Page 54 of Protect My Heart
‘Tell them he’s your boyfriend,’ she casually says as she goes back to the couch.
‘Wait—what?’ I join her on the couch. ‘You want me to lie to my parents and tell them Jason’s my boyfriend?’
‘It’s not really a lie. You’re staying with him, having sex with him, going to his brother’s wedding. Sounds like a boyfriend to me.’
‘But he’s not. And there’s no way he’d agree to that unless it was actually true.’
She turns to me, her eyes getting big. ‘You know what would be even better?’
‘What?’ I ask, not sure I want to hear this.
‘If you told them he’s your fiancé.’
I burst out laughing. ‘Yeah, right. That’s funny. I needed a laugh.’
‘I’m serious. You tell your parents he’s your fiancé, then later, in a few months or whatever, you tell them you guys broke up. That way it looks like you tried to make it work with Jason, but then found out you two weren’t a good match. They can’t be mad about that. And if you’re engaged to him, they’ll assume you’ve been dating Jason for months instead of it being a one-night fling. ’
‘No.’ I shake my head. ‘Absolutely not. I’m not making up some crazy story about being engaged. Even if I wanted to, there’s no way Jason would go for that. If he did, he’d be lying to his family too.’
‘Why? They don’t have to know.’
‘My parents will insist on meeting Jason’s family if they think I’m marrying him. And it’s not like I can lie and say they don’t live there. The Kanfield name is all over town. Everywhere you go there’s signs for Kanfield Orchard and if they go downtown they’ll see Kanfield Brewery. My parents could easily find out where Jason’s parents live.’
‘Okay, so he lies to his family about your engagement. So what? It’s probably a good thing since he knocked you up.’
‘He’s not going to agree to it. And his family knows we’ve barely spent any time together. It wouldn’t make sense to them that he’s engaged.’
‘You said he’s a good guy, right?’
‘Yeah. Why?’
‘Guys like that want to marry the girl. They feel it’s their duty after knocking her up.’
‘Would you please stop saying he knocked me up? I never liked that phrase.’
‘What do you like better? Planted his seed? Made a deposit? Put a bun in your oven?’
‘Stop!’ I laugh. ‘Those are all horrible. Just go with he got me pregnant.’
‘He got you pregnant and asked you to marry him. Done. That’s your story. Your parents will be thrilled and so will his. Problem solved.’
‘It’s not solved because we’re not engaged. And I’m telling you, Jason would not agree to make up a story like that.’
‘He might. Didn’t you say you were doing him a favor by going to his brother’s wedding?’
‘Yeah. Why?’
‘If you’re doing him a favor, he owes you. And now it’s time to pay up, in the form of a fake engagement.’
‘Jason doesn’t owe me. And I want to go to the wedding. I think it’ll be fun.’
‘But he thinks you’re doing him a favor, right?’
‘Well, yes.’ I think back to what he said at breakfast. ‘I guess he did mention he’d do anything I want if I agreed to go with him.’
‘There you go.’ She shrugs. ‘He has to do this. He owes you. It’s as simple as that.’
‘Nora, I don’t think this is a good idea. I hate lying to my parents.’
