Page 20 of Make it Real
His throat worked, swallowing once before he spoke. “I’m not bothered by PDA.”
Yeah, that sentence would be forever lodged in my brain.
No. I couldn’t think about him that way. This would all be for show, nothing more. Even PDA, if it came to that, would all be for Gran’s sake, not for the weird little dance my heart was doing over the idea. It needed to settle down.
“Okay. Then I’ll captain that ship.”
He smiled again, but I couldn’t tell if it was because what I’d said was funny, or becauseIwas funny. I would just hope for the better option.
“Oh, um, one other thing.” I squirmed in my seat because this part sort of fell under the confrontation umbrella, and while not as bad as dealing with a crappy date, I wasn’t excited to bring it up, either. “I’d rather you didn’t see anyone else while we’re doing this.”
His smile disappeared, and a touch of that hardness came back into his eyes. I couldn’t figure out how Greg hadn’t disintegrated under that weight, because I wanted to crawl beneath the bar after just a couple of seconds of it.
“What?”
His voice held a quality I couldn’t identify—not anger, not irritation, but definitelysomething—and not knowing what made me even more uncomfortable.
I couldn’t look him in the eyes so I examined the woodgrain in the bar top. “It’s just that we’re doing this to try to convince my granny, and I’m sure you’d be discreet and whatever, but gossip in small towns, you know, and I don’t think it will work very well if you were also dating someone else, so if you could just…not…do that until we’re done, I would really appreciate it. Sorry.”
He stared at me one beat, two. Way too dang long. Maybe he wasn’t interested in pausing his social life to prop up mine. Maybe he hadn’t thought I’d meant we’d be exclusive while we convinced Gran. Or maybe he wasn’t an exclusive kind of guy, no matter how real the dating was.
“I know it’s a lot to ask, and I’m sorry, but—”
“It’s not a lot to ask, Callie. It’s pretty much the lowest bar you could ask a guy to meet. Did you think I’d agree to date you and then turn around and see someone else on the side?”
“I—” I didn’t know what I’d thought, honestly, I’d just needed to clarify. I hadn’t meant to offend him, I just had no interest in being the other woman, even if he and I were totally pretend.
He held up a hand. “Don’t answer that. I won’t date anyone else but you.”
“Okay. Thank you. And I, obviously, won’t date anyone else either.”
We stared at each other another minute, our earlier rapport gone.
“I’m sorry for asking, I just wasn’t sure…”
He waved away my renewed apology. “Don’t worry about it. It makes sense you’d ask. It’s good to clarify.”
“Okay.” I didn’t really feel like we’d worked through that fumble, but I’d follow his lead here.
“So what’s the endgame? How will you know this scheme has worked?”
That question, at least, had an easy answer.
“All I want is for Gran to move to Florida and be happy with her friends. They’re supposed to do that at the end of next month.”
“Around June’s wedding?”
I did some calculations. “Right around there, yeah. Then, after she’s settled in, I’ll figure out a time to tell her we broke up.”
His mouth tipped up. “I hope you’ll be kind in the aftermath.”
“Nah. I’m going to dump you because you’re way too old for me.”
He put a hand over his chest, feigning hurt despite the huge grin on his face. “Going straight for the age. Ouch.”
Personally, I didn’t think the eight or so years between us amounted to all that much. Maybe if he’d acted like a crabby curmudgeon who chased youngsters off his lawn, but nothing about Jed said grumpy old man. He was the biggest flirt in town.
“Don’t worry, you’ll bounce back quickly. Your heart was never really in it.”
