Page 29 of Falling for your Fake Boyfriend

I hesitated for a second. It seemed Isla left to avoid me. I couldn’t blame her. I knew this weekend would turn into one of my mom’s toxic stews, but I hadn’t expected her to have an accomplice.

Gretchen gave me a little push. “Go on. Don’t blow it with this one. She’s a keeper.”

I leaned over and hugged her briefly, then hurried out. Isla turned out of one of the hallways and bumped right into me. She bounced off my chest, and I reached out and caught her before she stumbled back. We stood that way for a long moment, me holding her arms and our gazes locked in surprise and something else. We’d known each other for such a short time, but when I looked at her, she was so right, so familiar, as if we’d known each other forever.

“There really should be a GPS app for this house,” she said. “I now stand in front of you, in complete humiliation after my dramatic exit, asking which way to the stairs, please.”

I put out my arm. “Allow me.” We headed down the hallway. “Isla, first of all, I apologize about the dinner. My mom?—”

“It’s all right. I’ve already got her completely figured out. I can handle her. I wasn’t expecting a two-pronged attack, but I think I blunted the point on the second arrow.”

I chuckled. “That you did. I don’t think Mrs. Carlton ever found her tongue again after that.”

We reached the stairs and continued up them.

“I hope I didn’t mess things up with you and Alexandria.”

We stopped at the top and I turned to her. “Alex seemed to enjoy seeing her mother get stopped in her tracks. And about Alex?—”

Isla shook her head. “You don’t have to talk about it. None of my business.”

“I’ll walk you to your door. I don’t want you to be wandering the halls alone tonight, wondering whether it’s north or south to your bedroom door. Besides, that’s when all the ghosts come out.”

Her face snapped my direction. “Now, don’t tease me about something like that.”

We reached the door. I smiled. “You like the idea of ghosts, don’t you?”

“It would make this whole, big, complicated scheme so much more fun and worth it. Aside from the money, of course.”

“And our friendship?” I asked. It popped out before I could stop it.

She blinked up at me. “Our friendship? I thought this was strictly a business transaction.”

Her words actually stung. But she was right. I’d framed the whole thing as exactly that. I was regretting this plan more than ever. “I guess—well—no, you’re right,” I said it in a way that was as smooth as sandpaper. The truth was, Isla was a hard person to let go of.

We stood outside her door in one of those awkwardly intense moments. Her lips were glossy pink and inviting. Gretchen’s suggestion of a goodnight kiss actually floated through my mind, but that would be wrong. I started this as a business proposition, and I needed to stick to the rules—as much as I hated them.

“We’re all going for a ride in the morning,” I said.

The lips I’d imagined kissing just seconds before turned down. “So, you’re going to ride horses with Alex?” She shook her head. “Of course. Don’t worry about me. I’ll keep myself busy. You have fun. I think you make a stunning couple.” She reached behind her, opened the door and stepped inside. Her face peered out for a second. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

I stood there and stared at the door for a long time. I’d done some stupid things in my life, more than I cared to admit, but I’d really become the master of stupidity with this plan. And the master of selfishness, too. I was only concerned about having to dodge one of my mom’s blind dates. I never thought about Isla in all this, and for that, I would never forgive myself.

I headed down the hallway and across the landing to my grandmother’s room. She’d avoided the dinner party tonight—smart woman. She was the only person I cared to talk to when I was feeling down. And I was definitely feeling down.

I knocked lightly on her door. “Grandma, it’s me. You still up?”

“I am. Come on in, Luke.”

Hazel was draped in a soft blanket as she sat on the big chair near the fireplace. A book rested on her lap. “I’m always cold.” Her gentle laugh had already helped, like a warm cookie after you’d had a bad day at school. She looked older than the last time I saw her, and the notion that I would someday lose her for good tugged at my heart. I leaned down and kissed her cheek, then sat in the chair across from her. I stared into the empty hearth.

“Something has you upset? Let me guess. Maggie has been busy trying to control everyone’s lives and is making people miserable in the process.”

“She is in rare form this weekend.”

“I know she has a woman lined up for you. I suppose that’s why you decided to pull an innocent and wonderfully charming young woman into our family circus.” I hadn’t been admonished by my grandmother in many years, but she wasn’t trying to hide her disapproval.

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