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“I didn’t handle my sister’s diagnosis all that well and they noticed. In the middle of all of that, my fiancé called things off, I quit my job, and then I decided to relocate to Sierra Vista for the time being. Now my ex is somebody else’s fiancé and … ” She covered her face. “My life is a complete mess, but I don’t want them to know. I’m the daughter who always held it together. And right now I need them to think I’ve got it all under control so they won’t add more worry to their pile, but instead I’m losing my shit. I mean, I made up a boyfriend and then brought you into my lie.”
“What now?”
“Now, I fix this. That’s the right thing to do. My dad’s got a doctor’s appointment on Friday and then they’ll be back in San Francisco. Once I hear that everything is fine and he gets clearance from his doctor, I’ll clear this up.”
“What are you going to tell them?”
Good point. Coming clean would worry them more than if she’d just told the truth. Keeping her lie made her itch. “What if I tell them that we broke up?”
“Now you’re breaking up with me?”
“It is the easiest way to explain things that won’t upset my parents further. And, well … ” She tried to think of another reasonable excuse for tacking on another lie to the first. She couldn’t think of a one. She shrugged. “That’s all I’ve got.”
“Are you asking me to keep your charade until they leave town?”
She blew out a breath; here came the hard part. “If you wouldn’t mind. I mean I’m not asking you to lie, just not to say anything to anyone. And if you see my parents before I do, maybe hide.” Hide? God, she sounded like a teenage girl asking her boyfriend to hop out the window. Then again, isn’t that what she’d done the other morning? “It will only be a couple of days, but if you’re not comfortable with it I completely understand.”
He took a long beat, and she could tell he was carefully weighing the options. “You know, if my brothers find out about this, they’ll never let me live it down.”
She frowned. “Because I’m me?”
Guys like Jax never looked at women like Milly. Not that he was her usual type. She liked them polished and primped, and Jax was rugged and rough around the edges. But, lordy, those edges were sexy.
For the first time since she’d called him by the wrong name, he softened. “No, angel, because I’m me and I got caught sneaking out of a girl’s bedroom by her parents.”
“I promise no one will find out. And I will fix this.”
He blew out a breath. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. “And I’m really sorry about everything.”
His brow creased questionably. “Everything?”
“Not everything, but how it ended.”
“Me too.”
Those two words were spoken with such finality—as if her apology was accepted and she was forgiven but he’d never forget—and it made her stomach pinch. “Does that mean you don’t want to be my friend?”
His smile was back. “Do you want me to be your friend?”
“Very much.”
She didn’t know what his grunt meant, but his eyes tracked down her body before stopping at her feet. “Is something wrong with your binding?”
“There’s something wrong with my brain. It won’t let me get on the lift.”
“Here, I’ll help you.” He slung his arm around her waist, practically carrying her back to the front of the line, and the next thing she knew her feet were swinging in the breeze. She clutched the seat of the chair, terror snapping along her spine like a rubber band.
“Oh my god. This is even worse than I remember,” she said, slamming her eyes shut.
“Are you afraid of heights?”
“No. Of course not. I’m a grown woman. That would be silly.”
He chuckled. “Then why are you climbing me like a tree?”
When had that happened? She forced herself to scooch back to her side. “I’m feeling much better now.”
