Page 80 of Fake Love

No way am I going to deny him time with his mom, especially when he doesn’t get to see her as often now that he’s in San Francisco.

“Please tell me that you are going to at least treat this woman to a good deep dish pizza while you’re here. You know, a real pizza and not that shit they have in California.”

“Ma.” Maddox says, a smile on his face as he reprimanding her for cursing.

“What? Tell me I’m wrong.” Nora challenges him.

Maddox tries to hide a smile but ultimately fails. “Some of the pizza is shit.”

Nora nods as if she’s met her point.

Wanting a small part of the conversation, I turn to Maddox, looking at him with narrowed eyes.

“Um excuse me, in all the times we’ve eating pizza, not once have you complained.” Given the smile that is trying to come out, I know he can see right through my glare.

“Babe, I might not have complained with words, but I have definitely complained in my head. Especially with that pizza place we went to when I got back to the city.”

I try to keep myself stable and not melt as he calls me babe. He’s called me that before and I should be used to it, especially with people around, but it still does things to me.

“That was good pizza.” I throw back at him.

He gives me a smirk that has me wishing I could jump his bones. “It was thin as hell and it had avocado on it.”

Okay he has a point. That pizza wasn’t my brightest choice, and it wasn’t even that good. I just picked it because in the picture it looked so good.

Either way, I concede. “Fine, you may have a point. So you should do as your mother says and treat me to some good Chicago style pizza.”

“Whenever you want.” He says, throwing me a wink.

I can’t help but smile and let out a giggle at this whole thing, but it quickly dies down when I turn to face Nora.

There’s a small smile on her face and tears in her eyes as she looks at Maddox and I interact.

“Are you okay?” I ask her, taking her hand in mine.

Nora nods, giving me a tight smile and wiping away at the tears.

“I’m fine, sweetheart. This is just nice to see. When I told Maddox to find a girl to make him happy, I didn’t think that it would happen so quickly.”

My eyes go wide a bit on her last comment but I’m able to compose myself before she notices and give her a smile.

“Trust me, I wasn’t expecting it to happen this quickly either, but I’m happy it did.”

It’s not a lie. I’m happy that I met Maddox. Do I wish we weren’t in a fake relationship? Yes, but only because a huge part of me wishes it was real.

Maddox Bauer is the type of man I wish I could spend the rest of my life with.

I can really see him being the Hunter to my Selena.

Nora gives my hand a hard squeeze. “I am too. Very happy.”

As I give her a squeeze back with a smile, a part of me, a large part hates that we are deceiving her. Her smile tells me that she is so happy that her son has found someone and I hate the fact that once the season ends, that smile will be gone.

All because we’re lying to her.

Maddox will find someone else and she will smile like that again.

Even though that thought is true, I hate it. I don’t want to think about Maddox with someone else.

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