Page 6 of The Guy Who Fake Dated Me

Okay, fine, that had mostly been Victoria. I could still hear her yelling “Get off our boat!” as she systematically beat one guy back into the bay.

The whole thing brought a smile to my face, which my friend spotted.

“You’ve got it bad.”

“Shut up.” I shoved another bite of pasta into my mouth and chewed.

Victoria had come up for Shane’s proposal to Rachel the week before. We’d hung out, gone to the dance together, worked on our fox trot, and had even ended the visit with me giving her a kiss on the cheek. Which had made her giggle and had turned my knees to jelly.

What I hadn’t done was tell her that I had actual feelings for her.

The whole point of hanging out had been to flirt, have fun, and then move on. That had been our agreement.

Only I hadn’t moved on like I thought I would.

Victoria had wiggled her way into my heart, and when she’d left, she’d taken a piece of it with her.

Plenty of other women had been around to flirt with me. I’d even gone out with a few of them, but there hadn’t been any second dates.

Because none of the women were Victoria.

“You’re pouting,” Shane said.

“Shut up,” I growled. Shane had figured out I was interested in Victoria before I had, and each time I tried to deny it, he’d present evidence to the contrary.

“What’s your plan?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“You could go visit her,” Shane said.

“There’s too much going on.” I wanted to see her again and had almost dropped everything and run to the ferry twice in the past week. She wouldn’t be in Big Bear until the wedding, twelve weeks and two days away?but who was counting? Between now and then, I had back-to-back events at the Magnificent Moose, not to mention the new menu for the diner and my parent’s 40thanniversary party.

“These guys can handle it.” Shane jerked his head at the bartender.

Normally, I’d say they could, but not with so many special occasions coming up.

Shane shifted on his stool. “Rachel keeps asking me what you and Victoria are up to.”

I blinked. “She and Victoria don’t talk about it?”

“They might, but she wants your side of the story.”

“My official position on the matter is that I have no official position on the matter.” I tried a lopsided grin.

“Yeah, right.” Shane took a sip of soda. “You keep telling yourself that.”

“I plan to.”

“Hey, Boss.” Vincent approached from behind. “We’ve got a couple of big reservations tonight, and I don’t think we’re going to have enough crab legs.”

I let out a huff. “I thought we ordered extra.”

“We did, but we used more than we thought we would yesterday.”

My mind began to churn on the problem, and I stood. “Sorry, Shane, I’ve got to take care of this.”

Shane waved a hand. “You do what you’ve got to do.”

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