“Yes, tell them, Hurricane.” Smirking at his girlfriend, Micah pushed up a pair of thick-rimmed glasses.
“Doesn’t he look dashing? Totally Cary Grant, if I do say so myself. We’re fromBringing up Baby. I make a stellar madcap heiress, right?” She shook out her tight purple curls.
“Stellar,” Dani said. “Now, please fill us in. What did you do?”
“Well, maybe me and my partner in crime.”
Micah held out his hands. “That would not be me.”
“Obviously not. I mean Harper. We created new IG handles, totally generic, don’t even worry. And maybe have been sharing the videos and adding comments everywhere we can. We wouldn’t want dear Jenzy to keep his true colors from everyone, obviously.” She smirked. “Sure there’ll be women who like that desperate look, especially since he has money, but hopefully they’ll be harder for him to find. You don’t mess with our family, dammit.” She huffed at the end, and I wrapped my arm around Dani, tugging her close.
I felt her sigh of relief and glanced down to see her beaming.
“Thank you. But how can you be sure that no one will tie it to you?” Dani asked.
“We wereextremelygeneric. Hockeyfan96 and Hockeyfan4life could be anyone. We’ve made sure to comment on other posts about players so it doesn’t look like we’re targeting Jenzy. Don’t worry, Dani. We got you.” Josie beamed, so proud of herself, which made me chuckle.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Dani said. “But I appreciate it. Everything. You guys have been so supportive and kind to me the entire time.”
“You’re part of this family, so even if you ditch Tucks, we’re keeping you,” Josie said.
“Thanks. You guys are pretty awesome, too.”
“I know, right?”
“Okay, now that you’ve given Dani the good news, how about we mingle a bit?” Micah said.
“Fine, fine. Just let me know if we need to ramp up our efforts, Dani,” Josie said as Micah steered her away.
“I can’t believe they did that,” Dani said.
Cora snorted. “I can. It’s brilliant, really. I hope no one wants to touch him, professionally or personally. Asshole. And if he comes sniffing around or something comes up, just let me know. Oh, and if I decide to add fake dating as a trope in my next book, I might hit you up for some research.”
Dani laughed softly. “Not sure how much help I’ll be since we didn’t stay fake for very long.”
“Do they ever?” Cora teased.
I was grateful Dani saw the humor in our situation, that she wasn’t embarrassed about our ruse being exposed. When it came down to it, I’d known my friends wouldn’t care how our relationship started.
“Oh, did you get everything you needed from us for the Halloween costume contest and party at the Center?” Cora asked.
“Yes, thank you. The kids are super-excited,” Dani said. We were headed to the Center in two days for some spooky fun and I couldn’t wait. We’d done our hospital visit earlier today, and Pucks and I had rocked our Bumblebee costumes.
“Fantastic. Can’t wait to see everyone decked out,” Cora said. “But now, there’s a salted caramel brownie bat with my name on it.”
She said her goodbyes and headed for the dessert bar, Tally following behind her. I turned Dani in my arms, who was beaming up at me.
“Could this night get any better? Can you believe Josie?” She chuckled, and I could feel the relief coming off of her.
“Yes, I can, and yes, it can,” I said.
“What?”
“I can totally see Josie and Harper trolling Jenzy, and if we ditch this party, the night can definitely get better.” I wiggled my brows at her for good measure and she giggled.
Fuck, I loved making her laugh, seeing the gorgeous smile on her face that made her light up. I never wanted to stop making her smile at me like she was right now.
“I love you so damn much,” I said.
