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She nodded. “Yeah.”
“I didn’t realize he had a girlfriend,” said Ashley, eyeing Dean appraisingly.
“Oh, uh . . .” Carly knew she should correct them and set the record straight. But then she’d have to put up with their pitying, condescending looks for the next several days. So, she opened her mouth before she could talk herself out of the lie. “Yep. Dean and I are dating.”
She’d barely finished her sentence before she saw Dean out of the corner of her eye. He’d apparently finished checking them in and had arrived just in time to hear the lie. Her heart thundered to life in her chest, and she held her breath, waiting for him to correct her, to challenge her on what she’d just said. She could practically feel her nose growing. But he slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “Room’s ready,” he said simply, smiling at her.
She froze for a second, but then managed to regain her composure. “Great. Dean, this is Mike Travis, and his girlfriend, Ashley. Mike works with Christie,” she said, directing the conversation away from her and Dean.
“Doctor Mike Travis,” he said as he and Dean shook hands. Dean smiled affably, clearly not fazed by Mike’s dickish attitude.
“Well, we’ll let you two get settled. See you around,” said Mike, taking Ashley by the elbow and leading her away. He glanced over his shoulder once before disappearing around the corner.
“So,” came Dean’s voice in her ear. “You want to fill me in, sweetheart?”
Chapter 3
Dean led Carly out of the lobby and down the wide limestone path toward their building, which, according to the map the woman at the reception desk had given him, was about halfway between the lobby and the beach, near the pool. The sun blazed in the sky even as it sank toward the horizon. With the warm air filling his lungs and the sun heating his skin, he could feel his tension ebb away. Looking around at the gorgeous scenery, he was pretty sure stress wasn’t on the menu here.
“I’m sorry,” Carly finally said, not looking at him as they walked. Around them, tropical music floated on the air, punctuated with laughter and splashes from the pool. “I shouldn’t have said that.” She kept darting little glances at him as though she expected him to be pissed, but he wasn’t. Curious? Sure. Intrigued? Hell yeah. But not pissed.
He was pretty sure he’d never actually been pissed at Carly.
“What exactly happened there?” he asked, wondering what had prompted her to claim that they were dating. Wondering why the lie didn’t bother him as much as he knew it ought to.
She sighed and her shoulders slumped. “That was Dr. Mike. As in my ex-boyfriend, Dr. Mike. And his new girlfriend, Ashley.” Her lip curled a little, as though the words tasted bad.
The pieces clicked into place, and Dean’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, shit. Does he know Christie or something?” There was only one hospital in Cheyenne, so it wasn’t difficult to figure out the connection.
She nodded. “Yeah, they’re friends, apparently. Anyway, they were just so . . . so . . .” She held her hands in front of her as she talked, her fingers bent into claws. She let out an anguished little grunt. “Condescending. And smug. And pitying. They assumed we were here together, as a couple, and I totally panicked.” Her steps faltered, and she squinted up at him. “I’ll fix it. I’m sorry.”
Dean shrugged, and the seed of something, an idea, maybe, took root somewhere deep in the recesses of his brain. “I get it. It’s shitty that they’re here, and you didn’t want to deal with their whole ‘poor Carly’ routine.”
Her eyes widened. “Uh . . . yeah, actually. That was a big part of it.”
He laid a hand on the small of her back and gently guided her down a side path toward their building. Lush, green grass filled the space on either side. Gardens sat in the center of the lawn, crowded with bright tropical plants. A neon orange hummingbird flitted by them, its wings buzzing as it made its way toward a bush with large pink flowers.
“I’ll fix it,” said Carly, firm resolve in her voice. “It was a stupid thing to say.”
The seed of an idea bloomed, fully formed, and Dean stopped walking. He wasn’t entirely sure where it had come from, but now that it was in his head, he didn’t want to dismiss it. Carly made it a few more steps before she realized he wasn’t beside her anymore, and she stopped and spun. He met her gaze, weighing his words before he spoke. “I’m not sure it was that stupid.”
She pulled her head back, a frown on her face. “What do you mean?”
The back of his neck prickled, and he rubbed a hand over it. “Maybe pretending that we’re dating, just for the few days we’re here, isn’t such a bad idea.”
She stared at him and blinked slowly. “Wait, what? You want to . . .” Her fingers fluttered at her sides. “Pretend to date?”
He huffed out a breath and held his hands out at his sides. “My family thinks I’m a manwhore who can’t keep it in his pants to save his life. If I—”
She cut him off. “You want to lie to your family?”
He opened and closed his mouth, a tiny sliver of guilt slicing into him. “Not really, but I also don’t want them worried about me.” Maybe if he put an altruistic spin on it, it wouldn’t sound so bad. But he knew he was being selfish.
And yet, for whatever reason, he didn’t want to let it go.
“And you’re upset at how they see you.” She raised her eyebrows, turning her sentence into a question.
He tipped his head. “Yeah.” In truth, he hadn’t stopped thinking about it since his conversation with Luke and Christie. He couldn’t disagree with what they’d said. And he couldn’t deny he that he wanted more for himself.
