“But what?”
“On the last job, they had a betting pool going as to who would spend the night in my trailer first. I have two rules on the job. I don’t date coworkers, and not even Uncle Jackgets to call me Charlie,” she said. “Do I need to explain any further?”
“Yep, you do,” Knox said. “If I’m going to commit to a long-term fake relationship, I should know your whole dirty past.”
“I’m not asking you to marry me,” she snapped. “Would you please answer me and stop beating around the bush?”
Knox chuckled. “Are we having our first fight before I even get a good-night kiss?”
“What makes you think…”
Knox leaned over and whispered softly, “All of the guys will need to believe that we are together. They can spot a fake a mile away. Are you ready to do a good job of pretending, or do you want to call it off right now?”
Lottie cupped his face in her hands and brushed a kiss across his lips. “Is that good enough?”
“It’s a start,” he said with half a shrug, even though he could feel and practically see the sparks shooting all around them. “Now, say the words.”
“I do not tell a boyfriend, fake or real, that I love him unless I mean it.” Lottie’s eyes flashed with aggravation.
He nodded toward the three framers standing down by the lake. “They probably think we are fighting. Does this mean that we’ll have to make up before morning?” Knox teased.
“It does not!” she growled.
“Well, I’m disappointed. Seems like setting my trailer to rocking a little bit is what we really need to do if we’re making up after this argument.”
She cupped his cheeks in her hands and looked deeply into his eyes. “That kiss is us making up, and it was for the guys standing out there. They are all married, but before long, five more guys will be here to put the cabins in the dry. Then roofers and siders will be here right along with them, and then the Wednesday evening after that, the drywall fellows and painters will start coming in to get things ready for the finish carpenters. Not all of them have a partner, and they all give me hell.”
“Why do you stay with it?” Knox got lost in her brown eyes.
“I love what I do. Uncle Jack has this business organized so that the six cabins will be up and ready for the people who’ve already purchased them to move in by our deadline. Then we all go to a project out around El Paso where we will be building minimansions in a gated community. If I have a boyfriend, it makes things easier for me.”
“Log cabins to crystal chandeliers, but I probably won’t be headed out west for that job. I wouldn’t even be here if Walter hadn’t fallen and broken his wrist. He should be back for those minimansions.”
“Yep,” she answered and dropped her hands.
“That means this is going to be a short relationship, right?” he asked.
She nodded.
Knox rubbed his chin. “Do I have to defend your honor? I’d hate to mess up my hands and lose my job. Or worse yet, get my pretty face all torn to shreds.”
“I can take care of myself,” she answered. “What makes you think you are pretty?”
A wide grin spread across his face. “A woman as gorgeous as you wouldn’t ask an ugly man to be her boyfriend.”
She air-slapped him on the arm. “Any more questions?”
“Just one. What if I want to have a long-distance fake relationship even when this job is done?” Knox’s mind raced ahead past the six weeks. He could keep Aunt Bernie from her matchmaking indefinitely that way.
“Fine by me, and if we decide to go our separate ways, then we’ll have a very public breakup,” Lottie answered.
“Okay, then.” Knox’s blue eyes twinkled. “I will be your fake boyfriend. Do I sign a contract?”
“Since you are kin to Bernie, your word is good enough.” She stood up with the grace of a ballerina, dropped a kiss on the top of his head, and headed back to her trailer.
“Whew!” Knox uttered under his breath. “What have I done?”
He had told his brother, “I will have to get a fake girlfriend,” when Tripp teased him about being next in line for Bernie’s matchmaking business. The old gal had already found mates for all seven of the Paradise sisters and both of his brothers, Brodie and Tripp, and she had half the population within a thirty-mile radius dating one another. But Knox was determined that when he got ready to settle down, he would pick his own woman with no help from the meddling queen of Spanish Fort, Texas.
