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Which wasn’t totally accurate. This was a thinly veiled way to meet Nico’s boyfriend.
Confusion colored Luke’s voice. “Your family thinks we’re dating?”
“Not all of them. Elisa knows you’re just a friend I’m staying with. I never told my parents or grandparents Tomas and I broke up. I guess they assume that because I’m staying with someone from Harrison, he’s my boyfriend.”
“You guess?”
“Okay, I know.” Nico glanced at his feet. “I might not have corrected their assumption. Seemed easier at the time. I didn’t know she’d expect my ‘boyfriend’ to come up for the weekend.”
He avoided looking at Luke.
Luke remained quiet for a few beats and then chuckled gruffly.
Nico looked up to Luke running a hand through his hair. “Having let Kent assume you were my boyfriend yesterday, I get it.” Luke managed a sheepish smile. “But why don’t you tell them you broke up with him?”
“I love them to death, but Nonna likes to meddle in our lives. As the baby of my family, I’m the last one left for her to guide. I’m not interested in dating anyone after Tomas. I just need a break. But if she finds out I’m single, she’s going to kick her efforts into high gear, because I need to bring someone to the wedding. That, and I’m getting older now.”
“You’re getting older, or she’s getting older?” Luke raised an eyebrow, and boy, if it didn’t send heat racing through him. He gritted his teeth against the unneeded attraction.
“Both?” Nico laughed, but Luke had touched on part of the reason. His nonna was getting old, and he just wanted her to see him happy. Even if he had to lie to make it happen.
Nico glanced up at the ceiling. “I shouldn’t have asked you.”
“You haven’t, yet. Exactly.” Luke leaned in enough for Nico to catch a hint of citrus and soap and sweat. He gulped in a lungful. “But you should.”
A funny thrill raced over Nico’s skin, and he straightened, roommate, jock, this-is-just-a-favor a mantra in his mind. “Will you pretend to be my boyfriend and come home with me?”
Luke failed to hide a grin and motioned for them to start cleaning. “Tell about me next weekend.”
Nico wasn’t sure if that was a yes or if Luke needed more details before deciding. “We’d take the train up in the morning, dinner, stay at my parents’ Saturday night—you’d have your own room, because . . . well, because.”
Luke chuckled. “Because they don’t treat you any different than your sister. That’s kinda cool.”
“Yeah, it is.” Nico tried to get a read on what Luke thought, but his expression gave nothing away. “Sunday we’d probably have brunch with the family and then take the train home. I mean, back here.”
Funny how he already thought of this as home.
Luke pulled out his phone and scanned it for a few seconds. “Okay, I’m in, but I have a few conditions.”
“Conditions? Serious?” The giddy relief was hammered back into a nervous twitch. “What conditions? I didn’t ask for conditions before I helped you out.”
“Can I help it if you don’t know how to negotiate?” Luke was enjoying the moment a little too much. Nico scowled, and Luke chuckled. “If you’d rather I didn’t go, just say the word.”
Nico growled. “You seriously want to practice extortion with me? Me? You’re like my Italian padawan that I’m training to be a master. You got nothing on me.”
“I don’t?” He closed one eye and looked down his nose at Nico.
Nico glared, but felt his lips twitch into a giveaway grin. “Fine. Let me hear your conditions before I say fuhgeddaboudit.”
Truth, they’d need to be truly onerous for him to say no.
“First, time permitting, you show me around New York. I’ve never been.”
“Okay, but you realize the city is huge and we’re there for less than forty-eight hours.”
“Fine, promise to show me around where you live.”
Luke sounded serious, but this was hardly a real condition. “Okay.”
“Second, I get the window seat on the train. I’ve never taken a train before.”
Also not a real condition. “Really? Sure. I’ve ridden trains my whole life. You get shotgun.”
“Third—”
“Holy fuck. How many conditions do you have?”
“Third.” He held up three fingers. “You owe me now.”
“Wait.” Nico crossed his arms and glared at Luke. “How does that work? This is payback for yesterday.”
“Oh, Nico. So naïve.” Luke rolled his eyes dramatically. “First, you playing my boyfriend for five minutes is not two full days of pretending. More importantly, you didn’t bargain with me first.”
“As if. So I was supposed to look at Kurt—”
“Kent,” Luke said.
“—and Sebastian and say, hold on, I need to bargain with Luke before I do him a huge solid and pretend to be his boyfriend.”
“Hmm.” Luke finally dropped his seriously expression. “That’s a good point. But this is still way more of a favor than pretending for five minutes.”
