And now I’m taking the woman who’s only pretending to date me to meet my entire family. I should dread how badly this could go. But I can’t help myself from letting it play out.
Nathan takes my interruption in stride. “We’re just happy Reed found someone who can put up with him. His personality is a bit of an acquired taste.”
I don’t know how I’ll get through family dinner when I already want to zip his lip with my fist. He doesn’t have to look so happy when he needles me.
Rose stacks her bin on top of mine, lightly placing her hand onthe small of my back. Her soft touch soothes my frustration like a cooling balm over an angry burn. It’s unsettling how easily she can alter my mood. Worse, she must know it, or she wouldn’t have tried.
“Maybe he puts up with me,” she says.
Nathan barks a laugh. “Nice try.”
Despite my protests that it’s not a three-person job, Nathan helps us carry everything to my Bronco. He talks with Rose the whole way, giving me an inkling of just how Sunday’s going to go.
“We’ve got a bet between us,” he says. “Lucy, Graham, and me.”
Give me strength.
“What’s the bet?” she asks.
“What you think of his cabin. We know he’s proud of it, but…” He shudders. “I told him not to even take you there. Said you’d be horrified.”
“Well, I love it.” She tilts her chin higher. “I think it’s cute.”
Nathan stumbles the last steps to my car. He watches her as if he might need to whip out his medic kit and check her vitals. “You do?”
“Yes. I mean, it’s…” Rose’s gaze darts to me like she’s looking for flashcards to help her out. She’s never so much as seen my cabin, so her search for descriptors makes sense. “Remote. But it’s homey. Comfortable.”
I appreciate that she’s trying to back me up, but the sly tilt to Nathan’s mouth tells me her vehement support is doing the opposite of confirming our happy relationship. Nobody’s ever called my place homey before. Maybe I can convince Nathan she’s just got a really, really low bar for comfort.
“You like it, huh?” he muses. “I thought the skylight he put in was too much, but maybe that’s just me.”
“That’s my favorite part. I like lying in bed and looking at the stars.”
I scrub one hand down my face. She’s too eager to please. Andnow I wish my cabin had a skylight just so I could watch the stars with her every night.
“You’ve convinced me.” Nathan’s cheeks have got to hurt from all this gloating. “The skylight was definitely the way to go.”
He lifts his eyebrows at me, brimming with more questions than Jovie. We load the gear into my Bronco, my chest tight with anticipation of him calling our bluff any minute now. But his triumphant whoop doesn’t come.
“Have a good night.” He slaps me hard on the arm. “We’ll see you two on Sunday.”
He walks down the dark street toward his truck. I swear my brother struts, preening over everything he thinks he just found out. All he really knows is she hasn’t seen my cabin. Something he advised me not to do in the first place.
A line forms between Rose’s eyebrows as she looks from his retreating truck back to me. “I said something wrong, didn’t I?”
“A little bit. Nobody likes my cabin. It’s…” I gaze up into the night sky. “Less cozy, more ramshackle.”
“Oh. I shouldn’t have pretended I’d seen it. I just didn’t like him giving you such a hard time. Talking about you as if you’re not?—”
I look down, and our gazes collide. Selfishly, I like her defense of me. I’d like it even more if I knew what else she was going to say.As if I’m not what, Rose?
She pulls her lower lip between her teeth for a second. “Do you think he knows now? That we’re…”
She lets that hang there, too. But I don’t want her to finish that thought. I don’t need the reminder everything between us is just for pretend, and just for the summer.
Considering how badly I want to tug her into my arms and comfort her, maybe I do need the reminder.
“He doesn’t know anything. He only thinks he does.”
