Page 52 of Salty, Spiced, and a Little Bit Nice

“Why not? It’s okay to admit that you’re attracted to him,” Kim said. “And you both live in the same house, which means you’ve cut down on commuting time, so you’ve got evenmore timeto do all those things. Maybe you could makehimscream. Or growl your name. Groan in ecstasy. I’m not a romance novelist, but you get the idea.”

Uninvited images of a naked Alec on top, moaning and moving against me, sneakily slid into my brain, making me hot all over. I shook my head to chase them away. “No. No one’s getting any ideas.”

“All I’m saying is,” Kim said, “you’ve been working too hard, and you deserve a break. Just start by asking him on a date, and the screaming and the moaning can happen after.”

“I already have a date. Well, technically a non-date.”

“Yes!” Kim brightened. “With Sexy Building Expert?”

“With the mechanic who fixed my car.”

“NO!” She looked scandalized. “Lord Building Expert isn’t going to like it.”

“I’m just meeting the guy for coffee. No big deal.”

“Alec still won’t like it,” Jenna agreed. “Kim’s right. I can tell when a man looks at you like he wants to strip you naked and do dirty, delicious things to you all night long.”

Kim nodded, lifting a finger to stop me when I started protesting. “And please don’t insult our intelligence by reciting that spiel about ‘just friends’ again.”

I wondered if I should tell them about the fake dating arrangement. Naomi was very suspicious and had asked lots of questions when I’d called her after the dinner, but I didn’t tell her anything. I trusted her, but the fewer people that knew about it back home, the better. And since I couldn’t tell Naomi, these two women were the closest friends I had in this town.

“Can you two keep a secret?”

Jenna nodded, her face solemn. “I don’t have any other friends, so I can’t tell anyone.”

“That’s not true. She has more friends than you and I combined.” Kim sipped her drink. “And of course I can. My lips are sealed tighter than Fort Knox.”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath. “Alec and I are in a pretend relationship. He was going to hire a fake girlfriend, so I offered, in return for his help finding a contractor to repair the shop.”

My friends’ eyes grew larger, followed by a few moments of silence.

“Back up a little,” Kim said. “Start from the very beginning, pretend we’re a couple of one-year-olds, and go reeeaalllyy slow. What on God’s green Earth are you talking about?”

They both listened, unblinking, as I told them about our agreement. Our food and drinks sat untouched until I’d finished recounting the story.

“Interesting,” Kim said. “One question. Is there anything in your agreement that says you’re not allowed to consummate the fake relationship?”

“Kim!” I groaned, as Jenna roared with laughter. “That’syour takeaway from the story?”

“I’m just saying, he looks like he’d be interested in taking your fake relationship further and un-fake the hell out of it.” Kim grinned, before her face turned serious. “Joking aside, though.How do you feel about it? You kept saying he’s just a friend, and you don’t have any feelings for him. But has anything changed?”

I considered her question. “I don’t know. I know that things are different between us now,” I said. “He’s definitely not the same person he was ten years ago. He’s much friendlier now, and he keeps doing these sweet little things that surprise me. Thoughtful things I wouldn’t have expected from the Alec I used to know.”

Jenna smiled. “And you’re starting to have feelings for him again.”

“Maybe a little, yeah,” I admitted. “But I’m not going to do anything about it. Because he said he’s interested in someone else, so I’m convinced he’s only being nice to me because he promised my brother to look out for me.”

Kim frowned. “If he’s interested in someone else, why is he asking you to be his pretend girlfriend?”

“He said it’s still very new. They’re still getting to know each other.”

“I think he’s lying.” Jenna piped up. “I think he told you he likes someone else as an act of self-preservation. Because he’s afraid he’ll fall madly in love with you, but he thinks you still blame him for what happened ten years ago. So he’s pretending not to be interested in you, to protect himself from getting hurt.”

My mind flitted back to Rob’s theory about Alec being curt as a defense mechanism, and for a brief, hopeful minute, I wondered if Jenna was right.

But what if she’s not?

I curbed that tiny flicker of hope. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. My priority right now should be to get the bakery up and running, and I had no time for anything else.

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