Page 23 of Fake Dating the Silver Fox

She points to my pants, giving her head a little shake. “Don’t you know what you look like in those?”

Cupid, tail wagging, waits impatiently at the door to the bedroom. I stoop down and rub his head as I stuff my feet into sneakers.

“Cupid doesn’t care what I look like.”

Mara’s gaze is on my crotch, a gleam lighting up her eyes. “You’re giving the neighbors a show.”

I glance down at my baggy gray sweatpants. “I’m fully covered.”

“Don’t you know about sweatpants season?”

Confusion knits my brow. “I wear these year-round.”

Mara laughs and pushes me toward the door. “Don’t be too long and let me know how many women come to their windows to watch you walk by.”

My phone buzzes from where I’d left it on the dresser, and I grab it on my way out. Vanessa’s name lights up the screen. It’s unusual, but not unheard of for her to call this early on the weekends.

I hit the red end button and pocket the phone, planning to call her back once I’m outside, but the phone buzzes again immediately.

It must be urgent if she’s calling back so quickly. I hope it’s nothing to do with switching up my schedule. I’m all set to start traveling tomorrow.

Clicking Cupid’s leash in place, I slip out the front door and pluck my phone from the pocket of my sweatpants. Before I can even say hello, Vanessa Blake’s voice shrills down the line.

“There’s no need to panic.” Her voice is breathless. “I’ve got this all under control.”

Vanessa is a little dramatic, but I’m used to her. She handleseverythingwith a sense of need and urgency, right down to my coffee order.

Since I’m the kind of writer who works straight up to a deadline, I need a publicist like Vanessa in my corner to keep everything else in order.

“What’s going on? It’s not the schedule, is it? Because I’ve put a hold on writing my new book for this tour, and changing things will…”

“Have you been online this morning?”

A smile curves my lips. I have been on Mara this morning. And she has been on me. “Nope.”

There’s a long pause. Cupid pees on a few bushes in a row before Vanessa responds.

“Maybe you shouldn’t.”

My stomach drops. “Is it a one-star?” Even though I try not to worry about my reviews, every bad one I see punches me straight in the gut. “Just put it in the file.”

“No,” Vanessa is quick to reassure me. “It’s not a bad review.”

I let out a breath and lead Cupid back to the house. Eggs don’t take too long, and I don’t want to keep Mara waiting.

“It’s a woman.”

“What kind of woman?” I hold back a sigh of frustration. Vanessa should have been a writer. She knows how to build tension and suspense.

“Are you dating someone new?” she asks.

My gaze snaps to my house a few yards away, and it occurs to me I haven’t officially taken Mara on a date.

That ends now.

As soon as I get back to the house, I’m asking her to dinner.

“Why do you ask?”

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