After tonight, that is.
For now, I lean into his side. “Pepperoni, green peppers, and onions with a garlic-sprinkled crust and extra cheese. Deep dish.”
I can tell he’s not expecting me to move into his personal space, but he quickly adjusts and snakes his arm around my waist, anchoring me to him. “A girl who knows what she likes. I can get behind that.”
I glance up at him, and he’s staring at me with a discerning look. His mouth ticks up at the corners, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I think about how it would feel to press my lips against the creases of his smile—to taste some of his happy.
I realize I’ve been staring at his mouth and ratchet my gaze up to meet his again. His green eyes have darkened to the color of evergreen trees. I swallow and need to figure out a way to play it cool in this moment.
Fortunately, my big sister saves me from myself when she hollers out to us, “Hey, guys, over here!”
“Come on, boyfriend.” I pinch Collin’s side, and he yelps. I smirk as we slide into chairs at the round table Poppy, Rose, and Mack have secured for us.
“Don’t you two look cozy together,” Rose says for my ears only after Collin helps me scoot my chair in next to hers. He sits to my left and casually drapes his arm around the back of my seat.
I lift my shoulders in a simple shrug, eyeing Rose out of the corner of my eye. She doesn’t look skeptical, which, quite frankly,is what I’d expect from my middle sister, so I’ll take that as a good sign. It’s one thing lying to my sisters about dating Collin when he isn’t around. But this is the first time Collin and I will have to put on an act in front of Rose and Poppy.
We’ve managed to keep things relatively low key over the past month. We decided that since our “relationship” was so “new” we could get away with not spending the holidays with each other’s families. But now the New Year has rolled in and, with it, our arrangement.
Today, I’m certain my sisters will be dissecting everything, scrutinizing us from every angle, like they’re Mr. Frankenstein and we’re their monster.
It’s how we are with each other. When Poppy wanted to get bangs when she turned twenty-one, Rose and I meticulously studied the bone structure of her face to compare it to models and actresses with bangs, in an effort to figure out if she could pull them off. Spoiler alert: she can, and she’s rocked them ever since. Maybe that’s a bizarre example, but what I mean to say is that the three of us look at each other—and out for each other—closely. We notice things about each other. Rose and Poppy know me better than I know myself, and they’ll be reading my body language like I’m their favorite book.
I have no clue how I’m going to pull off this charade, especially since Collin always gets under my skin. I don’t know if he knows that he’s doing it. But if I had to wager a guess, I think he loves throwing me off. It’s like he’s turned up the charm to eleven now that I’m his fake girlfriend. Then again, something settled between us out on Main Street just now. If I can channel those feelings—the butterfly ones—we might pull this off.
“Guys, can you believe our bachelor/bachelorette party is only two and a half months away?” Poppy draws my attention from across the table. She’s glowing under the low-fi lights of the diner. Her hair is pulled back into her trademark ponytail, and Mack iscurrently twirling the end of it around his finger. I swear, the two of them cannotnotbe touching each other.
I force a smile. “Yeah…so soon.”
“We’ve got a place booked for all of us, and it’s going to be a blast.” Poppy immediately shifts her attention to Collin and starts filling him in on her grand plans for our long weekend in Pensacola.
I focus on pouring myself a glass of ice water from the pitcher in the center of the table, because even the word Pensacola has my heart doing a nervous scamper behind my rib cage. I don’t want to dwell on going back to that city.
The city of my past.
The city where Nelson lives.
The city where I lost myself.
I take a sip of water to quell the heat burning a trail up my esophagus.
In my peripheral vision, I notice Collin staring at me. He arches his eyebrows as if to say,You okay?
I hate that I know what he’s thinking. I hate that he can read me well enough to know that he needs to wonder about me.
I nod my chin once and turn to ask Rose about the upcoming events at Mood Reader.
“I’m starting a book club for locals,” she says, and her face is alight with excitement.
“That’s fun.” I ease into my chair as she starts regaling me with her plans.
“We’ll meet monthly. We’re going to read primarily romance titles. I’m thinking our inaugural meeting will be the week of Valentine’s Day…”
She trails off, and I sit upright again when a group of people approach our table. I recognize them immediately. Katherine is front and center, along with four of our other colleagues from the police station.
“Hey, hey, hey. Fancy seeing you guys here.” Katherine steps up next to Collin and places a hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze.
Collin’s gaze juts to mine, and for a brief moment, I see a flash of regret in his eyes, but I must have imagined it, because in the next second, he’s standing up to hug Katherine and fist bump a fellow police officer.
