He took a sip of his wine and then waved his hand. “Basic social media search. The more important question is, why didn’t you do that?”
“I don’t know. Figured we’d just get to know each other. He has filled me in on some of his family and the hockey stuff.” I wasn’t sure it even mattered since we weren’t actually dating. And I was going to tell Mal the truth about the fake dating stuff. I couldn’t keep that from him. But he seemed enamored of Gabe already, so I had to let him down easy about Gabe not being his future brother-in-law.
“What’s that little smirk thing you just did?”
I took another sip of my wine. “Are you hungry? I could make a quick picky plate.” I’d walked in the door about fifteen minutes before Mal had shown up and had only had time to change out of my work clothes and toss my hair up into a messy bun before he was knocking on my door.
“Food can wait.”
“I’m hungry,” I said.
“Fine. Make it fast and start talking. You still have those parm herb crackers, right?” He moved toward the pantry, pulling the door open as I grabbed cheese, prosciutto, and fruit from the fridge.
“Of course.” I snagged the garlic and herb cheese spread while he grabbed the box of crackers and a platter from the top shelf.
Might as well just go for it.
“So, um, we’re actually not dating,” I blurted out, trying not to burst out laughing when my brother froze, his brows raised.
“What?”
“It’s fake.”
“What’s fake? You’re clearly dating and sucking face all over social media.”
“Hey,” I squawked. “There have only been a few pics of us kissing online, and I thought they were tasteful.”
He snorted. “You two are eye-fucking each other in every shot where you’re not looking at the camera.”
“You can’t see that if we aren’t facing the camera,” I shot back.
He quirked a now unfrozen brow. “You didn’t deny it. But back up. You would never agree to fake date anyone. You just broke up with Roger, and I highly doubt you would pick another goalie to make our father proud or some shit, so what the hell is going on? Are you okay?”
“What? Yeah, totally fine. Perhaps not sane, but then again, who is?” I tried to sound nonchalant.
“You’re evading. So what gives? Is he just a hookup? Which is completely fine ’cause that man is fine. Boy-next-door adorable. Reminds me of Rick.”
“He’s totally sweet like Rick. So nice it’s ridiculous sometimes.” I knew I was smiling, so I ducked my head and finished slicing up some cheese and an apple. I needed some melon on this plate, too.
“I haven’t seen you smile like that when talking about a boyfriend, fake or not, probably in forever.”
“It’s not like that.” I huffed out a breath. “Fine. He’s just helping me out, okay?”
“A fuck buddy. Totally get it. Then why is he calling you his girlfriend all over social media?”
I sighed. “Because of Roger. Let’s go sit down.”
“What the fuck does this have to do with that asshole?”
I plopped down on the sofa and scooped a generous helping of the cheese spread onto my cracker, hoping it didn’t cave under the weight of all the cheese I needed in that moment.
“Roger’s struggling with understanding that we aren’t together anymore.”
“Fuck. What is he doing?”
I ate half the cracker—I was starving—and quickly swallowed because my brother looked like he was going to blow his top from impatience.
“He was calling and texting a lot, saying we weren’t really over and that we had a good thing going, blah, blah, blah.”
