Page 21 of Kiss Me if You Can
He’s as muscled as his photos say, though he looks a tad less impressive when he isn’t all oiled. I expected him to show up in workout clothes, but he put on jeans and a short-sleeved plaid button-up. Surprising. Clearly he puts in the work and has earned his celebrity status, but I absolutely don’t like the way he’s taking me in from head to foot, especially when his eyes linger on the empty space where my leg should be.
“I thought the fake leg might have been a gimmick,” he says, lifting an eyebrow.
Jake immediately wraps his arm around my waist as he hands Emily’s phone back to her. “Hi,” he says, his voice gritty and his body tense. “You must be the buff guy.”
Biff scoffs. “Biff the Buff Boy,” he corrects, even though that doesn’t make it sound better. “Who are you?”
Jake’s arm tightens around me. “I’m Marty, Isla’s husband. Marty McFly.”
Whydid he have to add that last part? He’s going to blow this whole thing by using a name fromBack to the Futureto match Biff’s name, and I’m going to lose this collab opportunity because Emily is going to realize I’ve lied to her and Biff is going to spend the whole time hitting on me and making me wish I’d never come to Sun City.
To my utter surprise, no one reacts to the name. Outside of Rhys narrowing his eyes a little as he glances between Jake and Biff, I’m not sure if anyone even made the connection to the movie.
Biff seems more preoccupied with thehusbandpart, his eyes dropping to the ring on my finger as I put my hand over Jake’s. “Dang,” he says, frowning like we just told him his quick oil change is actually going to have to be an engine overhaul. “I had big plans for the two of us, Adams.”
A nervous laugh ekes out of me. I’m not unused to guys flirting with me, but I think I’ve hit emotional overload. I’m not feeling on my game like I usually am. “Hopefully those plans are just going to look a little different,” I mutter, leaning more heavily into Jake.
He must read into that lean because he grabs hold of my crutches and gestures to the closest chair. “Would you like to sit down, babe? I know you’re still feeling a little sore.”
I’d pretty much forgotten about all of my scrapes and bruises, and they all come back in sharp relief, stinging and aching. As I settle in the chair, I can’t help but wonder how Cam and Kailani are going to react when they see me. I can probably come up with some sort of adventurous tale of how I got my injuries, but will I need to keep Jake out of it? I’m not sure I can.
Taking the chair beside me, leaving Biff to sit on his other side across from Rhys, Jake wraps his hand around mine and leans in close. “Doing okay?”
The answer to that question will depend on him. “Never leave my side.”
He smiles, showing me that wildly adorable dimple. I want to kiss it so badly that I can’t help but reach out and touch it, though it disappears as soon as I do. I know Jake feels the same pull between us that I do—how could he not?—but what does that mean? Is there any possible way we could see if this attraction could lead to something more when our lives are so disconnected from each other?
“How long have you two been married?” Emily asks.
I flinch. Somehow I forgot she was across from me for a second. Jake and I didn’t talk about any details of our fake marriage, which was probably pretty stupid on our part. Guess I’ll have to wing it.
“We got married a little over a year ago,” I say with as much confidence as I can muster. I know for sure I was still crushing hard on Kit at that point because he hadn’t gotten engaged yet so he was still fair game. Not really. As soon as he ran into the love of his life, Skyler, last summer, he was completely gone for her and never saw anyone else. Regardless, odds are high that I mentioned my nonexistent husband back then.
Emily hums, glancing between us. “How have you stayed in the honeymoon phase this long? It’s like you’ve never seen each other before today.”
I can’t hold back my smile as I look back at Jake. Only, he isn’t smiling. He looks perfectly serious as his eyes roam my face. My smile slowly fades the longer I look at him.
“Isla caught me by surprise when we met,” he says gently. “And she’s been surprising me ever since. I don’t think it’s ever possible to know every detail about a person, so I’m never going to stop being fascinated by her. And wanting to know what she loves and what she fears makes me treasure every moment I get with her. You never know how many of those moments you’re going to get with someone, so I don’t plan to take any of them for granted.”
What in the world? Why am Icrying?
Jake brushes away the tear that slips onto my cheek, and then he turns to the rest of the table with a smile. “Sorry. She hates when I do that, but I can’t help it.”
Rhys scoots closer to Emily, like he suddenly feels like he doesn’t love her enough and wants to up his game.
Biff swears softly, but he’s got an impressed smile on his face. “No wonder you got her attention,” he says before pulling his phone out of his pocket and reading whatever message he must have just gotten.
My own phone buzzes in my lap, startling me. Without looking down, I hand it to Jake, who frowns. “I’m never going to concentrate if it keeps going off,” I explain softly. “Feel free to do any research you might need to do. I have no idea how long this lunch is going to go.”
That’s okay. As long as he doesn’t leave my side, I can make it through this.
Chapter Eight
Jake
Hadley is in custody.
I didn’t plan to use Isla’s phone, wanting to be present for her, but as soon as she and Emily started talking about starting a new clothing line, they lost me. Rhys gave me a knowing smile and pulled up a book on his phone, which likely meant this was going to take a while, so I looked up warrants and arrest records for the day just to pass some time.
