“Callie doesn’t strike me as someone who’s a very good liar,” Liam said.
Noah huffed out a breath that could almost have been a laugh. “I don’t think that girl has ever lied a day in her life. Before now.” He scrubbed his hands over his face and into his hair. “How hard can it be to pretend to be in love with her for a week? My mom is over the goddamn moon. But Mrs. Cole… she seemed like she knew something was up.”
“That’s because you’re a fucking awful liar,” Liam said. “And this is a fucking awful idea.”
“I don’t have a choice. Callie needs this.”
“Oh,Calliedoes?” Liam asked, his eyebrows shooting up. “This is some kind of altruistic endeavor?”
“She’s trying to convince her mom to finally bite the bullet and move to Ohio like she’s been talking about for years. Mrs. Cole won’t go until Callie’s in a committed relationship.”
Liam barked out a laugh. “So she’s pretending to dateyou? Mrs. Cole is never going to buy that. She’s always the first one to point out how manylady friendsyou have,” he said, imitating Callie’s mother.
“One week,” Noah repeated. “I can pretend for one week.”
“And what do you get out of this?” Noah shot Liam a sheepish look. Liam scowled, shaking his head. “Fuck, this is about the documentary.”
“Have you ever considered just actually dating someone?” Min asked. Noah and Liam both laughed. “What? You’re a catch, Noah.”
Liam stole a kiss from his fiancée. Noah had seen them kiss a thousand times, but this time he had to look away, his muscles tensing uncomfortably beneath his skin.
“No,” he said, far too vehemently. “I don’t date.”
“But you could,” Min said with a small shrug.
It was the most ludicrous thing he’d ever heard—even more ludicrous than pretending to date his little sister’s best friend to trick Wolf into giving him his dream job.Jesus fuck, what is my life?
Some secret look passed between Min and Liam, the kind of maddening conversation they were always having with each other without words.
“You’re making a much bigger deal out of this than it actually is,” Noah said. If he said it enough times, perhaps he’d believe it. “But you can’t tell anyone. You’re the only ones who know it’s fake.”
“What does Livi think?” Liam’s measured tone put Noah on edge.
“She was mad we didn’t tell her, but she seems to have bought the story that we’re together,” he said, hating himself all over for lying to his sister. “I need to get out of here for a while before dinner. Callie and Liv are holed up in our room—”
“Ourroom?” Liam asked.
“Something about the plumbing. There aren’t enough rooms.”
“So you’re sharing a hotel room. With Callie. Your fake girlfriend.” Liam glared at him. “Do you honestly not see a problem with that? That girl has had a crush on you since—”
“I really don’t want to analyze this right now. Can we just get out of here before my mom finds me and tries to set a date for my fake wedding?”
Min shrugged. “There’s not a whole lot to do around here.” Min and Liam had just moved to Providence, but Min grew up in Rhode Island. They might have settled on the other side of the state, but the state wasn’t that big—if anyone knew what to do in Aster Bay, it’d be Min. “There are some shops about a half mile away. But this is a small town. There’s not much going on.”
Noah cursed under his breath. He could really use a distraction so he could stop thinking about the fact that he’d be sharing a bed all week with Callie, stop wondering what she’d wear to bed, how she’d look with her face relaxed in sleep. He hoped she didn’t get nightmares like Livi did, because then he’d have no choice but to hold her, to comfort her, to take her in his arms and—
“Oh!” Min brightened, turning to Liam. “There’s that cute second-hand bookstore in town. I wanted to go back there at some point this week anyway.”
“Contessa…” Liam said, his voice low and his eyes giving her a quick once-over. Another unspoken conversation, but this one Noah could decipher.
“You have all weekend to have hotel sex,” Noah said, getting to his feet. “I’m sure you’ll survive if you have to wait a few more hours to defile the room. Again.”
Min blushed and Noah immediately regretted saying anything. He and Liam didn’t have any secrets, and they talked about their sex lives as easily as if they were making restaurant recommendations, but it still felt new for Min to be present for those conversations. For her last semester at Burnett, they’d maintained at least some boundaries of propriety—he’d still been her professor and he didn’t need her blushing every time he walked into a room. But since she’d graduated two months ago, those last vestiges of modesty had fallen away. Now she wasn’t his student anymore—she was the woman who would marry his best friend in just a few months.
The new normal was fucking weird.
∞∞∞
