Chapter 2 #3
“Oh uh, thanks.” Taylor tried to accept the compliment like it was nothing, like guys who looked like Rocco Moretti told him he was hot all the time.
Maybe they might, Mona’s voice told him, if you didn’t freeze them out first.
“Anyway, what do you drink? Please tell me you’re not one of those clean-living types . . .” Rocco trailed off and gave him a look up and down, similar to the one Heath had given him earlier, but this one lit him right up. “Though you kinda look like one of those types.”
“Uh, no,” Taylor said, lifting his beer glass. “I’m drinking this beer, aren’t I? I . . .uh . . .well, I’ve got a very secret, very terrible addiction to energy drinks, if you have to know.”
“That stuff’ll eat your liver,” Rocco said.
“Believe me, that’s what everyone says, and yet I keep drinking them.” Taylor shook his head and chuckled under his breath. “Now you know the worst thing about me.”
“I like it,” Rocco said, surprising him.
“You do?”
“Yeah. Now I’m gonna have to tell you something. Um . . .well, you clearly already know about the pumpkin spice and the goat cheese . . .” Rocco glanced up at him, worry creasing his handsome features. “Don’t tell me someone complained to the mayor’s office?”
“No, no, nothing like that.” He didn’t tell Rocco about the overheard conversation at The Snowflake Shack.
“Okay, phew.” Rocco looked relieved.
“They’re gonna come around,” Taylor said as reassuringly as he could. “I really liked the changes you’ve made to the place.”
“Goat cheese and all?” Rocco asked.
“I’ve got nothing against goat cheese,” Taylor said.
“That’s my big secret, I guess. I love goat cheese and I want everyone else to love it, too.”
Taylor chuckled. “Baby steps, Moretti.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “I went too fast before. I get that now. I won’t make that mistake again. But I just need to get people to come back—try the new-old stuff I’ve got. I thought maybe if I could get you in the door . . .”
“Ouch. Wanted only for my title,” Taylor joked.
“You think you could get the mayor herself—”
Taylor winced. “Sorry to disappoint. She’s a tea-only drinker. But I’ll mention it to her.”
“Ugh, this sucks,” Rocco said, taking another long sip of his martini. “You’ve got it so lucky. Your new job’s all lined up. You just gotta show up, right? And the city council will hire you.”
“That is not . . .not necessarily true.” Taylor hadn’t meant to say so, but once he’d started he couldn’t quite stop.
“Mona’s worried that I’m too young, too single, and then there’s the fact that I’m not originally from Christmas Falls.
It’s probably not enough to kill my application, not since there aren’t any other serious candidates.
But if anyone else shows up? Ugh, I’m worried. I shouldn’t be, but I am.”
“She doesn’t like that you’re single?”
“Perpetually,” Taylor said wryly. “She was trying to get me to hook up with Heath Kelly—thought maybe I could convince him to smile and wave next to me a few times, I think.”
“And you didn’t want to?” Rocco’s jaw dropped. “Heath Kelly? Man, he is crazy hot.”
“Maybe yeah, but not my type,” Taylor said, embarrassed now. It was one thing to discuss his desert of a love life with Mona and another entirely to discuss it with Rocco Moretti.
“You could always ask . . .ugh, who’s that matchmaker’s name . . .”
“Nick Morgan,” Taylor supplied. “But that’s really not my thing, to be honest.”
“I met him, too, and he was, of course, interested in hearing more about me, but I told him, I’ve got too much on my plate with this new business to think about a relationship but . . .” Rocco trailed off.
Taylor thought Rocco’s reluctance to agree to Nick Morgan’s schemes was more along the lines of never needing help getting a date than being too busy, but he let it go. At least until Rocco’s eyes brightened, like he’d just had a brilliant idea.
“That’s what we should do,” Rocco said, snapping his fingers.
“What?” Taylor asked warily.
“Matchmake ourselves!”
Rocco might have been the first guy in what felt like ages to actually have a chance at melting his chilly exterior, but that didn’t mean Taylor was ready to just date.
Not when the thought of Rocco made his palms sweat.
It would be like strapping yourself to a rocket, when you were only ready for a sparkler.
“It’s not like you think,” Rocco continued. “I don’t mean for real, I mean . . .like help each other out.”
Taylor’s brain supplied all kinds of ways they could help each other out—in and out of clothes, specifically—but he shut down those thoughts hard and fast. He had a job to focus on getting. And Rocco had his business.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Taylor said.
