Chapter 6 #2
I spun around, immediately getting a face full of a muscular chest that I was unfortunately becoming well acquainted with.
I automatically took a step back as I realized how close Rhys was to me—both because I wanted some space from him and also because if my friends came around the corner and saw us pressed up like that, I didn’t even want to imagine what their reactions would be—bumping my back against the hangers of bright swimsuits in the process.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed, my eyes darting around in search of my friends. If they saw him here, this close to me like a boyfriend, I was dead.
Even if he was just my fake boyfriend, I didn’t want to have to explain that away.
It was only last night that we’d agreed to our fake relationship, but it already felt like it had been happening for a lifetime.
We’d hammered out the actual terms of the whole arrangement over text this morning because he didn’t trust that I would remember everything we’d talked about and I didn’t trust that he would stick to an agreement that wasn’t in writing.
His messages had come in short and unbothered, the text equivalent of him leaning against a doorframe with his arms crossed: Don’t tell your brother. Don’t tell Landon it’s fake. Don’t get weird about the PDA in front of Kelcey, it has to look real or this doesn’t work.
I’d included a few rules of my own, including a timeline—we were not continuing this into summer break—and a promise from him that he would do his very best to make sure there would be no far-reaching consequences of this down the line.
I didn’t want this to be something that haunted me a few months later.
I was pretty sure his agreement to that had been fairly sarcastic, but I was taking it at face value.
Now that he had followed me into a store where any number of people could see us and ask questions, I had to wonder just how much he cared about my stipulations of not letting anyone from my world know about this.
“I just happened to be in the mall and saw you when I was walking past.” He shrugged nonchalantly like he wasn’t testing fate by being here right now. “Figured I’d say hi.”
“Bye,” I snapped, then pushed myself away from him, walking as quickly as I could toward anywhere else in the store to get away from him. His footfalls echoed on the linoleum floor behind me and I ground my teeth together.
I turned at the end of the aisle, heading for the dressing rooms, even though I didn’t have anything to try on. I figured it would be the one place he wouldn’t dare follow me to, but the echoing footsteps—could footsteps be cocky? His certainly sounded like it—continued behind me.
“Stop following me,” I stage-whispered to him over my shoulder. He was only two paces behind, a smug grin on his lips like he knew exactly what he was doing to my stress levels right now.
“I’m just—”
The second dressing room door cracked open and I got a flash of Nora’s dark hair.
In a panic, I turned toward the first door and shoved Rhys inside of it.
He let out a surprised yell, but the sound was mostly covered up by me slamming the door behind us.
Perhaps a little too dramatic, since it probably would draw Nora’s attention, but at least she couldn’t see us now.
If she caught us together, she would inevitably end up mentioning it to Sebastian, and that was truly the last thing I needed right now.
My heartbeat was so loud from almost being caught that I could barely hear Nora saying something to Clementine about the fit of the swimsuit. Her voice got quieter and quieter as she walked toward Clem and Reese. The only Reese I was interested in seeing in this store right now.
Once the area outside the dressing room was quiet, I pinned my glare on boy-Rhys, who was now standing much closer than I initially realized. I tried to back up a step and put some space between us to no avail, bumping my back against the wall where discarded swimsuits hung.
“Great, now we’re trapped in here,” I whispered. “Together.”
“Together,” he repeated, except where my words sounded like this was a punishment for me—which it was—it sounded like a delight for him.
I shifted again, rattling a hanger behind me that whoever had used the dressing room before had left behind.
Rhys’s eyes flicked from me to whatever garment was digging into my back, and then a wicked smile curled over his lips.
He reached behind me, his wrist grazing my ear as he lifted the hanger off the hook on the wall and held it up next to me.
“This color would look fantastic on you.”
I batted his hand away. “Then I’ll be sure to never wear it around you.” Or, honestly, ever. Because now this particular shade of pink will always remind me of this moment that would never end.
I shifted toward the door, ready to get away from him, but then Clementine’s laughter rang through the store, and I could tell from that laugh alone where she was in the store—just two displays away. Right within view of this very door.
With a sigh, I rested my head against the wall now that the hanger was gone and squeezed my eyes shut.
“You should come to my cottage this summer,” Rhys said conversationally.
My eyes popped open. “Absolutely not.”
“I’ll buy you a swimsuit.” He held up the suit. “This one, even.”
“If you buy that for me, I’ll burn it.”
“Great, we usually have a bonfire at the cabin. Burn it there. After you wear it.” He held it out to me again and I pushed it away, not-so-accidentally slapping his wrist in the process.
“We already agreed this isn’t continuing into summer break. I can pull up the texts if needed.”
He narrowed his eyes, looking for a moment like he was going to challenge me on the very rule we’d agreed on not two hours ago, but instead he said, “Well, the May long weekend is coming up. It’s the beginning of cottage season—you have to come up.”
“I don’t have to do anything.”
“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong, dear girlfriend.” He smirked and poked a finger into my chest. “You want to prove to Justin that you liked me and not him? If I was really dating you, there’s no way I’d let you stay behind.”
There was truly nobody in the world I hated more than Rhys Montgomery.
“We have a deal,” Rhys reminded me. He leaned in to murmur in my ear, “Can’t back out now.”
The feeling of his breath against my ear sent shivers down my spine. I shoved him away before he could notice.
“We had a deal to pretend in front of Kelcey and Justin. But as it turns out,” I gestured around the cramped room, “they’re not here right now.”
“No, but they will be at the cottage. So…” He waved the swimsuit at me again. “Gotta be convincing, right?”
“I’ll just pack my own swimsuit. I can’t stomach the idea of wearing something you bought for me.”
His face lit up in victory and I already knew my mistake before the words echoed in my own ears. “You just agreed to the cottage. I should’ve recorded that as evidence.”
I sighed, remembering the other close proximity shoebox we were trapped in last night and the desperate deal we struck there. I really didn’t have a choice. He saved me from embarrassing myself, and I really did owe him, whether I wanted to admit it or not. “Only because I like cottages.”
“You’re going to love this one.”
“I’d love it so much more if you weren’t there.”
“Can’t arrange that part, but I can arrange a boat ride.”
“Fine,” I said, already planning to shove him off the boat into the water the first chance I got so I could enjoy this peaceful cabin without him. Even if it was his.