Page 77 of Love is an Open Book
“Always.” He grins at me, face flushed from exertion, eyes bright. His hair is mussed and dark with sweat at the temples, the wheat-brown strands practically begging for me to run my fingers through them and smooth them down. He’s glowing, all exuberance and cheer, and all I want to do is kiss him, claim him. Stop pretending I want anything less than all of him.
But this is Sera and Joe’s day, and the last thing I want to dois take the spotlight off of them and the baby they’ve waited so long for. So, sacrificing my yellow sundress in the name of victory, I kneel down in the grass to grab the small items that have gotten shoved under the stroller—a granola bar, a diaper, bottles, and pacifiers—and toss the whole armful into the stroller a split second before Sera’s mom shouts, “That’s time, everyone!”
I’m panting, and next to me, Gavin lets out a breathless laugh. The kids are holding on to the teetering pile of stuff to keep it from tumbling. But when they catch Sera’s menacing glare, they let go and a plastic xylophone tumbles to the ground.
Losing an item may have cost us the game, but I can’t bring myself to care, because Gavin pulls me into a tight hug. I savor what to everyone else is just friends celebrating but to us is a stolen embrace, his heartbeat thudding against mine, the muscles of his back warm with exertion under my splayed hands. My cheek is against his chest and my heart is whispering,Mine.
The guests have all left and it’s just the four of us. Sera’s seat of honor has been swapped for a gifted rocking chair, her feet propped up on the matching stool. Joe’s dad brought it over in his truck, fully assembled, and she used it as a throne while they opened gifts. “You’re going to have to carry me in the house along with this chair,” she says to her husband. “Who would’ve thought a baby shower could wear me out?”
“Maybe it was all the yelling,” Gavin says in an undertone. We’re taking care of the cornhole game set up near the back fence.
I shush him, but he grins. “What? Give her a headset and she’d be good to go on the NFL sidelines.”
He’s not wrong. Her family’s competitive streak definitely didn’t skip a generation. “She’d probably take that as a compliment,” I say, smiling at him.
“Aw, look at you two,” Sera calls. “Couple goals, for real.”
I freeze, hoping I heard wrong.
“Don’t look so panicked.” Sera shares an unreadable glancewith Joe. “What I mean is you’re so in tune with each other. Making small talk back there like it’s only the two of you in the world.”
My cheeks heat. We were just messing around. Is that how it’s always looked when we’re together?
“Except they never bicker.” Joe grins devilishly at his wife.
“And what, we do?” Sera asks, sitting up straighter.
“We argue plenty, but about silly stuff,” I tell them, wanting to stifle the impending argument. Bickering is how Joe and Sera flirt, a rivals-to-lovers couple if I ever saw one. “Like whether streaming or cable is superior.”
“The problem is too many choices,” Gavin says. “Impossible to decide what to watch with all the options.”
I put my hands on my hips. “We could if you’d agree watching people buy houses is not entertainment.”
“Look what you did.” Joe gestures toward us.
“I think it’s adorable,” Sera says. “Like an old married couple.” She sits up quickly, then winces, hand to her belly. “Oh my gosh, babe. They should take our spot.”
I don’t like the sound of that. At all. What’s she talking about?
Joe frowns. “At the couples retreat? It’s only for people in relationships.”
A couples retreat? That’s a big hell no. It would technically work to test the relationship-in-trouble trope, but we agreed we wouldn’t involve anyone else in our charade. And now that it’s not a charade, attempting something like a couples retreat would put our relationship under a microscope we aren’t ready for. My mind flips to the scene I wrote where Victor and Sydney’s relationship gets put to the test. That didn’t end well.
But Sera’s not deterred by Joe’s hesitance. “Not like they have to be married, or even dating. What are the organizers going to do? Ask how often they sleep together? Pretty sure a lot of the couples are there because they stopped having sex in the first place.” Before I can counter this dubious logic, Sera tells us, “Wealready did the first three weekends. I have to sit the final one out because it’s a day of outdoor activities. You guys should take our spot.”
“Maybe if I wasn’t on deadline.” Lies. Under no circumstances, busy or not, would I participate in a couples retreat with Gavin when we’re not even technically dating.
“That’s perfect. You could count it as book research.”
“The book is friends-to-lovers meets fake dating, not relationship-in-trouble. Sydney is acting out scenes to help Victor tune up his acting skills.”
Gavin looks up sharply from gathering the scattered beanbags, and I realize I haven’t shared the premise with him yet. Mostly because I don’t want him to see the similarities between their situation and ours.
She smiles. “Even better. What if they decide to up the stakes and see if they’re good enough to convince the other couples they’re dating?”
It’s hard to argue with a pregnant woman, especially one who debates for a living. And that’s how we find ourselves agreeing to one final trope test.
It’s also no easy feat to stomp toward my car with the ten pounds of leftover party food that Sera foisted on me, but I attempt it. Gavin is a few steps behind, carrying his own culinary loot.
