Page 15 of The Replacement Fiance

"Talk about timing, right?"

"It is practice," he says, smiling. "I just don't want you acting surprised when it happens in front of everyone."

I take a step closer, suddenly feeling bolder. "Why don't we try it again? You know, just to be sure we don't get anything wrong."

"Next time, Mariah," Logan murmurs as his head dips lower, his fingers soft against my cheek, "let the phone ring."

Who knew it's been so long since I've been kissed? A proper kiss, that is, one that makes me weak in the knees while the butterflies in my belly are going crazy. Logan's kiss is soft and warm, gentle and playful. He nips my upper lip first and then my lower lip before finally kissing me. It's a slow and tortuously delicious kiss, one that has me standing on my tiptoes so I can have more.

My lips part to taste his tongue slipping between my teeth. I taste peppermint and coffee. I smell leather and motor oil and masculinity all wrapped into one package, enveloping all my senses.

Logan pulls me closer, lips against lips, tongue against tongue, our bodies pressed together. My arms go around his neck, holding on for my knees are about to buckle. How can a simple practice kiss render me suddenly helpless?

But this isn't a simple kiss. This isn't even practice. This is real.

I pull away, surprised at my thoughts and the way my body is responding to him. It's buzzing with electricity, as if I'd just touched a live connection and my hair is standing on end—in a good way. But there's something else, something that goes even deeper. Why do I feel like the floodgates to emotions I've never acknowledged have finally been flung open, the sight of Logan's intense blue eyes reminding me that at the end of this charade, I'll be alone again?

"Maybe we should go back inside," I stammer. "I think that's enough practice for now."

"Yeah, maybe we should." His voice is almost hoarse when he speaks, the lines on his forehead more prominent now as he gazes at me. It's as if he's just as surprised as I am, although why I have no idea.

Logan is only doing me a favor, after all. He's only pretending to be someone he's not. And after this is all over, we'll go back to the way things were... as friends.

6

Logan

Whoa.I didn't expect that.

Hell, I didn't expect anything. But what happened just now is rocking me to the core. I've always found Mariah to be beautiful inside and out, but I've always reminded myself to see her as a friend, the way one observes someone they know is out of their league and so their only choice is to watch them from afar. In my case, from the other side of the counter. Hers and mine.

Mariah comes from a different world than I do. And coming here to meet her family proves that. Hers is full of love and laughter while mine never was great to start with if not for Liam and I being each others' shadows, especially after Mom died.

I just don't understand why Mariah, who seems to have all the support of her family whether she's engaged or not, is going through this whole charade of being engaged. And she's not doing it for them. She's doing it for the guy next door who broke her heart by cheating on her with her best friend, and by me agreeing to do this with her, we're dragging her whole family along for the show.

Are Elliot Whats-His-Name and his wife worth it?

But if they hadn't hurt her by doing what they did, I wouldn't be here. Same goes for that snowstorm that left this Cooper guy stranded in New York. If he had made it, I wouldn't be the one to have kissed her right now only to have that kiss feel like I'd been hit by a Mack truck. If I had thought pretending to be Mariah's fiancé would be a piece of cake, I was wrong. So wrong. Now I feel excited and vulnerable, both at the same time, and there's nothing I can do about it.

We make our way back to the house. This time, she grabs my hand and holds it all the way to the front door. Elliot and the woman are gone but it doesn't matter. The charade is back on and if there's one thing that I want besides making sure I do everything right, it's more of what just happened between us... only this time I want it to be real.

But it was also my idea to sign up for this, all because I figured it was something different, something that would take my mind off another Christmas without Mom. Instead, everything about Mariah's family has brought back memories of Mom and her kitschy decorations that Liam and I used to hate growing up but treasure every single one since she got sick. I remember how her mere presence lit up any room, like the way Mariah's smile does, too. But whether Mariah's family has only made my mother's absence even more acute two years later, it doesn't change the fact that I volunteered to help Mariah out and I have to make sure to finish what I started.

Inside the house, I meet Mariah's older brother Forrest who looks every bit like a mountain man with his dark beard and red plaid shirt over thermals. Mariah told me he's only 32 but the beard makes him look much older. He came in with a woman named Summer who happens to be renting one of the cabins. She'd arrived that morning but after finding out that she was on her own—and had no idea how to work a wood stove—Forrest invited her to join the family for dinner.

While we make our way to our seats at the table, I realize this is showtime. This is when Emily will probably interrogate Mariah and me. Suddenly I can barely keep myself calm, my mind going a mile a minute. What did we agree on during the drive here? Where was our first date? I'd been so casual then, whipping out the answers like candy, thinking this whole thing was nothing but fun and games.

Only it's not funny anymore. And it stopped being a game the moment we kissed.

* * *

Dinner begins fifteen minutes later and Mariah and I sit next to each other. Across the table in front of us sit Emily and Brad while Jonathan is seated on a baby seat between them. With Mariah's parents seated at the head of the table, Forrest and Summer are seated next to me while Harper sits next to Mariah. Just as she'd warned me earlier, her youngest sister is already filming everything with her phone on a self-stabilizing selfie stick. Her first order of business is the food as she orders us not to touch any of the dishes yet.

I turn to look at Mariah who's stifling a giggle. "You weren't kidding. She's a pro."

Harper shushes everyone. "Act normal now. No looking at the camera."

"I warned you." Mariah's voice lowers, "Now act normal."

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