Page 12 of Acting Merry
I take a little bow, even though I have no idea if that’s a compliment. A lot of practice with fake boyfriends doesn’t sound like one.
“I must have the genes for it.” My heart double-beats a few times in a row as he reemerges and sets the cloth aside. “In fact, I might’ve turned you back into my fake boyfriend again just a few minutes ago.”
His gaze darts to mine, intrigue glinting in his blue eyes. “Did you, now? I feel like I deserve some details.”
I smile through clenched teeth. “It was dumb. Really dumb. And spontaneous. Which usually go hand in hand for me.”
His mouth tugs up at one side. “Now Ireallyneed details.”
“And if I’m too humiliated to give them?”
He looks at me for a second, amused. “You thinkmysituation wasn’t humiliating?”
I snort. “What? That a girl was so obsessed with you, she tried to stalk you to”—I do air quotes—“return your sweatshirt? Yes, Cole. How very humiliating for you.”
His head falls back in a laugh that helps me understand on some level why Bree was desperate enough to do what she did. He grabs the seal, then disappears again. “That’s one way to put it.”
I shoot him a look, even though he can’t see me. “Isthere another way to put it?”
“Yeah.” His back is to me as he works at putting the things back together. He isn’t a bodybuilder, but his back is broad and his muscles developed enough that I can see them shifting and flexing beneath both of his shirts. “A guy thought he could go out with someone with bedroom eyes and zero chill and still land it as a casual thing, so he had to rope a beautiful, innocent woman into fixing his cocky mistake.”
I studiously ignore his descriptors, even though they give my heart a little electric shock. “Nice try. Still not humiliating.”
“Yours probably isn’t either. Try me.”
I watch him for a few seconds, deciding whether my pride can withstand what he’s asking me to reveal.
Who am I kidding?Whatpride?
“I dated a guy for a couple months during the summer—Brady. He broke things off.”
“Idiot.”
I suppress a smile. “That’s not the humiliating part.”
“Not foryou.”
“Oh, stop,” I say, dead-pan. “Anyway, he’s dating one of my close friends now.”
Cole pauses, then emerges from the cabinet to look at me.
“Still not the most humiliating part.” Humiliating enough, though. That’s for sure. “My three friends and I do this annual Christmas cabin party in Snoqualmie. We’ve done it for years. This year, two of them arebringing their significant others—a husband and a long-time boyfriend. Anyway, just as you were arriving, I found out Megan is also bringing Brady.”
One of Cole’s brows lifts.
I offer a grimacing smile. “Rather than show up by myself to spend the weekend watching the guy who dumped me drool all over my friend, I blurted out that I was bringing someone too.”
Cole’s lips steal upward at one edge. He knows what comes next.
I shrug. “You happened to be pulling in at that moment.”
He pushes himself up and dusts off his hands. “So, that’s your humiliating story?”
“That’s my humiliating story.” The abridged version, at least.
He wipes his hands on the cloth he set on the counter, a little smile building on his lips. He takes a step toward me, and my nerve endings pulse. “I had a feeling it would come to this, Reese’s Pieces.”
“Come to what?”
