CHAPTER 8 KAYLEE
He turns away from the window. His shoulders are hitched up and I’m hearing a lot of heavy sighs coming from him, a clear indication that he’s torn over what to do.
“Hey,” I say softly. I reach over and touch his forearm.
“We don’t need to make any decisions right now.
So one gossip assclown accused us of faking it.
Who cares? We go out again and show that we’re not faking, and we get cozy in public so people can snap our picture and we can prove it’s real. What do we have to lose?”
He nods, a bit of calmness allowing his shoulders to sag with comfort at my words.
“Whatever we decide, we’ll talk it through and make the best choice for us. Okay?” I squeeze his arm.
He heaves out another breath and glances at me with a bit of wonder in his eyes. “Okay.” He presses his lips together then leans down and plants a soft kiss on my cheek. “Thank you.”
“Of course.” My eyes are on him as he backs away, and I wish we were at his place so I could leap into his arms and hold him and calm his fears.
But we’re not. We’re at Luke and Ellie’s, a place where the people inside have no idea what’s really happening between us.
Hell, I’m not even sure if I understand what’s happening between us.
“We’re in this together, and we’re going to raise a bunch of money to put our fitness for kids plan into action regardless of whether that includes a wedding. ”
He nods. “And I’m going to kick your ass in our little competition.”
“Pfft,” I scoff as we both work to lighten the mood in here a little. “Good luck, pal.”
He laughs, and all that marriage talk is pushed to the backburner…for now at least. Because even though that’s where we’ve put it, it’s still on my mind.
And I’m not ready to give up on it just yet.
We head back to Ellie’s office.
“I’m taking off,” Ben announces.
Ellie nods. “We’ll come up with something.”
Ben presses his lips together and nods a goodbye before he turns and walks out, and I plop down on the purple couch. “I gave your job offer some thought, and I think I want to take you up on it.”
“You do?” Ellie asks, clearly surprised.
I nod. “I figure I can swing by after school for an hour or so each day to start to learn the ropes, and once school’s out, I can move into whatever role you want me to take. I’m ready to learn the basics of public relations.”
Ellie’s brows dip. “Why the sudden change of heart?”
I lift a shoulder. “I posed an Instagram challenge to Ben, a sort of competition to raise money for charity, and the more I know about the sort of tactics you employ, the better my shot at winning.”
Ellie’s eyes light with excitement. “Tell me more about this competition.”
I launch into the basics, obviously leaving out the stakes of the loser planning a mystery date for the winner. She nods as I talk about a different sort of engagement than she just did—this one is interacting on social media rather than committing to marriage.
“I think it’s an incredible idea,” Ellie says. “And I promise to be an impartial party to your competition. I’ll give you equal tools to work with and you can decide which ones to use.”
I issue a glare. “I mean you could help tip the scales in my favor since I’m your favorite sister-in-law.”
Kate clears her throat loudly from her spot across the room, and I roll my eyes good-naturedly.
“Top two?” I ask, and Kate laughs.
“You’re both in my top two,” Ellie says, and she blows us each kisses.
“Now grab a chair and start shadowing Kate. She’s working on creating some captions from sound bites right now, something you’ll be doing once she graduates and you slide into her role.
And after that, I need to chat with you about a game plan to build your following so we can raise a boatload of cash for your charity. ”
Kate waves me over, and suddenly I’m really excited about my new job prospect.
* * *
“So you two are a couple now?” my mom asks the second I walk through her front door. Ben is already there with Jack, and I arrived with Luke, Ellie, and Kate. We wait until the door is closed behind us just in case anybody’s hanging around outside to address that particular topic.
“I agreed to pose as Ben’s girlfriend,” I explain. “His boss wanted him to clean up his image a little, and everyone agreed I had nothing else going on.”
“Oh, Kay,” my mom says, her tone sympathetic as she looks at me sadly.
“It’s fine,” I say, shrugging her off. “We’re just having fun with it and I’m going to get a lot of amazing meals out of it.”
“And drinks,” Ben chimes in. “Just because I’m tied down now doesn’t mean I won’t still party.”
I smack him in the arm. “You’re sort of totally missing the point of what we’re doing.”
My mom laughs. “Just take care of her, Ben. She’s my little girl.”
My cheeks burn. I’m so sick and tired of being cast as the little girl. And it’s beyond embarrassing to be labeled that in front of Ben. “I’m not little anymore,” I grit out between a clenched jaw, but it falls on deaf ears as everyone starts moving in toward the kitchen.
“You most certainly are not,” Ben murmurs, and he heads up the back of the pack just behind me. He grabs my ass, and I let out a little yelp and a giggle as I jump and turn around. “So peachy,” he whispers.
I laugh, and I cross my fingers we’ll have some time to fool around under the table.
Unfortunately, though, we do not.
Instead, the attention is on the two of us as we field questions about how we’re going to handle this fake relationship.
And somehow, the more my family fires questions at us and the more we seem to easily agree on the answers, the more this is starting to feel less fake and more real.