Page 82 of Protect My Heart
She laughs too. ‘Yeah, I guess I could see that.’
‘So what do you want to do?’
She glances at the bed, then back at me. ‘I guess this is our room.’
Our room.The one we’re sharing. At night. Together in the bed.
This is going to be impossible. How am I going to keep my hands off her? How are we going to go all summer without acting on our attraction to each other? We couldn’t even make it through last weekend without having sex. And now Mia agreed to share a bed with me. What does that mean? That she wants to continue this pretend engagement when we’re alone? I’m not sure how I feel about that. I want to be intimate with her, but I also know it’ll make me more attached to her, which isn’t what I want when I know she’s leaving.
‘Mia,’ Harriott yells from downstairs. ‘Your father and I are going to go check into the hotel.’
Mia races out of the room and down the stairs. I follow behind and see Walter and Harriott standing by the door.
‘You’re leaving?’ Mia asks, going up to her parents.
‘Your father’s tired from the trip. We’re going to check into the hotel so he can rest.’
‘I’ll go with you.’ She looks back at me. ‘I’ll text you when I’m heading back to your place. If you’re not there, I’ll just go wait somewhere.’
‘You don’t have a key?’ Walter scowls at me. ‘You shouldgive her a damn key. What’s wrong with you? You don’t trust my daughter?’
‘Dad, of course he does,’ Mia says as she goes around him to open the door. ‘I just haven’t been here enough to need one. Let’s go. I’ll meet you guys at the hotel.’
‘Aren’t you going to say goodbye to your fiancé?’ Harriott says.
‘Bye!’ She gives me a wave.
‘Mia, that’s not how you say goodbye. Go give him a proper goodbye.’
Her eyes pause on mine, then she quickly walks over to me and gives me a hug. When she pulls back, I hold onto her and give her a kiss. ‘Bye. I’ll see you soon.’
Mia and her parents leave.
‘I’m going to head out too,’ I say, walking to the door.
‘Not so fast,’ Dad says in a stern tone.
I turn back and see him giving me the look he gave me when I was a kid, the one he used when I was in trouble.
Shit. They know the engagement is fake. I thought they believed it. They acted like they did back at the restaurant.
‘What do you need?’ I ask, as if I have no idea what this is about.
Dad points to the couch. ‘Have a seat.’
‘Dad, I really don’t have time—’
‘We either do this now or we do it later. What’s it going to be?’
I want to say later, but I’d rather just get this over with. I walk over to the couch and sit down. My parents sit across from me on the leather chairs. I feel like I’m on trial. In a way, I am.They know this is all a lie and they’re going to make me sit here until I admit it.
‘It wasn’t supposed to turn into this,’ I say with a sigh.
‘Jason, what the hell is going on here?’ Dad says, raising his voice. He rarely does that, which tells me he’s furious. ‘Lying to people? Making up crazy stories?’
‘I don’t understand. If you knew it wasn’t real, why’d you act like it was back at the restaurant? Saying I should live with Mia in this house? Taking her parents here? Why would you do that if you didn’t believe it was real?’
‘Because for a moment there, we thought it was,’ Dad says. ‘That show you put on was pretty damn convincing. But on the drive over here, your mother and I came to our senses and realized it was all a hoax. Some girl shows up in town and suddenly you’re engaged?’ He huffs. ‘You really think we’d believe that?’
