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Her mind flashed back to the last time she’d invited him in.
Okay, so it was definitely butterfly wings.
A flicker of movement came from Ms. Tilden’s window. Milly squinted to find two beady eyes spying on them. Then a phone appeared, clearly videoing the entire incident.
Milly grabbed Jax by the jacket and yanked him inside, slamming the door, then barricading it by leaning against it. She sagged with dread. First, the morning after and now he was back, looking sexy as ever. Ms. Tilden was going to have enough fodder to get her through bingo and bunco.
He was looking around her family room and she knew what he saw. Untouched boxes. “I’m making progress in her bedroom.”
“There’s no clock ticking.” His voice was deep and eyes were filled with compassion.
“Tell that to my parents.”
He stepped closer, so close she could smell his rugged male scent, and the winter breeze on his skin. “Maybe you should.”
And explain to her parents that she needed another year or two to get used to the idea that Zoe was gone? No way. This timeline wasn’t about Milly, it was about giving her parents permission to move on from the grief. A stage Milly was still struggling to move past.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “Are you breaking up with me?”
“Depends,” he said, and a little flutter of disappointment touched her chest. “Have you told your parents the truth?”
She grimaced. How many things had she inadvertently lied to her parents about? Implying they were an item, not correcting them when she had the chance was about as responsible as it was intelligent. “No. They stayed an extra day in San Francisco so I haven’t had a chance.”
He looked relieved. Talk about confusing. He shouldn’t be relieved. He should be pissed. With her. She’d promised him it would be cleared up by the weekend and the weekend had come and gone. And now rumors were spreading like wildfire through town. According to Tessa, it had even reached the high school.
“Everyone knows about us,” she said, and he pondered that for a moment but didn’t look surprised. “You already knew.”
“My sister may have mentioned something.”
She swallowed hard. “Your sister?”
“And my brothers. Apparently, your mom ran into Peggy at the market and they’re hoping for a summer wedding.”
Milly laughed and when he remained silent, she let out a long, tired sigh. She was going to kill her mom.
“What did you say to your family?”
“I kept it vague,” he said calmly, the exact opposite of what she was feeling.
Milly had dragged him into her lie, begged him to keep her secret, and he had. Even when pressed by his family, he’d remained loyal to his word.
“This has gotten so out of hand. Misleading my parents was one thing. Now my friends think we’re living together, and the whole town is talking. When they find out I made it up, people are going to think I’ve really lost it. Or I’m really desperate.”
“What if we let them talk?” he said.
“What do you mean ‘Let them talk’? Talk about what? How crazy I am?”
He stalked closer and she took a step back, bumping into the door. “Talk about how you kissed me as a part of that dare in the bar. How I kissed you back. We had a ski date. And now we are dating.”
Had she heard him correctly? Maybe the heels were giving her altitude sickness and she was imagining things. “Say that again?”
“We let people go on thinking that we’re a thing. It solves the problem with your parents, and I don’t have to break it to my family that I was part of a dating conspiracy.”
“Conspiracy? That sounds dramatic.”
“You thought I was Lucas,” he pointed out with no heat. “I don’t think it gets any more soap opera-y that that. You have to admit, it’s a fair proposition.”
Her body heated. “A proposition got us into this mess in the first place.”
