He grins. “Don’t break my friend’s heart, okay? I don’t think he can handle that right now.”
“Him handle it? Are you kidding me? I’m more worried about him breaking mine,” I admit.
Patterson shakes his head. “You don’t see the way he looks at you when you’re not watching. I’ve never seen him like this, and we’ve been friends for fifteen years.”
Before I can respond, Nick returns with a duffel bag.
“Ready?” he asks.
“Yeah.”
“Bye, Jules. Nice chat.”
I meet his eyes. “Nice chat.”
As we drive to my place, I think about what Patterson said.
“You’re quiet,” Nick observes.
“Just thinking.”
“About?”
“About how we’re supposed to be fake dating.”
He pulls onto the street in front of my condo and turns to me. “No decisions. One day at a time.”
“Nick …”
“You already know how this ends.”
“How?”
He shoots me a wink. “You know.”
My heart pounds as we head inside.
Nick Banks is staying with me, we just made love in an apple orchard, and nothing about this feels temporary anymore.
As he sets his bag in my bedroom, he pulls me against him.
“Still no regrets?” he asks.
“None,” I whisper. “You?”
“Only that it took us this long.”
“It’s been six days,” I whisper.
“It’s been eleven months,” he says.
And as he kisses me again, it’s full of promise, and I realize then that we’re not pretending.
Were we ever?
17
NICK
