“You didn’t answer my question,” she said, twining some pasta around her fork.
“Which one?”
“Why you do the whole social media Jaime the Vet thing?”
“Oh.” He picked up his own fork. “At first, it was just exciting to have animals to work on, and I wanted to document it. Also”—he grinned, thinking of his mom and her demand for information about his life. She was great, but sometimes needy, and it had been an easy way for her to stay in the loop without having to call her every day—“for my parents. They liked knowing what was up, and it was better than them hounding me about my dating life.”
She chuckled as she brought her fork to her mouth, the bite of pasta hitting her tongue, drawing his attention to those plump lips as she chewed and swallowed, a soft moan drifting through the air.
A soft moan that was way too sexy for a first date.
Although . . . not too sexy for a fiancé?
No. Mentally, he smacked himself. Fake fiancé. The keyword being fake.
“I know all about families and pushy,” she said, pulling him out of all thoughts fake. “I’m the oldest sibling and the only single one. Oh, the humanity!” Her lips quirked when she rested the back of her hand on her forehead, a la fainting Hollywood starlet of the past. Then she sighed, and a little sad crept into her eyes. “I don’t necessarily want to be single, but—” She lifted and dropped one shoulder. “Sometimes things don’t always work out the way we want.”
“I feel that.”
A sigh before she set her fork down and then lightly clapped her hands together. “Okay, so here is your last chance to run away or to demand an exorbitant payment in exchange for playing my fake fiancé.”
“I thought we covered that already. I’m happy to play your fake fiancé.”
Brown eyes narrowed. “Just like that? No ulterior motives, no secret basement with a cabinet full of serial killer tools?”
“Just like that,” he said. “And my condo doesn’t have a basement.”
She began winding pasta around her fork again. “I noticed that you didn’t address the ulterior motive piece of my statement.”
A snort. “I already told you I wanted a date.” He waved a hand at the table, the plates, the glasses of wine. “Thus, my ulterior motive satisfied.”
“Hmm.”
She put the bite into her mouth, and he took the opportunity to do the same. The pasta was good, great even, but he could barely taste it. Not when his focus was so firmly on the woman across from him. Fascinating. Beautiful. Empathetic. Nice.
And quiet.
Just a little quiet, as though she didn’t mind short stretches of silence.
It was nice, that quiet. Peaceful, not oppressive. She was nice.
She set her fork down, eyes going wide, and he felt a blip of alarm travel through him. “What?” he asked.
“I just realized that if we’re doing this, there is so much I need to brief you on. My family. My parents. My siblings—”
“That’s the definition of family, right?” he teased.
“Shush, you,” she said, though her smile was teasing the corners of her lips up. “But also, yes, I guess that’s what I meant by family.”
“Can’t we play it by ear?” he asked. “It’s only two dinners.”
“They’re going to interrogate you.” She groaned. “They’re going to want all the details of how we met and our first date and—oh God!—my friends. You haven’t met my friends. They don’t know anything about you, and they know everything.” She picked up her fork, shoved a bite of pasta into her mouth, all while shaking her head fiercely. Once she’d swallowed, she shook her head firmly once more, scattering her hair over her shoulders. “We can’t do this. I can’t do this. It’s insanity. I just need to come clean.”
He didn’t want her to come clean. He wanted more time with her. “It’s two dinners.”
“I—”
He shrugged. “I can manage two dinners, Kate.”
“You haven’t met my family.”
Laughter bubbled up in his chest. “Ditto.” He reached across the table, squeezed her hand. “How about you pretend two dinners are my ulterior motive?”
She frowned.
“Two more dates,” he explained. “That aren’t family dinners. That are just you and me getting to know one another. That will be payment for your favor.”
“Deception with a side of ulterior?”
His lips twitched. “Seems fitting, yeah?”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Or maybe it’s dinner with a side of engagement?”
The laughter didn’t just bubble up this time, it burst right out of him. “Yes,” he said through it. “That’s exactly it.”
“Damn.” She made a face.
His amusement cut off. “What?”
“You’re even nicer than I expected.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Only that”—she shook her head—“never mind, it’s a silly thought.”
“No.” His hand found hers again. “What is it?”
A forkful of pasta into her mouth, her words muffled. “Really,” she said, “it doesn’t matter.”
“We can’t start off a fake engagement on a lie.”
Her mouth fell open, a strangled sound emerging. “What? That doesn’t even make sense.”
“Sure, it does.” He snagged her roll again, brought it up to his mouth like he was going to eat it, and her gasp of outrage made it clear that was the best ransom around. “Tell me,” he ordered.
She frowned. “So, sexy, smart, funny, nice, rocks a perfect man bun, and also a blackmailer.”
“Fiancés should discover these things about each other.” He shrugged, forced himself to bite back his smile when she rolled her eyes. “See, Red? We’ve made progress in our deception.”
She snagged the much-abused roll back. “Mine.” A bite. “And also, I was thinking that nice never lasts, okay?” She took another bite, chewed and swallowed, deliberately changing the subject. “Okay, so I’m the oldest of three. What about you? How many siblings do you have?”
Jaime knew he had a choice. Push or let it go.
Pushing might destroy the fragile bond they were just beginning to build. Pushing might mean he’d never get to his other plans—that being, how to get more than two dates with this smart, lovely woman sitting across from him. Pushing might mean that he’d never get a chance to turn fake into real.
So, he let it go.
And then he told her about his family.
Four
Kate
He’d paid the bill, like it was a legitimate date.
He’d talked about his family with equal parts love and exasperation. That was such a familiar feeling and one that made her like him even more.
It made him dangerous, the degree with which she liked him, and yet she also wanted to live in the moment, wanted to grasp on to that floating feeling of a new relationship.
When everything was all puppy dogs and rainbows and fun.