Page 151 of Dark Endures

He chokes, well, kind of coughs. “What?”

“That was what the whole meal thing was for. Anyway, she was finding me a pity date. Which, in case you don’t know, my mother has horrible taste in men. She looks at their money and their body. Personality always comes last. One of my dates spent the entire time asking to see my feet. It was weird.”

He laughs.

“Not helping.”

Maddox gives me a little smirk.

Sexy. Focus. “So, I told her I was dating someone. And now, I have less than twenty hours to pack and find someone to fake date me.”

“Fake date you?” The smirk turns into a chuckle.

“This isn’t funny.” I glare at him. “I thought about asking you, but Mom would never believe it. Do you think Canyon would say yes? He’s goofy enough that my mom could believe he’d date me.”

“What?”

“Or maybe I should call Kyle. We would look cute together, and he promised me a museum trip.”

“What? Why wouldn’t your mother believe we could be dating?”

Really? “You’re joking, right?”

There’s that eyebrow raise again. “No.”

Men! “She just wouldn’t.”

“Why don’t we convince her otherwise?”

Is he offering— “You’re willing to be my fake date. Wow! Are you sure? Mother is a bit particular. And she’s already enlisted Percival—” Who names their kid Percival? “—to give my date the third degree. I’m sure I can find someone else.”

“You don’t need anyone else.”

The way he says that makes me wish this was real. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“Well then, we'd better get packed. Can you bring that black suit you wore during my interview? And then a grey suit with a bl—”

“You remember what I was wearing during your interview?”

Women never forget the first time they meet a man like you. You’re permanently etched on our brains. “Sure. We need to come up with a cover story. It needs to be thorough enough to stand up to Mom’s shenanigans.”

“Why don’t we use our own story? We met, played chess, pet some snakes, and fell in love.”

Hmmm. “Nah. Mom would never believe that. We need to come up with something more realistic. Like we met at a friend’s wedding, where you were the groomsman and I was a bridesmaid. We were forced to dance together the whole night. You got a little drunk and kissed me.”

“The first time I kissed you, I was drunk?”

“Yes, do follow along. We need to keep our stories straight.”

“Was our drunken kiss good?”

How could kissing you ever be bad? “Spectacular. Which is why you called me the next morning and asked me out. Maybesomewhere simple—” I glance over at him. “—but elegant. We had sushi. Then walked around a few galleries. Yes. That sounds believable.”

“It sounds completely insane.”

“I know. Mom will love it. Let’s work on the little details now…”

---