Page 12 of Faking It with the Firefighter

Rex’s brow wrinkled as he took in the question. He flashed that grin again, and damn it! Helooked good! I needed to replace those sconces with fluorescent bulbs. Good lighting was doing funny things to my brain. Rex spread his arms out to show the lack of pizza, and it happened to tug his T-shirt tight against his chest while the sleeves rode up a little on his biceps. He had those big, beefy firefighting arms, and why was I noticing themnow? “Can’t say that I did,” he said. “You ladies hungry?”

“Oh,” Minnie said, drawing out the word, an evil look on her face as she looked my way. “We arestarving.”

“Then to what do we owe this pleasure?” Evelyn followed up, setting her needles aside. Her eyes darted to me, and I knew there was no escape. Minnie, I could’ve fobbed off with some made-up story. Evelyn? Evelyn could spot bullshit at a hundred paces.

Rex darted a glance my way, and I begged him with my eyes not to say something stupid.

“I’m here for Abigail,” he said, and I willed my old house to finally come crashing down right on top of his stupid head.

“You’rehere for Abigail,” Minnie repeated, delighted.

“Do you guys have a date?” Sophie asked, brightening. “We can cut Hooker’s short tonight.”

“No!” I exclaimed at exactly the same moment Rex said, “Um. Sort of, I guess.”

There was a short, deafening silence.

“What kind of date?” Charlie asked.

Rex and I shared a look as my cheeks burned hot.

“He’s looking to list his house for sale. Right, Rex?” It was technically true, though I knew that had nothing to do with why he was calling me and why he had stopped by my house at eight o’clock at night. I clenched my teeth and tried to smile. “It’s a date to go over the comps in town.”

“Isn’t that something you can take care of during business hours?” Minnie was like a surgeon, dissecting this interaction with a sharp-edged scalpel, slicing open the idea that something more was going on. Something morewasgoing on. But it wasn’t what she was thinking.

God, what were they all thinking now? I could only imagine the questions that would follow the moment he left.

“Real estate never sleeps,” I said brightly, stomping over to my uninvited guest.

“Oh, yeah. It goes all night long,” Ida remarked, and we all shot her a look. She kept her eyes on her hands while Evelyn let out a hoot.

I grabbed Rex by the wrist and dragged him down the hall and into the guest bedroom, shutting the door behind us. The hooting got louder.

“Rex, what are you doing here?” I demanded, trying to keep quiet.

“I need to talk to you. You weren’t answering any of my calls.”

“Yeah, because, as you can see, I’m busy.” I waved a hand toward the living room and smacked it against the door in the process. When I winced, Rex stepped forward like he wanted to fix it.

Ha. Little did he know, I was unfixable.

Rex rubbed the back of his neck, and I could tell he felt bad about the whole thing. “Yeah, sorry about that. But it’s important.”

“What could be so important that you couldn’t wait until tomorrow?” I asked, and he hesitated.

Oh, no.

Whatever the reason he’d come here, it had to be bad. A terrible thought struck. “Is this about Gabe? Is he okay?”

Rex shook his head. “Gabe’s fine. It’s not that.”

“Then what? Did you tell him what happened? He knows about my arrest,” I guessed. I slapped a hand against my forehead. This was a disaster. I was never going to hear the end of it.

“It’s not that. He doesn’t know. It’s about Donny’s wedding.”

I narrowed my gaze. “What about the wedding?”

“Well, not the wedding, exactly, but the hotel for the wedding.”

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