“So my cousin did this, and it seemed crazy at the time, but it worked out, in the end. Worked like a charm, too. He fake-dated this guy to get his mom off his ass about settling down.”
“And that worked?” Taylor sounded incredulous.
“Oh, it worked,” Rocco said, shooting Taylor a very charming, unfortunately very convincing smile.
“So, you need someone on your arm when you’re going to festival events.
And I need an in with the town. Some reason for people to start coming back to Jolly Java.
You’re the freaking deputy mayor—soon to be the city manager!
What’s more part of the town than that?”
It was an absolutely ludicrous idea.
Taylor wanted to tell Rocco flatly that he was not interested.
But he was.
Despite all the potential pitfalls and problems—not to mention the certified insanity.
“The final meeting of the council isn’t until April. That’s five months away. You really want to pretend to be my boyfriend for that long?”
Say yes. Say you absolutely do.
But Rocco just laughed. “Well, I can’t say it would be a hardship,” he said.
“Plus, I’m gone for a month right in the middle of that time.
I’m going to help out some family in Indigo Bay, for their Sweethearts Festival.
” He paused and suddenly looked worried.
“That isn’t going to be a problem, is it? ”
“Let me get this straight. You’re worried about being gone for a month between now and April, but not worried about faking a relationship for five months?”
“Oh, how hard can it be? A few smiles, some hand-holding, maybe even a romantic date or two, they’ll all believe it, and then it’s just a matter of keeping up the charade.” Rocco leaned in. There was that smell of coffee again. But it was sweeter, too. Spicy, almost.
It was unexpectedly intoxicating.
Intoxication must have been the only reason Taylor said, “I’ll think about it.”
Rocco’s nearness had totally gone to his head.
“Aw,” Rocco said, having the nerve to both look and sound disappointed. “Come on. It could be fun. And useful. Emphasis on useful, if that’s what you’re into.” He shot Taylor a particularly mischievous look. “I have a feeling you are, actually.”
“Kind of comes with the job,” Taylor said wryly. “The one I have, and the one I want.”
“Are you really worried about not getting it? From what I hear, you’re practically already hired.”
Taylor shrugged and finished his beer, setting the glass on the coaster in front of him.
“Yes and no. Yeah, I’ve got some strikes against me.
But I’m the deputy mayor. The current mayor is endorsing me.
And biggest help? There’s no other serious candidates for the position.
Not that people haven’t applied, but I’ve got the most experience. ”
Rocco nodded earnestly. “So nothing to worry about then.”
“Not according to Mona,” Taylor said with a chuckle.
But yes, he was worried. Whether it was legitimate or not.
There were still a few weeks for possible candidates to submit the necessary paperwork to apply for the job.
Someone else without his three strikes and with the same or better experience, and he might have to resort to something extreme.
Something like Rocco’s semi-insane fake boyfriend scheme.
“But you will think about it, won’t you?” Rocco asked persuasively. Like Taylor might have forgotten in the last two minutes. Newsflash: it was hard to forget when anyone offered to fake date you. Doubly so when it was a someone who looked like Rocco Moretti.
“I will,” Taylor promised and slid off his barstool. “It was good seeing you, Rocco. And I’ll tell Mona to stop by your place this week. See if that helps.”
Rocco brightened. “Thanks!”
Taylor considered that after he’d paid his bill and walked out the front door. Would asking Mona to stop by be helpful? It would, if she would actually do it. On the other hand, Rocco was probably right and dating him would be a far better option.
The nosy town would be piling into Jolly Java for a chance to get a second look at the guy who’d finally hooked the deputy mayor.
Embarrassing, maybe, but true, nonetheless.
He lived in a little one-story bungalow down one of the side streets, within an easy walk of downtown and City Hall. Unlocking the door, Taylor hung up his coat and scarf and walked into the living room.
Meredith, his sleek gray cat, was sleeping on her favorite cushion, and as he walked in, opened one glowing amber eye.
“Meow,” she said, greeting him. Taylor went over and rubbed her head.
Enjoying the way her soft fur comforted him.
Maybe he was alone, but his life wasn’t lonely.
He had his work, which fulfilled him, and the entire town to worry about and to worry about him in return.
And then he had Meredith to cuddle up to at night.
“Should’ve hooked up with the movie star,” he murmured to her as his fingers sifted through her fur. “Would’ve been easier.”