She laughs. “Fine. But you know Mom and Dad are going to want to meet her now that she’s not a secret anymore.”
I really shouldn’t get such a rush of excitement over that. Reed’s clearly not enjoying faking for his sister, and I can’t imagine he’ll be any more comfortable in front of his parents. But Sara and Russ Bridger come into the coffee shop a lot, and they’re so warm and kind, I can’t get enough of them. I’d love to spend more time with his entire family, to be honest.
If he weren’t going full Grumpy Bear over me spending this much time with his sister, that is.
“She was never a secret,” Reed says.
That brusque statement sets off a thrumming in my heart, the little gal in there going crazy with her drums.
“We should go out one night, just us.” Lucy aims her invitation at me. “Olive and I have roomie plans tonight, but how about tomorrow? We’ll have a girls’ night, and you can fill me in on everything.”
“We have plans tomorrow night,” he tells her.
I’m instantly intrigued that we might. Which is silly, since obviously, we’ll be saying things like that for a while. It’s a distraction only. We won’t actually be doing anything. Most likely,he just doesn’t want me to be alone with Lucy and reveal details of our “relationship” without him around to keep track.
She bobs her eyebrows. “Ooh. A date?”
“Yes.”
Okay, that’s the real joy exploding in my heart. I’m way more excited about him confirming a fake date than I should be. We’re not even going to go anywhere, and I’m giddy over it.
“Here, give me your number, Rose. We’ll find a time to make girls’ night happen.” Lucy passes me her phone, and I add myself to her contacts. “Do you like thrifting? Tacos? Wandering through plant stores?”
“Any of that sounds great to me.” I can’t even remember the last time I had a girls’ night. “Whatever you want to do.”
I hand her back her phone and automatically take Reed’s arm again. Appearances, and all that. Not for the floaty feeling that casually touching him gives me.
“We’ll plan on it.” She tucks her phone back into her purse and starts heading toward the door. “Happy for you two.”
“So are we.” Even if only one of us shows it.
She walks out, leaving the bells over the door jingling as they sway.
“She didn’t even buy a drink,” Reed mutters.
But she did leave me with the prospect of a girls’ night to look forward to, and that’s better than a six-dollar drink. Even one of the delicious ones I make.
After a minute, Reed tilts his head toward me. His brown eyes hit mine, and his eyebrows quirk the tiniest bit. Oh. Right. I disentangle myself from his side and put a couple of feet between us. I immediately miss his warmth, but that’s silly. Most of it was probably the flannel, anyway.
“That went pretty well, right?” I don’t have much to go on, but Lucy seemed fooled, which is the most important part.
Even if guilt worms around in my stomach at the idea of fooling my new girls’ night pal.
“Pretty well.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “Explain this video to me.”
That brings my floaty feet back to solid ground. Yikes.
“Oh. Yeah.” I toy with the ties on my apron, wrapping them around my fingers and undoing them again. “Well…it’s a trend to write captions like ‘I want a man who looks at me like this’ and then it’s a video of a dog staring at a pizza. Things like that.”
“I got what the video meant,” he grumbles. “How many people do you think saw it?”
A cringe twists my face before I can stop it. “A lot.”
I’m not going to show him again because the number I saw was staggering, and it will only go up. Hashtag coffee shop guy is trending at the moment.
“But these things usually die out pretty quickly.” I’m guessing. I’ve never had any content go viral. That video of Reed could be remixed until apps become obsolete, like that baby making the “yes” face. But am I going to tell him that? Heck no. “They’ll move on to something else in a few weeks.”
Probably. Maybe. We can hope.
