10. Derek
10
DEREK
I wondered if she knew that she was blushing. A faint rose spread up her cheeks and it highlighted the freckles dotting her nose and cheeks. Those small marks were so gorgeous on her, but they also reminded me that she was younger.
Why am I entertaining this? She’s too young to want to be saddled on a date with someone pushing forty.
“Derek?”
“Hmm?” I snapped my gaze back up to meet hers.
“Do I have something on my face?” she asked, dabbing at it with a napkin.
“No.” I cleared my throat. She’d caught me checking her out but was polite enough not to call me out for it. “I was wondering something, though.”
“About us rescheduling this so you don’t look taken?” She laughed, sipping her coffee.
That’s the brilliant idea I want to ask you about.
It seemed like such an easy solution—to let Claire scare off any other women. To look like I was taken. To spare me these women approaching me whenever they wanted.
I wasn’t full of myself. I wasn’t cocky and stuck in this fantasy that I was God’s gift to womankind. I had my flaws. I knew who I was. But the circumstances were stacked against me. I was a widower, and women saw that as a mission. I was wealthy, and many people wanted to exploit a connection to get a piece of it. I was also broadcast as an eligible man who shouldn’t be single, all thanks to my sister egging on countless friends and acquaintances in her matchmaking attempts.
The idea of not having to deal with women preying on me was too good to pass up on.
I vaguely intended to talk to Claire about my land, but only as an ice breaker so I could get to know her. Seeing the impact of how everyone else seemed to assume we were together…
What if this could work?
That rosy glow increased on her smooth skin, and I smiled wider. “I was wondering about something Naomi said.”
“About my needing glasses?”
I laughed once. “No.” I cleared my throat. “She was curious whether you’ve always had those freckles.”
“I have. Derek? Are you flirting with me?”
“Talking about freckles counts as flirting?”
She shrugged. “I… don’t know.”
“You don’t know how to flirt?”
She snorted a laugh, and it sounded so goofy, so real as it turned into more laughter, that it became infectious.
“I’m confused,” she admitted.
I’d let the idea sink in as I watched her, and the more I let it settle, the more convinced I was that I—that we—could pull this off.
“About us flirting?”
“Are we?” she challenged sassily but not unkindly. “I thought we were here to talk about your land that you’ve given me ambiguous hints about maybe someday selling, yet we’re moving on to discussing the potential of our dating. Color me confused.”
“I propose we talk about both things. At once.”
She arched a brow. “How?”
“What if we were dating?” I flicked my finger back and forth between us.
“Um…”
“Let me backtrack.” Now that I said it, I wasn’t sold on the commitment. I’d spent years rejecting every woman. I wasn’t convinced that I’d ever find another love like my late wife again. I wasn’t sure Claire, as intriguing as she was, could snap me out of that cold spell, either. But I was game to see where this could go.
Maybe.
“Okay. Backtrack away.”
“What if we were pretending to date?” I asked her. There. That was a hell of a genius loophole.
“Why?”
“Simple. For peace and quiet on my end.” I gestured at the pair of friends on the other side of the coffee shop. Stacy tried to get me to go on a date with one of them last year. Just lifting and moving my hand was enough for them to misinterpret it as a wave. They giggled and called out hellos again, demonstrating the point I wanted to make. “If I look ‘taken’ by you, then they would all stop harassing me. You could help keep them away.”
She leaned over, looking past me at the women. “Is this a common occurrence?”
I nodded. “All the time.”
“They think you’re that much of a catch?”
I sighed.
She grinned. “Wow.”
“Yes, wow. It’s a small town. I guess options are limited.”
When she didn’t reply, my hope dwindled, fast. But then she furrowed her brow and peered at me. “Let’s clarify a couple of things.”
“Okay.” God, what am I doing? What am I saying? Pretend to date? I hadn’t had such a spontaneous, ridiculous idea like this in forever.
“I came here thinking I was going to meet with someone to discuss a potential sale of prime riverfront real estate.”
Boy, you really do have a one-track mind. She was all work. I feared that I might’ve been misreading her. That she wasn’t blushing or looking at me with desire. It’d been a while. Maybe I was rusty at being able to tell whether a woman was seriously into me or not.
“And you are now turning the conversation to pretending to date so the seemingly bored and lonely women in town won’t badger or harass you, Mr. Eligible Widower.”
