The Real Deal

“In what ways were you messed up?” April asks, but then she holds up her hand as a stop sign. “Forget I asked. You don’t have to tell me.”

I lift my own hand, run a finger down her cheek. “Maybe someday.”

“If you’re going to say things like ‘maybe someday,’ don’t say things like ‘you shouldn’t like me.’ Because I already do. I do like you, Theo.”

My heart jumps, and I want to warn it to settle down. But hearts don’t listen to heads. When have they ever? My father’s broken, ransacked heart guided him to his final choice. My brother’s heart was given to Lacey long ago, and he thought he needed to con again to win her over. Instead he wound up behind bars.

My situation isn’t the same as either of theirs—it’s not so tragic, and in this moment, it’s not so desperate.

But that doesn’t mean I’m any wiser. It takes a better man than me to listen to his head. Especially when the heart has a way of convincing the head that it knows best. “That ship has sailed for me, too, cupcake. I like you.”

I drop a kiss to her forehead, catching a faint whiff of her hair, and that raspberry scent. I can feel her smiling as my lips press to her skin.

“Then let’s just have a good time for the next few days,” she says as I pull back and put the money in my pocket at last.

“Don’t you know, we always have a good time?”

Screw it. I do want her more than I want to resist her. And I want to enjoy the hell out of the rest of this reunion with my fake girlfriend, who feels more like a real one every second.

“We always have the best time. By the way,” she says breezily, “how was the boat ride this afternoon?”

“It was very manly. Very macho. We took off our shirts, beat our chests, and spoke in cave grunts as we hauled in fish with our bare hands.”

“So, a typical day on the boat.”

“Your dad spent plenty of time saying, ‘Isn’t this great?’ ‘Don’t you love fishing?’ ‘What’s better than a day on the water?’”

She laughs. “He’s really working this new angle hard, isn’t he?”

I nod. “He definitely is. But I do like his new tactic better than the one where he tried to keep me away from you.”

She lowers her eyes.

“I missed you on the boat,” I say, and the words taste awkward on my tongue. But they also feel right. Because they’re true.

“You did?”

“Seems I like spending time with you.” I press a kiss to her lips.

I can feel her smile as she says, “You should go for a boat ride with me.”

“Count on it,” I say—then an idea knocks me upside the head. Something that isn’t about me or what I want. “Hey, I just thought of something we should do first.”

“Tell me.”

I share my plan, and she quirks up a corner of her lips. “That’ll take some convincing.”

“I know. But you seem to have some sort of magic effect on your sister, and I suspect you’ve noticed her husband has a man crush on me.”

She laughs. “I have absolutely noticed. And she said something at the nail salon that gives me an idea for how to pull it off.” She drops her voice to a whisper. “Apparently, my sister and her husband used to do it in cars.”

I laugh. “Let’s make sure they can go for a ride, then.”

When we return to the inn, April pulls her sister aside. Tess furrows her brow at first, but as April keeps talking, Tess’s expression shifts, perhaps to interest. I turn away from them, clap Cory on the shoulder, and say, “Give me your kids. April and I are going to watch them for an hour. We won’t take no for an answer, and if I were you, I’d make sure you make good use of that hour.”

“Thanks, man. I owe you,” he says, relief and excitement in his voice.

April and I don’t do anything the others in her family couldn’t do. We simply plop the kids in their strollers and wander around the neighborhood while Cory drives off somewhere with his wife.

“It’s odd that Tess and Cory didn’t do this sooner. My mom loves to help with the kids,” April says as we push Davey and Andi. “Why not let my mom watch the kids and go park somewhere?”

But I think I know the answer to that. Sometimes you don’t realize what you need until you see what you don’t have. “Maybe they needed to see what they were missing, you know? Maybe they didn’t even know it until they saw us.”

She arches an eyebrow. “We’re what they’re missing?”

I shrug, not wanting to say too much more at the moment. “Maybe. Maybe they needed to see a guy and a girl who really seem to dig each other’s company. Maybe that was the spark they needed.”

“I do dig your company.”

“And I bet Cory and Tess are digging each other’s company right now.”

April laughs, and that sound dives down deep into my heart and insists on burrowing there.

When we return and meet them at the curb outside the inn, April points to Tess’s messy hair. “Talk about tousled.”

Tess grins, then her face turns serious. “Thank you. We needed that.”

“I’m glad you could have it.”

Cory extends a hand to me in a big-ass thank-you shake. “Boy, am I ever glad April brought you to the reunion.”

“I’m a good luck charm for getting lucky, I guess,” I say with a smile.

A minute later, Tess is clutching the baby again and cooing at her little girl, and Cory links his fingers with his son’s as they head into the Sunnyside. It’s back to business as usual. We didn’t change their life, but maybe we changed one night.





Chapter Twenty-eight

April

“We need to escape now.”

I grab his biceps and squeeze, to emphasize how critical the matter at hand is. Admittedly, I may also have ulterior motives when it comes to touching his arm. But right now, I’m conveying the seriousness of the issue. It’s eight thirty, and we’re in the room post-dinner and pre–evening Scrabble tournament.

Ergo—we must vacate the premises stat.

“I love a good escape, but tell me why,” he asks.

“You know how my mom loves to ask questions? Well, that same drive that pushes her to ask one million questions also leads her to want to absolutely dominate any game of Scrabble.”

“Sounds like she’s a fierce competitor.”

“That’s the understatement of the century. But it also means one game will turn into five, and the night will never end.”

“You’re saying you need me to spring you, cupcake?”

I point from him to me and back. “We need to spring both of us, and we need to do it now.”

“Do you want to tell them we’re going for a walk?”

I shake my head. “They’ll try to rope us into it. I want a sure thing.”

His brow knits as he surveys the room, as if he’s hunting for the pod or hatch that’ll shoot us free. “Do you trust me?” he asks when he swings his gaze to me.

The question tugs at my heart. I’ve spent the last forty-eight hours with him, nonstop. I slept in the same bed with him. I’ve woken curled up around him. I’ve kissed him. I’ve laughed with him. We’ve talked and fought and talked and made up. That’s why I can say with 100 percent certainty, “Yes, I trust you.”

“Then here’s the plan.”

His strategy is simple but risky, and the danger primarily lies in the possibility of broken bones. Shattered tibias are not my favorite outcome, but I can’t deny that my speeding heart and pulsing adrenaline say go for it. I grab the DO NOT DISTURB sign from the wooden writing desk, open our door, scan the hallway, and since it’s all clear, I hang the sign on the doorknob.

I close the door. “Now they’ll just think we’re doing what they pretty much quizzed me on in the salon. Our sex life.”

Theo arches a brow. “They quizzed you on our fictional sex life?”

“You have no idea what nosy perverts women can be when you get them all together in a salon. I didn’t even say a word about it, but they’d all decided you’re a god in bed.”

He puffs his chest, squares his shoulders, and gives me the most smoldering eyes a man has ever given a woman. “Do you think they’re right?”