Page 73 of Ripped & Shipped
“She’s stubborn.”
“I was going to say independent.”
“It’s stubbornness. She’s always so good about looking out for others. But when it comes to herself, she won’t let anyone close enough to do the same for her.”
Wow. I sensed it, but I thought it was about me. At least Meg sees how Ella Mae’s always doing for others. It’s surely not the thing she’s known for around here, though it should be. Ella Mae’s partly to blame for that. She acts so eccentric and over-the-top. She alienates people with that false persona. But if you look beyond all that surface stuff, she’s got a giving heart.
“So, what do we do?” Meg asks.
“I need you to convince her to fake date me—just online. We’ll take some photos. She’ll post them. She can spin a story about how we got together, and she can convince her followers—especially these creepy guys—that she’s taken.”
“You’ll have to post pictures of the two of you too. The relationship will need to look corroborated if anyone goes digging.”
She’s right.
“I can do that.”
I really, really don’t want to post anything online. But if it means Ella Mae will be safe, I’ll do whatever it takes.
“Okay,” Meg says. “Are you free tonight?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Come by after I get off work. I’ll tell her I’m buying pizza to thank you for fixing the porch. I’ll have Joe there too—to back us up. We’ll do an intervention and get her to agree to fake dating you—or making it look like you two are together.”
“You sound so sure she’ll go along with this.”
“I’m not even the least bit sure. But we’ll give it our best shot.”
CHAPTER25
Ella Mae
“No. Just no.”
I cross my arms for emphasis.
“Ella Maaaaeee,” Meg pleads from her spot across our living room. “You need to think this through.”
I turn my eyes on Chris like twin laser beams. If I could set a man on fire with a glance, I’d do it right now. He’s sitting adjacent to me in our overstuffed chair, looking a combination of guilty and self-righteous.
“I can’t even believe you, St. James. You stalked a guy that follows me?”
“For your safety. And it’s not stalking, really,” he says. At least he has the decency to look a little contrite. “I wouldn’t normally … Well,Ididn’t, technically.”
“Right. Right. You had your henchman do your dirty work. Whatever. You were the mastermind behind this unnecessary sleuthing around. It’s so humiliating. Like you don’t think I can handle myself.”
“That’s not at all what this is, Ella Mae.”
Chris’ eyes meet mine, and it’s like the whole world disappears, and it’s just the two of us locked in this odd stare-down. Only he looks … compassionate, or concerned. Ugh. I hate when he pulls that soft, caring approach on me. It gets me every time.
“I’m not falling for that puppy dog thing you do with your eyes, Soldier. Just because you’re able to make your face look like that doesn’t mean I’m giving in.”
“What does my face look like?” Chris asks, a playful smirk taking the place of the tenderhearted look that was there a moment ago.
“You know very well what it looks like. And it’s not fair to use your charm to try to distract me.”
His eyebrows waggle briefly, the corners of his eyes crinkling. But then his face softens again. He leans his elbows onto his knees and rests his chin in his hands as he tilts closer to me.
