delany is in a tight maxi dress that shows off her baby bump perfectly, even though it’s her first, she’s only a few months along, and I’ve had bigger “baby bumps” after eating sushi.
She’s trying so hard to show off her baby bump, I’m worried she’s going to throw out her back.
Delany apologizes, giggling, as Tripp pushes her to the front of the line. “Sorry, y’all! I get a little motion sick and just want to make sure I can pick out my own spot.”
I really don’t want to think ill of a pregnant woman. I really don’t.
I smile as they push past me and Nick. It is a big, toothy, friendly smile. So, so friendly.
“I hope they have a dentist on staff at the resort we’re going to,” Nick says.
“Why? Do you have a tooth ache?”
“No. But you look like you’re about to crack a molar.” He rubs his hand and big circle, up my back and then down to my hip again. “Relax. We got this?”
Relax? How exactly am I supposed to relax when Nick is this close? Touching me as though he has every right to? Like it’s what he wants to do?
“Do we?” I ask. “Do we have this?”
He grins at me. “Don’t you want him to shit himself with jealousy?”
“No. I don’t. All I want is to make it through the next week with some small scrap dignity left. I want my coworkers to not pity me. I don’t want to pity me. And I want her to take her goddamn bless your heart attitude and shove it up her ass. I want him to go fuck himself. But I don’t care about making him jealous. And I sure as fuck don’t want the humiliation of him finding out that I brought you a long at some sort of fake date to make him jealous.”
