Page 95 of Peaks and Promises

“A little. It actually might help. I’m hoping her mom will inadvertently give us some warning if the asshole gets wind of where they are. She might try to intervene—convince Summer to cooperate.”

“And she might tell you when the ex gives up.”

“Exactly.”

“All right, man. I doubt I’ll hear anything useful, but if I do, I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks.”

I ended the call just as the back door opened, and Summer stepped outside.

“Everything all right?”

“Yeah. Just checking in with my partner. Nothing new on his end. You haven’t heard from your mom again, have you?”

“No. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

“Hard to say right now.”

She took a few steps across the concrete patio. “Can we talk about something?”

“Sure. What?”

“Our fake marriage.”

My brow furrowed. “What about it?”

“I think we need to be more convincing when we’re in public. The town went from talking about the return of Reese Haven to our marital problems.”

“We have marital problems?”

“According to the gossip line, we do. You heard what your aunt said. And I’ve heard whispers, too. One of my coworkers heard we aren’t married but we’re pretending to be because I’m in witness protection.”

“That’s a little too close to the truth.”

“Exactly. It’s not that I think Mayhem is going to hear a bunch of small-town rumors from thousands of miles away. But your aunt didn’t even realize I was with you when we were at the farmers’ market. If we’re going to pretend to be a couple, we should probably do a better job of selling it.”

I glanced away, like suddenly she was too bright to look at directly, and my body reminded me there were a lot of married-couple things I would have loved to do with Summer. But that was a very bad idea.

And not what she was getting at, anyway.

“What do you think we should do?” I asked.

She took a deep breath. “Hear me out. What if we practice? Here, where no one’s watching.”

I swallowed hard. Practice. Here. She didn’t mean that, but man she was stirring up some serious temptations.

My eyes flicked to the back window.

“He’s in bed. After all that tree climbing and ice cream, he’s wiped.”

“All right. What do you need me to do?”

“For one thing, you stiffen up whenever I get near you.” She moved closer, and sure enough, my spine straightened, my back tightening. “See? I don’t have cooties. You don’t need to be afraid to get close to me.”

Taking a deep breath, I let my shoulders relax.

“Better.” She shifted so she stood next to me, and her arm brushed mine. The sensation was electric. “There, now hold my hand.”