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“No.” Her voice weakened. The man likely never played poker. Those eyes would always give him away. She could read him as easily as he seemed to read her. She could see the emotion there. The mix of hurt and intrigue when he stared at her this way. “I know you wouldn’t talk to a woman that way. But I’m worried that Franco will avoid me now. And I want the four of us to hang out so we can keep an eye on them.”
“Well, you can talk to him about it if you’d like.”Thatch lined up another piece of drywall. “He’ll be here any minute.”
“Right. I’ll apologize to him.” If she wanted to earn Elina’s trust and learn what was really going on between her and Franco, then she’d have to earn his trust too. Or at least clear the air between them so he wouldn’t run in the opposite direction whenever he saw her.
“You’re sure you still want to go through with this whole thing?” Thatch made another cut with the saw and then continued. “The pretending?”
“Sure.” Second thoughts might have been her constant companion the last few days, but she didn’t have to tell him that. Because the man seemed all confident and unaffected. She could play that part too. “Why wouldn’t I want to go through with it?”
Thatch pulled the pencil out from behind his ear and made some marks on the drywall, his lips hinting at a smirk again. “You seemed a little taken aback when I kissed you.”
“What?” She wished he would turn his head so she could read his eyes again. Was he teasing her? Or trying to figure out how she felt about him kissing her? “I wasn’t taken aback.” Maybe she’d beentaken in, but he didn’t need to know that. “I mean, kissing you wassonot a big deal. We’re going to have to kiss occasionally so everyone thinks we’re together.” They would get used to it, and eventually, her pulse wouldn’t even kick up.
“I guess we will.” Thatch continued his work, marking off sections of the drywall without paying her much attention.
But this conversation wasn’t over. They had to hash out all these details now so they didn’t come across asawkward and unsure. “Why didn’t you want to go to dinner at Kyra and Aiden’s on Saturday night?”
“Our friends know us better than anyone else.” He stashed the pencil behind his ear and faced her again. “Don’t you think they’re going to see through this?”
“We won’t let them.” They simply had to power through and get past any awkwardness. “We can be convincing.” He’d certainly been convincing when he’d kissed her.
Thatch’s deep sigh sagged his shoulders. “They won’t tell anyone. If we tell them the truth. That we’re only dating so we can hang out with your student and her boyfriend. Maybe it would be better to be honest with our friends. I don’t like lying.”
“We’re not doing this so we canhang outwith them.” Her voice rose despite her best effort to restrain the anger. “We’re getting to know Franco so we can protect Elina.” That was the bottom line. “We’re watching out for her.” She couldn’t let someone else go through the pain she’d experienced when she had the power to step in and do something. She fired up her right eyebrow into her most skeptical glare. “Besides, do you really want to tell Silas and Aiden you’re doing yoga with me so you can become a better bronc rider?”
His silence answered for him.
“I didn’t think so.” They were only pretending. That wasn’t quite the same as lying.
Uttering another sigh, he glanced past her shoulder at the windows. “Franco pulled up. You might want to meet him on his way in if you’re going to apologize and all.”
“Right.” She eased out her own sigh as she left the room and hurried down the hallway. “Hi, Franco.”
The kid froze inside the doorway and raised his hands. “I’m only here for work, lady.”
“I know.” She turned up the wattage on her smile. “I wanted to apologize. I probably jumped to some conclusions that I shouldn’t have at the store the other day.” Or not. “I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot.”
“Okay.” Without smiling back, he sidestepped her and continued down the hall.
She followed behind him. “I really feel bad about making such a scene.” She kept her tone chipper so she wouldn’t come across as desperate.
They walked into the big open space where Thatch had just finished cutting another sheet of drywall. “Thatch and I were thinking maybe we could take you and Elina out to dinner at the café to make up for it.”
“No thanks.” The kids sauntered to a shelf that held a tool belt and slung it around his waist. “Hey, Thatch. Are we hanging more drywall today?”
Lyric shot the man a desperate look behind Franco’s back. She needed his help here.
“Uh. Yeah. We’ll keep working on drywall.” Thatch lifted the piece he’d cut and hauled it to the opposite corner of the room while Lyric gestured at him the whole way.
Thatch sure seemed to be sighing a lot today. “Hey, Franco. I don’t suppose you and Elina would want to come out to the arena to watch me take a practice ride sometime, would you?”
The kid slipped on a pair of work goggles. “That might be cool.”
“I’ve got a time set up for Saturday morning. Ten o’clock. Show up at Kirby Leatherman’s place if you canmake it.” Thatch slid her a sideways glance as if to say,See how it’s done?
“We’ll be there.” Franco said the words almost with awe. “Definitely.”
“Great.” Thatch sidled up alongside Lyric. “I’m going to walk her out to her car. I’ll be right back.” He nudged her along down the hallway.
