Page 7 of Accidentally Under Your Tree

I turned to Rose sitting in the passenger seat. "We aren't going to have to kiss, are we?"

Her face twisted in disgust. "Why?"

Despite the minor blow to my ego, it was a comfort that she and I agreed.

"To prove our relationship." I shrugged.

Her snort vaguely reminded me of Lizzy from the hotel bar, but then…I'd been thinking about Lizzy a lot over the past few hours. The two women couldn't be more different, especially considering the dynamic chemistry I'd had with Lizzy. And although Rose was beautiful with her blue eyes and angular face, she and I had only ever been just friends.

She shook her head. "No, Billiam, you sweet, sweet boy. They're not going to make us kiss to prove our relationship. My family does not want to see that. Why would we have to prove anything?"

I raised one eyebrow in her direction.

She smiled at me in aaren't you adorablesort of way—that was usually endearing, but I currently hated. "If you're going to look guilty, then they will know something is up."

Drumming my fingers on the steering wheel, I walked backward in my memory, wondering how I got from point A to point HERE.

"Just be your normal self and your charm'll dazzle them." She sounded less confident with every word, a fault in the facade.

"It, you know, made so much sense when we decided to do this—"

"Yeah," she agreed, showing a bit more of the nerves we obviously shared.

"—but now…"

"We're going to convince my family that we're in a relationship."

I pinched my lips between my teeth and nodded.

She swallowed. "But I don't think it'll matter as much as it feels like it does right now."

The queasy twist in my gut didn't believe her.

"It's not like they'll be heartbroken when we tell them we broke up. Especially since we're still going to be friends afterward and all of that."

"Yup."

"It's almost like if you and I were in an actual relationship, but we weren't in a very physical phase. We're in the like comfortable-silence-pal-ing around part. Right?"

She was convincing herself as much as she was convincing me, but it was working. The tightness in my chest loosened slightly.

"That's a good point."

"And technically," she continued, her voice brightening as she spoke, "we are exclusive for the next couple of weeks. You're not gonna go on a date, and neither am I, and everything's cool, you know?"

When she put it that way, I kinda wanted to come clean about the way I'd spent my time last night, but our agreement didn't start until she picked me up from the hotel. So, I wasn't technically in thewrong.

"That's a very good point." The unease in my stomach relaxed. "It's not like your parents are gonna fall head over heels for me in a week."

"According to the network, they fit your target audience."

My face split with a grin. "The network."

The one that had rejected turning our YouTube channel into a show for their streaming service. But even the rejection had been a little thrilling.

"It has such a ring to it." She smiled back, her eyes sparkling.

When Elise, our agent, approached us to sellWill it Bloom Renovationsto a streaming service, we'd almost dismissed the possibility. Then decided to go for it. Why not, right?

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