Page 46 of Accidental Fiancé

“The first time I fell in love it was with a 1973 VW Thing. You know what those are?”

“Some strange-looking old car.”

“Bite your tongue. They are gorgeous. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but still. That convertible had me from the moment I saw her. Falling for her was simple. Love at first sight. I knew I had to have her.” He smoothed his hand over his bare scalp. “Felt the same way about my first girlfriend, too, but she had to go and make it complicated. Eventually, I understood her. Some people like to play hard to get.”

“Maggie’s not like that.”

“I’m not talking about Maggie. Sharon and I dated for two years in college while I was playing ball. Things were great. Until she tried to change me. My point is that people tend to make love complicated when it’s not. But if you insist on making things complicated for yourself, we’ll work it out of you. Time for the stair climber.”

Instead of moving, I laid back. “You’re bringing the stair climber into this because you’re annoyed I won’t go talk to Maggie?”

“Your point?”

“That’s not how training works.”

He snorted a laugh. “You’re gonna tell me how training works now? Should I tell you how the pharmaceutical industry works? Get your ass up, boy. Stair climber or burpees. We’re gonna cook some of that attitude out of you.”

“Stair climber it is.” The grueling march up the fake stairs burned my legs and ass like hell. Even my lungs were smoked in short order. “Feeling cooked.”

“Good. Keep going.”

I smacked the stop button instead. “What is this really about, Dix? Why are you riding me so hard about Maggie?”

“Who else is going to? You’re not going to listen to her for some dumbass reason, and you barely talk to your family. So that leaves me, and it’s my job to kick your ass. Professionally speaking, of course.”

“Yeah, but I…”

“I had you on the treadmill, push-ups, and now this beast. You wanna know why?”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

“Because when your head ain’t in the game, you’re more likely to hurt yourself on the heavy equipment, and Julian, yourhead is so far up your own ass that you can’t possibly have it in the game.”

“Bullshit.”

“You almost sounded like you believed yourself, that it’s better for her this way.”

“It is.”

He clapped my shoulder. “What you meant to say is that it’s better foryouthis way.”

“In what world is this better for me?” I asked a question I already knew the answer to. I was stalling for time until I thought of something to distract him with.

“If this is just a transactional relationship, then once it’s over, you don’t have to feel bad about it later. Didn’t you tell me you planned to hire an actress for your family thing?”

“Yeah. So?”

“Why didn’t you go with that original plan? You know it’d be less messy than this. But when opportunity knocked, you went for it with Maggie. So why not hire the actress?”

“Maggie knows me.”

“Maggieknewyou.”

“Exactly. That’s why it made sense to go with her. We could make it more believable seeing as we had shared history to reminisce about in front of my family.”

He laughed, shaking his head. “Maybe you should have been an actor, man. I could have almost believed that line.”

“Dix.”

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