Page 88 of Some Like It Hot

“This isn’t immigration, for fuck’s sake. It’s my grandma.”

“But do you know? You were just in her bathroom.”

Elise eyes him curiously. “If you know the answer to this I’m going to be amazed. There’s a lot going on in my bathroom.”

“It’s Crest gel. Cinnamon flavor.”

Aidan and I look at Elise.

Her jaw drops. “He’s right. Was that just a lucky guess?”

“No one uses cinnamon toothpaste, El,” Aidan says. “That is not a lucky guess.”

It does explain why she smells like cinnamon all the time. I just thought she magically absorbed the bakery scent into her skin.

“The only reason I know that is because it’s the only item in your bathroom that is recognizable to me. All the rest of it is girl shit,” Blake admits.

“Girl shit. Fair enough.” Elise eyes him with clear affection. “That's so romantic.”

“I can be romantic.”

“I’m sure you can.”

But then he shocks all of us by digging in his pocket and pulling out a ring box.

Elise gasps.

“Okay,” Aidan says. “I like where this is going.”

Blake moves over to Elise and he drops down onto a knee, giving zero indication that he’s in any pain at all. He flips open the box. “Elise, will you fake marry me?”

For a second, her eyes light up when she sees the ring, which even from my seat several feet away, I can see is high quality. That’s a clear-cut diamond.

Then Elise shutters her expression. “Of course I will fake marry you.”

She lets him slip the ring on her finger.

But I realize that Elise, for a brief moment, wanted it to be real.

We’re all in dangerous fucking territory.

But I have no intention of stopping what we’re doing.

CHAPTER 22

Blake

My fucking hip is killing me.

Thank God we’re going into the third period.

This game seems to be taking forever. I know it’s only in part because of my hip. I’ve been playing well, the other team hasn’t scored on me yet, and our guys are playing with real fire tonight. But some games are like this. Some go by in a snap and others are grueling and I could swear they take days.

Part of it tonight is because I am having to truly force myself to concentrate.

Part of my mind is on my hip, part of it is on the text from my grandmother that came in as I was still in the locker room before the game. She’s back in town from her Florida trip and ready to meet my fiancée.

Of course, she needs to meet Elise. How am I going to convince her that I am madly in love and that Elise will be living with me happily ever after in the cabin if the two women never meet?

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