Until now.
Across from me, Lexie looked down at her bowl. With a little laugh, she said, "It's empty."
Yeah. It was.
But I wasn't laughing.An empty bowl meant lunch was over.
Or was it?
I said, "If you want more, just say the word."
She looked up. "No, but thanks. I just meant…" She fiddled with her spoon. "The time went by really fast." A faint blush appeared on her cheeks. "What I mean is, thesoupwent by really fast. It reallywasterrific."
Terrific was right.But I wasn't thinking of the soup. "Good to know."
Lexie turned to look out the window. "Well, I guess it's safe to return, huh?"
Safe for her.
But not for me.
I wasn't ready to let her go. "You do realize, you never answered my question."
She turned back. "What question?"
"About you having a boyfriend." I almost smiled. "So, do you?"
"Oh." Her blush deepened. "Well…no actually."
Now Ididsmile. "No, huh?"
She laughed. "Well, none except for you."
Something in my chest stirred. "Oh, yeah?"
"I just mean, you know, you're my fake boyfriend."
It was then that I realized something.I didn't want to be Lexie's fake anything.On impulse, I said, "So, do you have any plans for later?"
She looked surprised by the question. "You mean later tonight?" Her lips curved upward. "No, actually."
"So…" I said the first thing that popped into my head. "You wanna go sledding?"
Chapter 11
Lexie
Back at my aunt's place, I was peering out through the front window blinds when I heard my sister ask, "What are you doing?"
I whirled to look. "Nothing."
Harper looked from me to the front window. "You're watching his house again."
Outside, it was cold and dark except for all of those Christmas lights – not just at Cole's place, but outside my aunt's house, too, thanks to the excellent work of the decorating company.
But forget theoutside.Here inside, the room felt brighter than a thousand twinkling lights as a sudden warmth crept up my neck and spread to my face.
I was so busted.
