Page 26 of Make it Real
I’d expected this, to be honest. Curious looks from the cousins. Protectiveness. My dating history probably didn’t make me the safest bet where Callie’s friends were concerned, even if they were my family. Hell, I wouldn’t have encouraged her to date me, either, but we’d already jumped head-first into this thing. Not the time to second-guess when we were squarely in the deep end.
“Yeah. We’re just…” Callie had become an actress who’d blanked on her lines and frankly, wasn’t that great at improv. “What are you guys doing?”
Harper gestured at the shop front next to us. “Kicking a little butt at Rumble Room tonight.”
That explained all the workout wear. She paused, her eyes on me impossibly heavy, like she’d set a barbell loaded with disks on my chest. Probably searching for some kind of guilty confession.
“And you two are…?”
“Headed to Slice of Delight,” I put in. Even if this first date had been absolutely real, my cousin didn’t need to know anything more than that, despite her telegraphing a hundred questions my way.
“You two have fun tonight.” Sam took her hand and tugged her toward the door. He grinned at me, clearly less agitated by the whole situation than Harper.
“Call me later,” she said to Callie before he pulled her into the gym where they were swallowed up by a sea of muscular people ready to kickbox to their hearts’ content.
Callie stood frozen on the sidewalk, that weird, fake smile strained at the edges. She’d fully powered down, broken by one small interaction with my cousin. Didn’t make me overflow with confidence we’d get through two months of pretending to be happy together.
For now, I’d focus on tonight. I put a hand at the small of her back, urging her along. “Come on, let’s get some food in you.”
We made it inside the pizza joint and grabbed a booth, but her worried expression didn’t change. She stared at the Formica tabletop, her brow furrowed, two little lines marring her forehead.
“This isn’t a good sign for our first date, Callie Lou. Only women I’ve dated for a long time should act so horrified to be seen with me in public.”
She startled, her gaze snapping to mine. Her stiffness broke apart, and she rolled her eyes, grinning at my stupid joke. Better. Anything to get rid of the anxiousness that had filled her up since she’d caught sight of Harper.
“It’s not being seen with you. I know we agreed to this, to faking for your family, too, but Harper’s my friend. She’s going to wantdetails and information.”
She whispered those last words, hinting a certain salaciousness to them. That low, naughty tone spun a heated breeze through my chest. I vacuumed up that cozy breeze, reminding myself to forget it. I’d agreed to date her out of a sense of friendship only. With a splash of protectiveness thrown in. And maybe a dash of jealousy, if we were being honest, but I wasn’t about to dig any deeper.
“Being my cousin, Harper might not want all that many details.”
“You know what I mean. Gran and the others will just be excited about anything I say. Harper will be like‘Oh ho, what’s this about dating Jed?’and I’ll have to lie through my teeth.”
“Harper talks like that?”
“She’ll be excited, too,” she went on, ignoring me. “Well, I think. But she’ll have a lot more questions, and I am clearly not prepared to be convincing. What’s our backstory here? How did we start this? What do I say?”
“First, relax.” I took both her hands in mine, wrapping them up like I could squeeze her anxiety out. “Second, if she asks you point-blank, you have my permission to tell her the truth and admit you’re hopelessly in love with me.”
She laughed again but tugged her hands free. Served me right, I guess. But I figured keeping the tone light would be the best option all around. Too serious, and we’d risk swimming through muddy waters.
“Don’t overthink it,” I told her. “Just tell her we met up one night at The Broken Hammer and I asked you out. She doesn’t need a play-by-play. I meant it when I said I don’t think she’ll have that many questions. My sister, on the other hand…well, let’s just hope she’s too distracted by wedding plans to ask.”
If June saw a chance to get back at me for how much I’d teased her about Ty, safe bet she’d suddenly become an investigative reporter eager to get the scoop on what was going on with Callie.
She sighed, and her shoulders eased down, the pinching around her cheeks and eyes relaxing with each breath. “You’re right, I’m overthinking it. I just don’t have much experience with dating. I don’t know how I’m supposed to act or what’s normal.”
A waitress came by to take our pizza order before zipping away again with our half-margherita, half-buffalo chicken request.
“I don’t understand that part,” I said. “You’re open, fun, great-looking—seems like you’d have a line of guys outside your door eager to date you.”
Didn’t love the image, but I held to it. Anything beyond a lack of interest on her part didn’t add up.
She ran her hands over the tabletop, making a face. “I’m bad at dating.”
“I doubt that.”
She leveled me a look she probably thought of as stern. Must have worked wonders on the five-year-olds she taught, but it couldn’t intimidate me.
