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She stared at it for a second longer than necessary before placing her hand in his. The moment his fingers closed around hers, something in her chest tightened.

It was only dancing. They were pretending.

She knew that.

Her pulse, apparently, had not received the information.

Noah smiled and led her onto the makeshift dance floor. “This is starting to feel a little too real,” she admitted.

He nodded. “Yeah, it is. But that was the goal, right?”

“I guess so,” she said softly.

“Are you okay? We can stop if this is too much,” he reassured her.

“I’m fine. I don’t want to stop.” She didn’t realize how that sounded until it came out.

He looked pleased. “Really?”

“Not like that!”

They both laughed, and then Noah reached up absentmindedly to fix a loose strand of her hair. A loose piece had fallen from her curled ponytail, and he tucked it behind her ear.

He froze. Claire stopped breathing. His hand lingered for half a second longer than it should have, and neither of them looked away.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Claire remembered the bookstore and Noah dramatically reading about fictional men tucking back loose strands of hair.

Apparently, it was only ridiculous when fictional men did it.

“How did you guys meet?” another person on the dance floor asked, breaking them out of the trance they had fallen into.

Noah glanced at Claire, waiting to see what joke she would respond with. He was probably expecting another joke about being a food thief.

She shook her head. “You tell it.”

Noah offered her a smile and turned back to the other couple. “She moved into the apartment across the hall. My dog decided she was our new best friend. It turned out, he was right.”

“So, when did you know?” they asked.

Noah spoke first. “I’m still figuring that out. I don’t know if it was one specific moment.”

He looked at her, clearly curious what she was going to say.

“Um. . .” She took a deep breath. “I think it was never one big moment. It was just. . . a lot of little things.”

There. She had answered. The problem was she had not lied.

Something softened in Noah’s expression, and for one dangerous second, Claire wondered whether he knew.

The other couple gushed about how sweet they were.

Claire wasn’t listening.

Somewhere during the fake dating, the pretending had disappeared. She just wasn’t sure when.

CHAPTER 18

The Family Visit