Page 30 of Kicking it with my Fake Fiancé
“Wait,” he said as I turned to go. I stopped and turned back to face Matty. He came to me and pressed a gentle kiss to my lips. “That’s all.”
My insides melted a little and I smiled, softening. “Have a good nap,” I murmured, a smile on my face.
“Takk.” He rubbed his face sleepily as I closed the door behind me.
The days passed smoothly as we learned to navigate life as a soon-to-be married couple. I spent my mornings working at the music school, where I offered private lessons, and my afternoons were busy with my own music—writing, rehearsing, working out lyrics or tricky parts of a song. When I was home, Matty was practically always with me, unless he was napping or working. The magazine that he’d gotten on with had asked him to write a long editorial about moving to the US, so we did a little sightseeing in Port Grandlin whenever possible.
One morning, just after I’d returned from my lessons, I took a seat at the dining room table to eat a sandwich Matty had made for me while I’d been out.
“Jared?”
“Yeah?” I said through a mouthful of ham and tomato and buttered bread.
“When will I meet your friends?”
I swallowed hard and frowned at him. “You want to meet my friends?”
“Ja, of course. Don’t you want me to meet them?”
“I mean, yeah, definitely. It’s just… they can be a lot. I didn’t know if you wanted to take all that on so soon.”
“You met my friends the first night in Norway.”
“Good point. Well, I have kickball tonight. You want to come?”
“I’d love that.”
The idea of him watching me play ball made my stomach flutter and heat creep up my neck, so I just cleared my throat and nodded.
That evening, we found ourselves at the kickball field, Matty seated in the bleachers watching intently, whispering to Travis, who’d generously offered to walk him through any of our plays that might have escaped him.
The guys were welcoming and friendly—even Parker didn’t say anything inappropriate, at least not to Matty’s face.
“Jesus Christ,Norway,” he said, leaning close when I took my seat.
“What are you even talking about, Park?”
“If I’d known they looked like that, I would have come overseas with you.”
I rolled my eyes. “What about Travis?”
Parker shrugged. “I can bring home a third.”
“Don’t be stupid.” I elbowed him hard enough that he nearly fell off the bench, both of us laughing. Levi shot us a look from the pitcher’s mound that clearly saidShut upas he pitched the ball to Cam. Archer neatly caught it and tossed it back to Levi, which meant it was Parker’s turn to kick. He got up and headed into position, shooting me a look with raised eyebrows before he made it to the kicker’s box.
Once practice wrapped up, I stole Matty away from Travis, putting my arm around him and pulling him against my side.
He pulled away instantly, laughing. “Get away. You’re sweaty.”
I rolled my eyes fondly and shrugged. “Get used to it. That’s the life of a kickball spouse.” I planted a kiss on his cheek and took a few steps toward the car. “If you don’t hurry, I’m going to keep the air conditioning off in the car, too.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“Find out.”
He chased me and when we reached the car, we both collapsed against it, laughing. Matty shook his head. “You are exactly the picture of a disgusting American.”
I shrugged again. “You love me.” I opened my car door and started to slide inside but caught sight of Matty before I did. His cheeks were flaming red and his lower lip was trapped between his teeth. Had I said something that upset him? I mentally replayed the last few moments but all I could think of was… oh. The comment about love. Maybe his feelings were deeper for me than he was ready to confess—mine for him certainly were. I knocked on the roof, which seemed to snap him out of it. His gaze darted to me. “Get in before I start calling you Matthias.”