I nodded. “There’s more.”
She grinned and raised her brows. “Oh?”
“Yes.” I scooted my chair in and sat up straighter. This idea couldn’t be completely bad. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“Oh, there’s quite a bit going on up here right now.” She tapped her temple.
“You’ve got to be wondering what’s in it for you.”
She pointed at me. “Bingo. We have a winner. While I think it could be fun and would definitely be different, the adventure of fake dating hasn’t really come up before.”
“Okay. So look at it as a bargain. You pretend to be dating me, and I will…” I licked my lips, hating myself for even wanting to lie.
“You will…”
“Sell some of my property.” Some was the keyword in there. Some , as in next to none.
I had zero intention of giving up the Scott land. And I had several reasons backing that choice. Most importantly, it was my family’s land. It passed on through generations and it would stay in the family. When I was younger and dating Jenna, we lived in the city. She was a head librarian and I was deep in my investment business. After she passed away, though, it wasn’t a difficult choice to move Naomi and myself back to Preston.
Being thrust into fatherhood was a huge adaptation. Knowing I’d be doing it alone was doubly hard.
Nicky and Stacy helped. My sister and brother-in-law were immensely supportive as I found my grounding. Not only that, but it was also hard to be in the city, seeing the familiar places I'd once enjoyed with Jenna.
Living in the country with the fresh air and freedom to move around was an excellent choice for Naomi. We had our space. We had room to expand. While she wanted a dog shelter, I wanted to have a woodworking shop. I envisioned more trees planted, and she had her heart set on a pool.
We had plans for our land, and that included keeping it all. Developers could keep their greedy hands off the acres I owned.
“You would?” She sat up, excited.
Dammit. I hated to con her, but I would sell… something. If I wasn’t already going to hell, I would be for this. I could string her along just long enough to get through this holiday season. I didn’t want to propose a permanent thing. And I wasn’t anywhere near ready to actually date her.
She would probably turn me down, anyway, too stuck in her job to have time to date at all.
“I would. That’d be my end of the bargain.” It would be one that I’d tweak as much as I had to. “And your end of the bargain would be to look like you’re with me until the end of the holiday season.”
“What, until the new year?”
I nodded. “This time of the year is very difficult for a single parent. All the family events and the push to be surrounded by others.”
“I could see how that would work.”
“And Naomi would be thrilled to see you again. If you’re staying nearby in Macomb, that’s just the next town over. She’ll be happy to talk to you again.”
She smiled softly.
“She’s been talking about you since we met at the holiday market.”
Her laughter made me relax. “I imagine she’s still worried about me getting my eyes checked out.”
“Of course, but she’s curious about you, Claire. She’s an inquisitive girl.”
She nodded. “Oh, I could tell.” She quickly put her hand on mine but seemed to think twice and removed it. “She’s truly sweet.”
“Sweet and curious.”
“That’s a good combination.”
“What do you think?” I asked, trying my best not to sound overly eager. “You pretend to be my girlfriend for the holiday season. It’ll give me some peace once and for all.”
“And you’ll sell me your land,” she finished for me.
“Not all of it,” I rushed to say, laughing a couple of times in what I hoped would be a mask for my panic. “Not all of my land. Part of it.”
Very, very small parts of it…
“I haven’t even seen the property. Just the details listed online.”
“I’ll show you.” I just keep digging myself deeper and deeper. “I’ll give you a tour of the land.”
She lowered her gaze for a pensive moment. “Well, I looked online. I saw the satellite images of the area.”
“It’s more beautiful than what any map or picture could show.”
She scrunched her nose, studying me quizzically. “Getting women to leave you alone is really worth selling me some land?”
“Trust me, this is no way to ‘live’, cornered by women who don’t understand how to respect my boundaries.” Who didn’t agree that no was a complete sentence. “Are you in?” I stared her in the eye, not giving her an easy out to glance away. I was captured, bewitched by her proximity.
Now that I’d put it out there, this out-of-the-blue idea to be faking a relationship, she had to address it. She had to give me an answer. Because I couldn’t let that proposal be forgotten or dismissed.
And I really, really hoped she’d be game for this tricky ploy I’d schemed because it would guarantee more time to spend with her.
With her being a realtor I wanted to be vague with or as a fake girlfriend, I’d decided that I wanted Claire to be the first woman I’d keep in my life for at least a couple of months.