Riley pried herself away from Lucas, breathing hard. Lucas had been the one who took her home. He’d kissed her. And she’d told him that she’d wanted to marry him.
Or maybe number two was the lie. Maybe none of that happened.
Lucas sat up. Everyone had stopped what they were doing to stare at them.
Mariah shook her head slowly. “I think we all knew this exercise was gonna end up that way.”
Thank you for that vote of confidence, housekeeping team.
Mrs. Cisneros hovered over Riley and helped her to her feet. “Are you okay?
Riley was hyperventilating. She didn’t want everyone to keep staring at her. She couldn’t meet Lucas’s gaze. “I need to go to the kitchen for some ice. I’ll be fine in a minute.”
She marched straight to the kitchen. She didn’t get ice. She headed out the door and sat on the back stoop where the groceries were delivered. The cold air pushed into her, and the deep breaths she took made her lungs feel frigid. She wrapped her arms around herself and resisted the urge to hightail it to her car and drive away.
She had to deal with this. She had to go back in there and face Lucas. Before long, she’d freeze out here.
The door opened. Lucas walked over and sat down beside her. “When you said you were going for ice, I thought you meant the cubes, not the landscape.”
She was still taking deep breaths. “Was your second sentence the lie? You didn’t really pretend to be Jace on Saturday night, did you? I can tell the difference between the two of you.”
“You’d think, but apparently a couple of glasses of vodka and a pair of glasses changes your perception.”
She blinked at him, waiting to see the smirk that would indicate he was joking. It didn’t happen. “It was you?” she repeated.
“You think Jace was the one who kissed you?” Lucas asked. “He’s got a girlfriend.”
Riley stared at him, taking this in. She’d kissed Lucas on Saturday night. Was that better or worse?
“The good news,” Lucas said, “is that technically you weren’t involved in any sort of cheating, so you don’t need to call Jennifer to apologize.” He dipped his chin. “Although on the other hand, in spirit, you totally were involved in cheating.”
She smacked him in the chest. “I was drunk and vulnerable, and you kissed me.”
“True.”
“Were you just making a point so you could take the moral high ground? People sometimes don’t mean to cheat, but they do?”
“Nope. I told you in my first round of truths that I thought you realized who I was.”
That’s what he’d meant? He’d never been talking about Winter.
“I did tell you,” he went on, “that my answers had to do with kissing. I figured you’d know I meant the kissing that happened Saturday night.”
“You saidmaybeit had to do with kissing.”
“But I said maybe in a yes sort of way.”
She shivered. Soon she’d start shaking. He took off his suit coat and wrapped it around her. It was such a sweet thing to do. So like him. A pang went through her, a pang of missing him and the way things used to be between them.
“Let’s go inside before you freeze,” he said.
She didn’t get up yet. “Why did you think I knew who you were?”
“When I said ginger tea was your favorite, you said, ‘You remembered.’ How would Jace know what your favorite tea was?”
“Because I served it for your entire family that one time after we all made snowmen.” Jace had been there and had claimed he liked it.
“Oh,” Lucas said. “Turns out that neither of us remembered the refreshments served on that particular occasion. I just remember you making that tea for me when we dated.” He stood up and reached out to help her up. Another familiar thing—the feel of his hand around hers. He kept hold of her hand for a moment, then released it to walk to the kitchen door and open it for her.