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With Mom settled and nursing her cup of green tea, I grabbed my cell and closed myself in my childhood bedroom to call Decker.
My heart thudded in my throat with each ring.
“Hey, Reese,” he answered after the third tone, and it was strange, but I could hear that tipped smile in his voice.And it was stupid that it made my stomach flutter.“I found the leak in the line. I actually just finished patching it”—already?—”so then I’ll top off the coolant, and it should be good to go.”
“Great. Thank you,” I blurted out in a rush. “But that’s not why I’m calling.”
“Oh.” He started. “Is Mom okay?”
It didn’t slip my notice that he called her mom. I mean, she’d told him to but in all fairness, she also thought he was something that he wasn’t.
“Yeah, she’s fine…doing good.” I steeled myself and pretended like I was in the ER and had to break bad news to a patient. “Unfortunately, she remembers you and still thinks you’re my boyfriend.”
He chuckled. “Bet she got a kick out of learning that I’m just your mechanic.”
“About that.” I let out a weak laugh. “I didn’t exactly correct her.”
There was a brief pause. “What?”
“Look, Decker, I can’t correct her right now. Between the surgery and the drugs and our…own stuff…I just…she needs to believe you’re my boyfriend.”
His low hum vibrated through the phone, doing things to my body that no sound should have the power to do.
“You were the one who let her think it in the first place,” I reminded him, refusing to wholly take the blame for this situation.
“So, you want me to continue to pretend to be your boyfriend while you’re in town?” he drawled.
My heart beat harder. “Will you?”
There was a low pause, and suddenly, my biggest fear wasn’t having to confess the truth to Mom…it was that Decker wasn’t going to agree to the lie.
“Okay…”
“Great.” I sank onto the bed. “I’m so sorry about this. It’ll just be for a few weeks, I promise. I just…I can’t tell her the truth right now.”
“It’s fine, Reese. Whatever you need.”
Whatever I needed.
I gritted my teeth. It was annoying to be reminded how I needed him right now, but it was the unfortunate reality.
“Speaking of that…” I swallowed hard. “I kind of told her you were at the hotel but that you were picking up breakfast and coming over here this morning.”
“Oh.”
“If you can’t, it’s not a big deal,” I said in a rush. Of all people, I knew that work came first, and I didn’t want to put him behind for a stupid charade. “I can tell her something came up. Maybe with work or something—oh, I’ll tell her you work remotely for the hospital and have to take a meeting—”
Who the hell was I—able to fabricate a backstory faster than a speeding bullet?
“Reese,” he stopped me with a low growl. “It’s fine. I don’t have anything else going on today. I can come by.”
My shoulders slumped. “Thank you, Decker. Really, thank you.”
* * *
“I’m just so glad you’re here.” I forced my smile even wider while Mom gushed her gratitude to Decker like he was God’s gift to her daughter.
She wasn’t far off base. He was my gift—the kind, handsome mechanic who’d agreed to my harebrained plan with barely any hesitation. But he wasn’tthatkind of gift. Not for me, at least.But a girl could fantasize…I might be a doctor who hadn’t had a date in a decade, but I wasn’t dead. With those well-worn clothes that seemed like they’d grown into him rather than the other way around and that easily tipped smile just waiting for the slightest breeze to lift up one side…
