“The other one’s a big lawyer here in town. She’s pretty, but kind of scary. She would eat a sweet, creative soul like me for breakfast.”
I scoffed. “Awhat?”
A grin burst across his face, his white teeth gleaming under the glow of the porch light. “You heard me. Very sweet.”
“And the other date? Are there really that many women your mom’s trying to set you up with?”
He smiled. “Well, you see, this is where it gets good. The other one is you.”
I jolted. “Me?”
“Apparently, you made a wonderful first impression on my parents. They both now love you.”
Dang it, Jack Taylor.
“I told your dad I had a boyfriend.”
His eyebrows raised appreciatively.
“He didn’t know it was you. He shouldn’t be pushing you toward a date with me.”
He laughed and folded his arms. “My dad’s a big believer in the whole ‘all’s fair in love and war’ mentality.”
“And you can’t just tell them no?”
He shrugged. “I could. But according to them, you’re exactly my type.”
I made the mistake of looking at him just then. My stomach dropped as our eyes were locked in a crosshair battle of wills and…something else. We should have broken our gaze moments ago, but he was still staring at me, and I was having a hard time looking away.
“I figured we could help each other out. We both get away from the matchmaking, and you save face with your mom and sister. Your family already thinks we’re together. It wouldn’t be hard to convince my parents.”
I sucked in a breath. This whole thing was my idea. I knew that I should have been readily agreeing to this crazy scheme. Glenn was here. And he was still a jerk. Miles was actually trying to do me a solid, helping me out in his own twisted way.
For reasons I couldn’t define, it was too much to have him see me like this. Too personal. My emotions from being here were too cloudy. I needed to be able to hide away under a passive smile to get me through this week. And Miles had never been one to let me get away with anything. Pretending to date him would mean we would be hanging out all the time. Him seeing me interact with my mom and her new husband? No, thank you. I didn’t need him judging my life choices over Christmas break.
“What do you say, Celery Stick?”
“No.”
“No?”
“No.” Even saying it for the second time, a sliver of doubt pierced through me, but I couldn’t let him see that. “I don’t think it would be in our best interest to get involved like that. I don’t date people I work with—even if it’s just pretend.”
He gave a tiny smirk of a smile. “No?”
“No.”
“Our grasp of the English language is astonishing,” he said, grinning.
The smile was out of my mouth before I could rein it in. I bit my lip to tug my unruly mouth back into shape. Did he seem more charming here than usual? I mean…not that I ever found him charming before.
“Alright,” he sighed. “Time to pull out the big guns.” He cocked his head to the side and studied me. “What do you want?”
My brows furrowed. “Nothing.”
“Everybody wants something. Did I hear you’re sleeping on the pull-out couch?”
I swallowed before lifting my chin defiantly. “Yup. And I love it.”