“What? Why? No. Reegan?—”
“Is not in the picture. But she will be there. And if I show up alone, everyone will be trying to push us together all night. I can’t deal with it. Dating in this town is hard enough, but dating when everyone thinks I should still be with my ex is borderline painful. I need to make it clear to everyone in town that I’m not with Reegan.”
“And you think showing up with me is going to make people stop talking?”
I grinned. “I guarantee it won’t. It’ll make them talk more. But they won’t be talking about me getting back together with Reegan.”
Casey considered my offer. Her eyes narrowed, then she nodded, almost to herself. She took a step closer and extended her hand. “Deal.”
I smiled and stepped closer. I grasped her hand in mine, clasping it between both of my hands. I watched as her eyes widened. She tried to tug her hand back, but I held firm. “We have a deal, Casey.”
She sucked in a breath, her pulse fluttering under my fingertips.
This was going to be so much fun.
6
Casey
I had to have lost my mind. Had to. Propositioning him? To teach me how to flirt? What was wrong with me?
Too late now, though. He agreed. And in exchange, I was going to what? Make Reegan jealous? That wasn’t what he said, but was it the plan? Everyone knew they were going to get back together. It was as inevitable as me never getting married again.
Which was why I agreed. I knew a man who was in love with someone else was safe. He wouldn’t be a threat to my heart. And if he was using me to get back together with the woman he loved… Well, I didn’t want to end up with Landon, so it was fine. It was all fine.
I was halfway home when I realized I forgot to buy flowers. Again. It was a good thing I was not going to fall for Landon Boyd because he had the ability to make my head fuzzy without even trying.
I spent the rest of my day with Mikayla, helping her with homework. We cooked dinner together and watched a movie on the couch before she got a call from Amber and raced to her room to talk about preteen stuff.
After I cleaned up the kitchen, I checked my phone to see if I’d missed anything. I had a message from Book Boyfriends Wanted and clicked over to see a new match.
His profile was only a few days old. He mentioned skiing and fishing as his two favorite hobbies. No kids, no ex-wife. And no sense of grammar.
He sounded funny, but the complete disregard for typing out full words and using proper grammar made me snarl. Rational? Maybe not. But I was a writer. I had a really hard time accepting that people weren’t willing to even try. Not everyone was as particular as I was, but I couldn’t even read past his first few answers before I was annoyed.
I closed the app and decided I’d deal with that later. I poured myself a glass of wine and grabbed my notes from the meeting with Natalie and Omar to collect my thoughts.
Four hours later, Mikayla’s room was quiet, and I was falling asleep on the couch. My article was almost done, so I packed my things up and went to bed.
Only to remember I was going to book club tomorrow night. Crap.
I had to think of an excuse to get out of it. Not that I didn’t like Melody and her group of friends, but I felt out of place there. The single mom who had to rely on others to live my life. The woman with no dates and no hope for any in the near future.
Unless I counted my fake date with Landon, but I didn’t. I couldn’t.
Sleep evaded me for far too long, but when it finally came, I had dreams of a sexy florist with a devilish smile and a talent for making me hot.
Sunday was a rush. I was up early and finished my article, sending it to Natalie in case she wanted to change anything. Then, I had to get to the grocery store so I could get things ready for the week. Mikayla helped to make lunches and dinners so we didn’t cave and go out to eat on the nights we had a lot going on.
So I didn’t cave. She wouldn’t fight me if I said I wanted to grab a pizza or something.
When I finished, Mikayla had her shoes on and stood by the door.
“What are you doing?”
“Amber said I was going to her house for a little while tonight because you are going out with Ms. Melody,” Mikayla said. Her brows pinched, and confusion lit her features. “Was she wrong?”
Before I could answer, my phone buzzed with a text.
