Page 8 of Her Fake Mate

I snap my eyes to her face. Which is glaring at me.

“Thanks for talking to me,” I say dully.

Mia narrows her eyes at me, then nods her chin at the railing behind me. “What are those?”

Damn. I forgot about the coffee. Might have been better to lead with that.

“I brought you coffee,” I say. Lamely.

Mia looks at me like I’m in the process of sprouting a second head. “You brought me… coffee?”

“Yeah.”

“You know, you could use more words in your responses. A full sentence might help me figure out what’s going on here.”

I narrow my eyes. “Okay.”

I can practically see her blood pressure rising. It really shouldn’t feel this satisfying, and yet…

I also resist the urge to smirk at her. “Do you want it or not?”

“Want what?”

I hold the cup out. “Coffee.”

Mia considers it before snatching it from me. She takes a sip, closing her eyes as she groans with happiness. That groan makes something in my chest tingle.

“Sorry,” she sighs. “One of the kids was up all night throwing up, and me with them.”

Gross. “Sorry,” I rumble.

Mia sips the coffee again, looking at me cautiously. “What is this about?”

Um. Truly, I have no idea how to do this. “Thorne and Briony came to talk to me yesterday.”

“Good for you.”

I breathe, trying to calm down around the urge to grab her and shake her. “About the foxes.”

That gets her attention. “What about us?”

“Public opinion, mostly,” I mutter. I’m not quite sure how to bring up the stuff about Josh.

Mia’s eyes shut, and I can see a muscle in her cheek shake. I feel terrible… she definitely knows that they’re not exactly in a good place. “Let me guess. You’re here to kick us out.”

I frown. “What? No. Thorne and Briony think that the foxes need to do something to foster a little more positive public opinion.”

“Okay. Like what?”

“Well. Having teenage foxes out stealing moonshine isn’t going to do it.”

Mia’s cheeks flush. “You don’t know it was him.”

“I know that teenage foxes smell pretty bad, and some human in town has a little scrap of red hair and a wild story about a fox trying to steal their moonshine.”

Mia hisses out a breath. “That kid…”

“I think we should pretend to date,” I say in a rush.

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