Chapter 2
TWO
Brock
I smile at Willow as she agrees to my crazy idea. Maybe it will blow up in my face, but maybe, just maybe it will help both of us get through this week unscathed.
The last few weeks with my mother have been over the top.
Now that Paxton is getting married, Shepherd, my brother, has a baby, and Anya, my sister, is living with Griffin, it’s apparently my turn.
I come from a big family. Mom keeps asking when I’m going to settle down and it’s driving me crazy.
I’m not ready to settle down, get married, and have kids.
Millie and I broke up because there was no excitement, no real attraction, no feelings at all.
We never even had sex. Yeah, can you believe it?
If I couldn’t make it work with someone as sweet as Millie, I’m not sure I have a chance of making it work with anyone. But it hasn’t stopped my mother. The closer the wedding gets, the more excited she gets and not for Paxton, but for me.
“There are plenty of single women at weddings.”
“Love is always in the air when two people get married.”
“You might just find your happily ever after.”
“The love of your life might just be on the dance floor.”
It’s been endless and I’ve been dreading this when I should be excited. I’m thrilled for Paxton and Hartford. I couldn’t be happier for them, but I’ve had this constant voice in my head screaming I need to find someone. And by voice in my head, I mean my mother.
I didn’t know how I was going to handle an entire week of her trying to play matchmaker, but when I listened to Willow say she was dreading this, the idea of fake dating just popped into my head.
If Lake, the cheating bastard, and my mother believe Willow and I are together it’s a win-win. Lake will realize what an asshole he was for letting her go and my mother will be happy and leave me alone.
What can go wrong?
“How are we going to make this work?” Willow asks, breaking my thoughts.
I grin and bump her shoulder again. “Come on Willow, you can’t pretend to think I’m irresistible?”
She rolls her eyes and sighs. “I’m not sure I’m that good of an actress.”
“Ouch,” I breathe out, holding my hands over my heart. “You wound me.”
She laughs, shaking her head. “Can you pretend to think I’m irresistible?”
I turn in my seat and place my hands on either side of her face.
My eyes search hers as I tuck a piece of hair behind her ear and grin.
“I don’t need to pretend you’re irresistible, Willow.
You’re gorgeous, sexy as sin. There’s no man who wouldn’t want to be in my shoes, having the most beautiful woman at the wedding on his arm.
It’ll be impossible to keep my hands off of you.
Impossible to keep my want hidden. I’m one lucky bastard having you, Willow. ”
Her eyes soften as her breathing picks up. If I can convince her, I can convince anyone.
“Brock, I umm, wow, I had no idea,” she whispers.
I laugh. “See, easy. I can fake it, angel.”
“Oh right,” she rushes out, pulling away from me so quickly, my hands fall. “Yeah, that was good.”
“Exactly, so don’t overthink it. Just act like you want me and I’ll do the same. We just need to make it through the week. After the wedding is over, we’ll be over,” I say, waving the flight attendant over for another drink.
“You know that means you can’t flirt or sleep with anyone right?”
I chuckle as I wrap my arm around her. “Oh damn, my girl is the jealous type.”
She pushes my arm off, crossing her arms. “If you aren’t going to take this seriously, then just stop now. I’m not willing to start something like this and come out looking like a bigger fool than I did when Lake cheated. You need to be all in, or don’t even bother.”
I sigh and scrub my face. “I’m sorry. I was joking. I’m all in Willow. We both deserve to enjoy this week. My brother is getting married to your friend. We are going to celebrate that and we’ll do it together. There will be no flirting or sex with anyone but you. You have my word.”
“We’re not having sex,” she says.
“What? You know what I meant,” I reply, shaking my head.
“You said no flirting or sex with anyone but me.”
This might be a little harder than I thought it was going to be. She’s taking everything I say literally. “No flirting with other women, and no sex at all with anyone. Better?”
She shakes her head, turning it to look out the window. I sigh and pour each of us another drink that was dropped off. I toss mine back as her drink sits on the tray in front of her untouched.
“What Willow? What are you worried about now?”
I’m trying not to get annoyed, but I’ve come up with the perfect solution to both of our problems and she’s acting like I’ve done something wrong.
“No one is going to believe it unless we, ugh, unless we are sharing a room,” she whispers.
I nod, running my hand down my mouth. I never thought of that, but she’s right. “Okay, did you book a room yet?”
“Of course I did,” she says, annoyed.
“Well, I didn’t, so we’ll just stay in the room you booked. I’ll put it on my credit card.”
“You didn’t book a room? What was your plan when you got there?”
I shrug, grinning. “Hoping there would be one available, if not, shacking up with Callum, or Tripp.”
“You’re too much, Brock.”
Once again I drop my arm around her shoulders. “It’s all part of my charm.”
“You’ll sleep on the floor though, right?” she asks, glancing at me.
“Well, I’m not a dog, so no, but I will sleep on the couch.”
She giggles and I like that she appears to be coming out of the mood she was in. “If you mess this up, I’m making you sleep on the floor.”
I laugh. “This is going to be so much fun.”
The rest of the flight is pretty silent. I’m thinking about what a genius I am, but I’m sure she’s thinking about how I’m going to fuck it all up. She’s going to be very disappointed because I plan on giving the performance of a lifetime.
Once we land and enter the airport, we head to the baggage claim. I wrap my arm around her as we wait and she looks up at me.
“What are you doing? There’s no one around.”
“I’m a touchy, feely guy, Willow. Get used to it now because it will be happening a lot this week. Each time I do this you stiffen and that needs to stop. If we are going to make this work, you need to at least act like you want me to touch you and step one is to stop stiffening.”
She searches my eyes and nods. “Okay,” she whispers.
“Our bags,” I say, rushing over and grabbing them.
I push them both as we head toward the exit. Paxton and Hartford are getting married and Willow and I are about to give an Oscar-worthy performance.
I’m even more excited than when I stepped onto the plane.