Page 29 of Snowed In
“I just want to make sure you know what you’re getting into. I said before I didn’t leave on the best terms with everyone, and I meant it.” I pause. “But there are some things you could help with.”
“Your mother’s fundraiser.”
“It would be nice not to go alone,” I admit. “Very nice. Extremely nice. But it's not just a few drinks and a photo opp. It involves dressing up. It involves standing by my side all night when I have to talk to her friends. It involves looking at me like I’m the most beautiful, captivating person in the room,andbeing my excuse whenever I need to escape.”
“I can do that.”
“But it’s not just the party,” I insist. “Isaac will be home. I know he will. And while I don’t intend to walk around, trying to bump into him, if I do, then we have to be united.”
“Done.”
“And if I’m not there, but you bump into him—”
“Megan,” he interrupts. “I promise that if we do this, whenever Isaac Quinn is so much as in the same room as us, I will look at you, touch you, treat you like you are the most important person in the world to me. I promise that if I meet him, I will be thinking of you and only you, and I will make sure he knows that. I’ll make sure everyone does. Does that sound okay?”
That sounds freaking amazing. But I just nod.
“Is that all?” he asks.
“That seems like a lot to me,” I mutter, crossing my legs. “Why? What’s your game?”
“No game,” he reminds me. “And exactly what I said before. Backup. I want to bring home someone that my family will actually like. Someone who will make my mam stop questioning me about my life, my siblings stop looking at me with pity, and my dad stop sighing in disappointment whenever he thinks I’m not paying attention.”
“So you want someone boring?”
“There’s nothing wrong with boring. And beyond a few family gatherings, I promise I won’t ask for much.”
“And then what?” I ask. “What happens a month later when we fake break up and everything’s back to normal?”
“Would you believe me if I said I’m not thinking that far ahead?”
“No.”
“Well, I’m not,” he says. “And if we want, we can keep things going for a little while longer. It’s not like they’ll be here to check up on us. This is a short-term solution for a short-term problem. Unless you guys also go all out for Easter.”
“Don’t you dare make fun of the Easter egg hunt.” I tap the edge of the table with my fingers, trying to think of more potential problems and not finding any. “Okay. Fine. Family dinners. Sit and smile. I can do that. But you’re forgetting one very important thing.”
“What’s that?”
“That in order to make this believable, we’ll have to pretend to be in love.”
“That’s the general idea.”
“But that means…” I gesture between us, and he goes deadly serious.
“It doesn’t mean anything. We don’t have to do anything you’re uncomfortable with.”
“But we’ll have to dosomethings,” I say. “It’s not going to work otherwise. We just have to be clear about what those things are.”
“Agreed,” he says, and I force back my awkwardness.
This is definitely the weirdest conversation I’ve had. But Christian seems set on this, and I can’t help but think of my roommate before Frankie. A pretty, petite girl named Lisa, who was into the kinkier side of relationships. She once showed me a checklist she kept for when she met with potential partners. I found it so clinical it was funny, but she explained that it made her feel safe and that it kept everything clear between them. And that’s what we need here. Rules. Rules and rules and rules.
“No kissing.”
He doesn’t even blink. “We’ll have to kiss a little bit.”
He’s right. “No tongue,” I amend. “And we keep it to the face area.” I pause. “Except for my hand. If you want to do a cute bit and kiss my hand, you can do that. And my shoulder.”
