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“Please step into my office.”Decker extended his arm, his other hand resting on the side of the canoe, his shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows.
The clear water rippled underneath the wooden frame bobbing on the surface. The afternoon sun glistened off the top of the water like sprays of diamonds. Meanwhile, the patchwork of rocks shimmered in an array of burnt browns underneath Decker’s toes.
Like his shirt, he’d rolled his jeans up so the water just missed them.
“Really?” I arched an eyebrow, wondering how I’d gotten roped into this.
Momentary dementia from being pressed up against him.
When he said we were going to Jenny Lake, I thought he meant the ferry boat that carried passengers to the other side of the lake, where there were hiking trails and waterfalls. But no, he meant we were going out on the lake…in a canoe.
He grinned, that crooked smile sinking its teeth into the ache between my legs.Why did I have to pick a hot fake boyfriend?This would be so much easier if I wasn’t actually attracted to him.
I kicked off my shoes, tossing them into the center of the canoe along with his. The cold water was a welcome bite on my skin, tempering the heat in the rest of my body.
Decker wiggled his fingers. I stared at them and then climbed into the canoe on my own. Hearing his low, hoarse chuckle next to me was just as bad as it would’ve been to touch him again.
“When was the last time you were out on Jenny Lake?”
I shrugged. “It’s been a while.”Middle school,I thought.
He gripped the end of the canoe with both his hands in order to push off, and my attention dropped like ananchor to his forearms, veins stretching over layers of muscle. He had to have more veins than the normal person.No, not anatomically possible,I chided myself and snapped my eyes out across the lake.
The cool breeze kissed my cheek as Decker pushed us off. The canoe wobbled as Decker hopped in. He grabbed one of the oars but made no move to use it, instead just letting us drift out into the lake. Water sluiced like sliding silk along the sides, and my eyes fluttered shut.
I tried to think about my patient—the one who’d had a triple bypass this morning after coming to the ER last week with chest pains. Tried to recall his pre-op readings and what meds Dr. Williams, the surgeon, put him on. But the breeze just kept blowing the threads of my thoughts away. Cool and clean and clear.
This was the danger of coming back here—back home.Back where I could lose my focus.It was like leaving solid ground for the unstable surface of the lake. In New York, I was on a firm, unyielding path, but here…I could float. Tip and drift on things that could change with the day.Here, I could be susceptible to something that could drown me.
“So, why do you need a fake boyfriend?”
My gaze snapped back to Decker. “Seriously? You met my mom.”
“I did, but she already seemed under the impression that youhada boyfriend.”
I pressed my hands to the seat on either side of me, my head dipping as I watched the canoe forge ripples through the surface of the still lake.
“I might have told her a couple months ago that I had one so she’d stop bugging me,” I confessed, and when Decker laughed, I added, “It’s not funny.”
“It is funny,” he countered and lifted the oar.
Guess we weren’t just going to float.I didn’t care either way until those vein-wrapped arms began flexing with each row, paddling us out farther into deeper water.
“She just needs to let it go. It’s not like she didn’t raise me as a single mom. She should know a relationship isn’t everything.”
And how much it could cost.
He hummed. “That’s how parents are. They always want more for you than they had, right?”
Our eyes locked across the narrow plank separating us.
Mom wanted my happiness, and to her, that came in the form of a man to love and to love me because it was the root of it all.
Why did I have to pick the hot, intuitive mechanic for a fake boyfriend?
“Alright, Yoda.” I stretched out my legs in front of me and tucked my arms to my chest. I was done being the subject here. “So, what’s your story? The SparkNotes version, so I have all the answers to the questions that Mom’s eventually going to ask.”
He chuckled, eyes twinkling while I waited for an answer.
