Page 54 of The Charade

I kind of wanted to stay out here all night to flirt with Carter and see what might happen, but I stood up straighter and said, "Yes, let's go."

The path was less visible in the dim lighting, my footing not as sure. After I stumbled over a few branches, Carter reached for my hand to guide me back to where we'd come from. And as we walked through the trees and bushes with our fingers laced together, sparks of electricity sizzled up my arm. I knew I was going to have a hard time letting go of him when we made it back to reality.

Man, my heart was in trouble.

20

Carter

Avaand I arranged to go shopping the next day. So after doing my Sunday morning yoga and meditation session with my family—a tradition my dad and Dawn had started after a trip to India a few years back—I showered, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then headed toward the garage with my jacket in hand.

I was just walking past my dad's office when I overheard his voice coming from inside. He didn't usually take business calls on Sundays since he said if the good Lord got to take one day off a week, he deserved to take a day off, too. So it was rare to hear him on a call at this time, instead of doing his weekly planning sessions with Dawn in the sunroom.

"You tell me not to worry but I did the math," my dad's voice cut through the air as he spoke to the person on the other end of the line. "And I can't help but suspect that you made up the story about the miscarriage."

The what?

I frowned and stopped in my tracks, not used to hearing the word miscarriage in my dad's every-day conversation.

My dad paused for a moment, as if listening to whoever he was talking to. Then he said, "Yes, I understand." Another short pause. "Okay, we'll talk about it when you come to town." He sighed, and I could imagine him running his fingers through his hair. "I know. Things were crazy back then, but you…" His words trailed off like he was flustered and trying to think of how to finish his thought. "I just don't understand how you could keep this to yourself for eighteen years. I mean, do the girls even know?"

The girls?

Who was he talking to?

I inched closer to the door, hoping it would help me figure out what my dad was talking about. But he must have sensed my presence or something because his footsteps came closer and then he shut the door to block me from hearing any more of his conversation.

Weird.

He'd said things had been crazy eighteen years ago—which was about the same time he and Dawn had been separated and I'd been conceived. Was it possible my dad had gotten another woman pregnant at the same time and had assumed until now that it had ended in miscarriage?

He said something about girls knowing something. Did I have sisters I'd never met out there somewhere?

For my dad and Dawn's sake, I really hoped he was talking about something completely different. They'd barely survived the last time he came home with a random child—me—and I didn't know what would happen if history repeated itself.

Ava was waitingin the school's lobby when I made it to the academy. She'd told me to text when I arrived so she could just walk out. But since I had a part to play and I'd always gone inside the school whenever I would pick up Sofia for our dates in the past, I decided to do the same for Ava. For all anyone else knew, I was just taking my girlfriend out for a day date, and so I intended to make it look exactly like that.

"Such a gentleman," Ava commented when I opened the passenger door of my truck to let her in.

She wore a fitted teal V-neck that looked amazing next to her tanned skin and a denim mini skirt that hugged her hips in just the right way.

As she stepped up into my truck, I allowed myself to take her in a little more. I didn't know how she did it, but she seemed to get prettier and prettier every day.

I pushed the thoughts away though, because getting a crush on my fake girlfriend was not part of the plan. And even if I'd relived our kiss in the woods about a million times since last night, it didn’t mean that anything would ever happen between us.

Because I didn't have time to date anyone for real this year, and she also deserved to have a math tutor who was more concerned with helping her pass her tests instead of trying to make passes at her.

That would be so unprofessional.

Plus, who was I to assume she'd even be interested in dating me for real, anyway?

I shook my head to push the nonsensical thoughts away. Once she was seated comfortably and reaching for the seatbelt, I shut the passenger door and walked around to climb in on my side of the truck.

We ended up at a clothing boutique across the street from The Italian Amigos, and it didn't take too long for Ava to find an outfit and boots that she liked enough for me to plop my money down on.

"Isn't my boyfriend the best?" Ava said to the cashier as she rang up the items. "I tried to tell him that he didn't need to get me anything for our one-week anniversary, but he insisted. Didn't you, sweetie?"

I should probably be worried about how easily Ava could spin a story and make it sound authentic, but when the cashier gave me the total, I tapped my debit card against the card reader and said, "Anything for my girl."

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