Shepherd swallowed and settled on shoving his hands in two of the pockets of his khaki shorts. His khaki shorts had seven pockets; most of them were empty, but one had a chewed-up piece of gum wrapped up in an old receipt, and another had a mostly broken Swiss Army knife he’d gotten for Father’s Day three years ago. “Your, uh, your what now?”
“My boyfriend,” Ginny said, slowly, stretching out the word and adding at least one extra syllable. “Please. You’re Obi-Wan. I’m Princess Leia. You’re my only hope.”
His heart stuttered. “How dare you bringStar Warsinto this!”
She bit her lip, a smile etching itself across her pretty face.
“How would me being your boyfriend even help? Also, hi, hello, like ten minutes ago, you were saying how I didn’t have a chance with you. Remember? Back there, at the bar?”
“Right, yes, that was a thing I said. I’d only need you topretendto be my boyfriend long enough to convince my mother that it’s real. She’s a romantic, you see.”
“A romantic?”
Ginny nodded, her shiny auburn hair spilling out over her shoulders. She was close enough that he could smell her coconut shampoo, and Shepherd wondered if her hair was as soft as it looked. “She’s been married four times. Sure, twice were to my dad, but still. She’s always pushing me to date more. And if she sees that I’m in a serious, committed relationship, withan owner of a restaurant who obviously can’t just pick up and move the restaurant to Miami, she’ll back off.”
“Your mom?” he said, looking at the woman’s profile through the window. She was still sitting at the bar, her posture ramrod straight, talking to Noah. Noah, for his part, seemed to be handling her intense icy stare much better than Shepherd had, but that wasn’t saying much, as Noah handled most things better than Shepherd did. “She’s scary, you know.”
“Yes, I know.” Ginny said. “What about it?”
Shepherd’s brain was already three steps ahead, running through worst-case scenarios. What if Ginny’s scary mom saw through the pretense? What if it backfired spectacularly, as all things he attempted impulsively tended to do? He didn’t have a Pretend to Date Your Employee plan in any of his binders.
“So what do I get out of lying to her? Is what I’m asking. Like, what’s in this for me? If this pretend-boyfriend thing goes wrong, blows up in your face, which, it probably will—”
“That’s inadmissible, you have no way of knowing—”
“I’m just saying,” Shepherd said, pulling his hands out of his pockets and holding up empty palms. “I’m just saying, what’s in it for me?”
Ginny licked her lips, narrowed her eyes. They were the same color as her mother’s and yet infinitely warmer. How did she do that? “You want to be bribed.”
“I want to becompensated. For my effort.”
“It’s really that much effort to pretend to be my boyfriend for an afternoon?”
“A whole afternoon? Ginny—”
“Shepherd!” She tapped her toes, her whole body jiggling most pleasantly. “Shepherd, please. I’ll owe you. Isn’t that enough? I can pay you my tips for the day or something. You can pick the song I sing at karaoke. I’ll wash your car. Name your price. Good God, man. I’m desperate here.”
He touched his chest. “I feel the love right now, Ginny, I really do. I can tell how much I mean to you.”
“Please, Shepherd.” Her bottom lip quivered, her chin dimpled, and, damn it, he caved.
With a loud sigh, Shepherd hung his head. “I want your tipsfrom today,plusI get to pick out your karaoke song,andyou wash my car. I want all three of those things.”
“You’re gonna make me sing something terrible, aren’t you?”
He grinned at her white Keds. “Oh, baby, you know it.”
Those white Keds stepped on his foot. Shepherd glared at her halfheartedly. “I don’t like to be called ‘baby,’” she said. “Mom will know that. Try something else. ‘Sweetheart’ or ‘love’ or something.”
“How about I just stick with Ginny?”
She nodded, chewing on her lip. “Yes. Keep things simple. You want me to take their order?” She pointed her thumb at the couple Shepherd had blown off.
“No, no, I’ll take care of them. You go handle one of the other dozens of tables we’ve been avoiding while talking to each other. We’ll meet up when the lunch rush is over and, I don’t know, wing it, I guess.”
Ginny held out her hand. “To winging it.”
He shook her hand, a deep frown twisting his mouth down. “I am going to regret this, aren’t I?”
