Page 26 of Unexpectedly Wanted
Reed was in the office again today. I knew this because he was currently standing in my doorway, looking at me with an odd smile that I wasn’t sure what to make of. He didn’t spend as much time here as he did when he’d first started this team. Then again, back then, he didn’t have two awesome men waiting for him at home. And that home happened to be two hours out of the city, so traveling back and forth took a lot of time, too. I got it. We could function without him. He was always here for the important things. And when he wasn’t in the office, he was always checking in. But he’d been around the last few days, making me wonder if there was something going on. We did have a lot of cases right now, but nothing the team couldn’t handle.
“Should I be concerned about that smile? And the reason it’s being aimed at me?” I asked, blinking my eyes. Wow, I’d been staring at the damn computer screen for too long. I guess it was a good time to take a break.
“Getting a boyfriend and meeting the parents at the same time, I’d call that extreme dating,” he said with a chuckle as he took a seat on the couch I had set up in the corner.
I stared blankly at him for a long moment. How did he know? But then his words hit me, and I started laughing like a crazy head.
“That’s one name for it,” I said, swiveling my chair to the side so I could face him. “I assume you’re talking about Milo, and I’m scared to ask how you even know.”
“He told me,” he said, a sweet smirk teasing the corner of his mouth.
Another blank stare in his direction. Milo told him? I tried not to read too much into that, but was finding it difficult to do.
“He did?” I asked. Reed nodded. “Abouteverything?”
“Fake boyfriend.” He chuckled. “Sounds like an idea out of a romance novel.” I let out a short laugh. “Those usually end up with them getting together. You know. Happily ever after. Love and romance… and sex for the rest of their lives.”
“Well, this is reality,” I said with a shrug. “So the chances of that happening are in the single-digit percentile. As soon as this is all over, Milo and I will go back to the way things were. If I’m lucky, we might be on a level of friendship where I receive less deadly glares from him on a daily basis.”
I held back the sigh. I didn’t want to go back to that toxic relationship we had. I think we’d moved past that, but even if we had, the thought that Milo and I would go back, period, left me feeling unsettled.
“I still don’t understand how this happened,” he said, curiosity and amusement dancing in his eyes. “I know you’re a good guy, but stepping up and playing the boyfriend for someone that you have negative tension with, that’s above and beyond.”
“It killed a part of me to hear him put it out there and have his mother basically steamroll over it. Milo wasn’t hiding who he was and she just… acted like it wasn’t who he really was. I don’t even think I knew what I was doing when I sat down in that booth.” I sighed for real this time. “Not that it matters, because I’m pretty sure they can see right through us. So far, we’ve done a good job avoiding them, but we are going to dinner with them tonight and I know the whole thing is going to blow up in our faces. I know Milo, but I’m realizing now that I really don’t. I don’t know the things a boyfriend would know. Or even a friend.”
“Well, it’s not even mid-day, you have time to fix that.”
I shot him a look. There was no time because Milo wouldn’t let himself be pulled away from his work.
“It’s an order… from your boss,” he said, stumbling over his words like he was trying his hardest to come up with a way to get this to work to my advantage. “I say so…”
“That sounds more like a question,” I shot back.
“Go with it. Use the words ‘boss’ and ‘mandatory’ and Milo won’t be able to argue.”
I laughed, but it was very true.
“Any suggestions? Words of advice? Something?” I asked, shaking my head. “I don’t even know what I’m doing here.”
He studied me for a moment.
“You care about this? Like really care? Are you and Milo—”
“No,” I said, cutting him off, sure that he was about to say something that would never be true. There was nothing that could come out of this. Nothing like that. Milo wouldn’t ever see me as anything more than a friend, if I could even get to that level with him. “No.”
“Find one of those apps that have questions for a first date. Might help,” he said, changing the subject, though his eyes sparkled and said he hadn’t let it go.
Hmm, that was actually a really good idea. Milo and I needed to get to know one another, and that was a good start.
“Thanks,” I told him.
“Now, get out of here.” He got to his feet as he spoke. “And good luck?”
“I’m going to need it,” I said with a nervous laugh.
“Send what you’re working on to Kyle. He’ll jump in for you.”
“Will do. I’ll stop by and fill him in before I leave, too.”
