Page 55 of Make it Real
I let her slip from my arms, every last nerve ending shouting at me to scoop her back up and go for another kiss.
“That, uh…” Running her fingers over her pink mouth, she swallowed, her eyes just missing me. “That was…”
The kind of kiss that made a man question if he’d ever truly kissed a woman before, because nothing had ever felt quite like that. The kind of kiss that felt like crossing a line in the sand, aBeforeandAfter. Like affection for this ray of sunshine had stirred awake my long-dormant heart.
So, just your run-of-the-mill life-altering kiss.
“Flirty?” I offered instead.
Laughing off her awkwardness, she rolled her eyes at me. “Something like that. Sorry if I manhandled you.”
“You didn’t do anything I didn’t want you to do.”
The skeptical little line between her eyebrows said she didn’t quite believe me. “Okay. Good. Well…goodnight, Jed.”
“Night, Callie Lou.”
She flashed one last smile before darting across the yard, onto the porch, and through her front door. I climbed back into my truck, frowning as I started up the engine. I touched my own lips, knowing that kiss would live on repeat in my mind for the foreseeable future.
The messy, complicated bits I’d been afraid of when Callie first proposed this fake dating arrangement had finally showed up to wreck everything. Mostly me.
EIGHTEEN
callie
Of all thegames they could have picked tonight, I never expected Pit. Even more unexpected? How badly my gran and the others played in order to let Jed win.
I’d figured their cut-throat game play would only notch higher with him in the mix, but they went out of their way to slide cards to him like every woman had made it her personal mission to ensure he took the pot of money each round. He was like their mafia don, and they’d become perennial losers, eager to suck up to him by falling on their own bad hands.
When he won his fifth hand—and I’d lost my fifth dollar—I’d had enough of that.
“You’re going down, my friend.” I squinted at him, hoping I looked more menacing than confused.
Jed fanned out the singles he’d won in front of his face. “My big wad of cash says otherwise.”
Our chairs sat snugged together on one side of the dining table, our arms knocking against each other every time we moved. All the little touches kept our kiss front and center in my mind. Not that I’d stopped thinking about it for one minute of the last several days. But I’d done it to convince Gran and the others we were really a couple, that was all.
Okay, that, and I’d wanted to kiss him for a while. Impossible not to, what with all his easygoing charm and sweet confidences. I’d known it was a bad idea to get a real crush on my fake boyfriend, and here I sat anyway. But that might be a good thing, right? My genuine interest in Jed could only help sell this phony relationship.
Or so I’d been telling myself.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell if he’d been as affected by the kiss as I had. He’d waltzed into the house tonight wearing his usual smile, scooped me up into a hug, and whispered hellos into my ear. I would have taken it as a positive sign except for the troubling little fact we’d been on full display again for the grandmas. His affectionate greeting might have been more for them than for me. Hadn’t he said he had no problem with lying or PDA?
I didn’t exactly love the confusion his affection carried with it, but I’d gotten myself into this—nothing to do now but roll with it.
“Looks like it’s time for me to beat your butt,” I said, trying hard not to think about said butt. His jeans had addled my brain.
He just smirked. “That’s big talk, considering I’m currently the undefeated champion.”
“Because they’re helping you win.”
His mouth dropped open in mock protest. “Callie Lou, you take that back.”
The others muttered similar complaints, but I was no dummy. They’d never had a problem cleaning outmywallet on game night.
“Now, kids,” Gran said, smiling to herself as she shuffled the deck. “Let’s all be good sports about it.”
She dealt the cards, and the next round began, a chaotic mess of everyone shouting numbers and passing cards at the same time. No surprise, whenever I tried to trade cards with someone, they moved their hand away, offering theirs to Jed if they could. I leaned across him to try to make a trade before he could reach it, but he got there first.
