Page 47 of You've Got Male

“You didn’t ask me how I felt about you dating a nineteen-year-old first. You just invited him over.”

“I know him from school. Plus, this is different.”

“How?”

“Because it’s Ryan’s dad and now…” Camila looked at the camera aimed at them and threw her hands in the air. “Never mind. I’ll be in the car.”

“Honey,” Evie began but Camila was already storming off.

Evie let out a sigh and went back to bagging her groceries. This was not how she’d wanted to tell her family. Especially Camila. Evie never imagined it would be easy, but she’d hoped it would be a little blip, not a blow-up in a public place. She’d handled this all wrong. But it was too late to change direction now. She was committed to the farce, and it would all be over in just a few weeks. Then life could get back to normal.

“Don’t mind her,” Moira said. “She’s just upset because she’s hormonally unstable. It will pass.”

Evie wasn’t so sure about that. She knew that her daughter had a massive crush on Ryan but was too shy to tell him. It was obvious to anyone who saw them that there were feelings. It was part of the reason Evie wasn’t as worried about Camila’s sudden boy-crazy phase. She knew the string of dates was her passive-aggressive way to make Ryan jealous.

Would Camila ever tell Ryan her true feelings now thattheir parents had “dated”? How badly had Evie’s selfish need for privacy and space impacted her daughter’s life? And their mother-daughter relationship?

“So, tell me about you and Jonah,” Moira asked, and Evie was hyperaware that everyone around them had gone silent as if waiting for her answer.

“There isn’t much to tell. There’s me. There’s Jonah. There was a single date. End of story.”

“If that’s what you think, you’re more out of practice than I thought.” Moira pushed the cart out of line and crashed into someone. “I am so sorry,” she began and looked up. Her apologetic expression went furious when she realized it was Mr. Karlson. “You!”

Evie couldn’t help but bite back a grin. Moira was as friendly as a Labrador, but whenever she was around Mr. Karlson she grew fangs. Maybe there was something to her talk about love and hate being two sides of the same emotion.

“Good evening, Moira,” Mr. Karlson said smoothly. He was wearing slacks, a blue polo, and looked every bit the silver fox. “It’s nice to see you, too.”

Moira pushed her cart forward and ran into his again on purpose. “Out of my way, Karlson.”

He smiled. “Why, when this is so fun?”

“When I think of you, fun is the last word I’d use.”

“Clearly you haven’t been thinking about me in the right way because I’m a lot of fun.” Karlson winked and Evie swore her mom sucked in a breath.

“Then you should join my mom on Saturday for her new book club,” Evie said, and Moira kicked her in the shin.

“It’s a members-only club,” Moira pointed out.

“Then I guess I’ll just have to join.” He looked down at the cart and said, “If you’ll allow me to help, I can pack your groceries in your truck.”

“I don’t need some guy to pack my groceries.”

Karlson lifted a brow at the innuendo and Moira got flustered. “I’m not some guy. I’m a man. When you realize that, you know where I live.”

And for the first time in her life, Evie saw her mom go speechless.

Chapter Eighteen

Evie

It had been three days since Evie had heard from Jonah. They’d agreed to move forward with this pretend relationship arrangement, but neither had made the next move. It was as if they’d been in a holding pattern, waiting for the other to step up. Even though Evie knew she was the one who’d asked for the arrangement, a part of her still wanted him to be the one to make the first move.What? It was a woman’s prerogative.

Just when she was about ready to give in last night, he’d called and asked her out. Notoutlike on a date out, butoutlike going to the mall to buy some new suits. He mentioned something about grabbing a bite to eat after, but she claimed that she had to close the shop—then immediately called Julie to let her know she’d be coming in on her day off to close the shop.

“Play it cool, Evie,” she whispered to herself. But cool had never been her strong suit. Case in point, she was standing on Jonah’s porch ten minutes early because the second she’d hung up the phone last night her internal countdown clock activated.

The plan was to meet at eleven, but she’d been ready at ten thirty, and instead of playing another round of Relationship Twenty Questions with her mom or risk Moira interrogating Jonah when he showed up, Evie decided to walk next door. She thought that being proactive and seeing him on her terms would fill her with confidence, but as she lifted her hand to knock on the door her heart beat abnormally.

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