Page 52 of The Fiance Dilemma

My whole body flushed. Properly this time. “Sure,” I breathed out. “I mean, who hasn’t?” I hadn’t, but he didn’t need to know that. “I have plenty of experience under my belt. And I’ve had very physical relationships, you know?”

Matthew’s expression hardened and there was a moment there.Something that passed between us. Some glint in the brown of his eyes that I couldn’t quite understand. Was he wondering about that? Was he thinking of the nudes I never sent? Was his mind going through my exes, wondering who I was talking about? It had been Ricky.

“I’m sure you have,” he finally said.

I cleared my throat, glancing down at the phone. “You only save your banker under their full name. Or your accountant. I can’t be Josephine Moore.” There was an underlying disappointment that I ignored too. “I had you as Adalyn’s former BFF, because I became her new best friend when she met me. Then changed it to… something else.”

If Matthew was interested in knowing that, he didn’t say. I was glad, because I didn’t think he’d like that he wasMattsie-Booon my phone. I also wanted to put off him seeing the picture that would light up my screen if he called me.

It was the brush of his fingers against mine that made me notice that he was taking his phone from my grasp. One-handed, he tapped at it. Then returned it to me.

My contact was open on the screen.

He’d changed it to Baby Blue.

With a butterfly emoji.

And I… Ah shit. This was too much. Because I shouldn’t feel the way I did over it, but I did, and I absolutely loved it. “Because of my blue eyes?” I asked, making every emotion inside me obvious in my voice.

“I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.”

“What do you mean?”

His voice grew closer, as if he was leaning forward. “It’s what I called you. In my head. That night.”

All that happy bubbling dwindled. “When you thought I was some strange woman in a robe covered in jam?”

A gulp of air left the man by my side. “Hey. Look at me, please.”

I didn’t want to, but I’d also been putting this man through the wringer since that night, so the least I could do was turn if he asked. “Yes?”

Brown eyes bore into mine through the lenses of that pair of glasses I was growing so obsessed with. And then he said, serious, concerned, “Why are you disappointed? That I couldn’t tell it was you right away?”

My heart halted for a second. I had not expected that. Not the direct question or him noticing what I had felt that night. “The answer to that makes me somewhat of a monster,” I whispered. “You won’t like it.”

“Try me.”

“It made me a little sad,” I let out with a sigh. “You, not being able to tell it was me right away. But also realizing that you were helping a stranger. I love that you’re kind and good and just… a great man.” My voice almost left me then. “But a part of me wished you’d be helping me, Josie, not just anyone. That’s it.”

Matthew was taken aback by my answer for a long moment. So long I was sure I’d just ruined things I wasn’t supposed to ruin. But then he moved. Body turning in his chair, he scooted forward, close, closer, until his legs sandwiched mine. His eyes did that thing, bouncing around my face until setting camp on mine. When he spoke, his voice was low, and his words sounded like a confession. Just like mine. “Maybe I would help any stranger. But it’s you I’m going this far for. It’s you. Josie.”

The tension that had just taken shape thickened, filling the space around us.

It’s you.

Josie.

My mind was stuck. My chest filling with… things. Stuff that had nothing to do with beingrelievedorgladto have him by myside. Stuff that shouldn’t be there. Not this fast and certainly not when we were the main characters in a PR hoax I’d asked him to be a part of. “It doesn’t matter, anyway,” I lied. “It’s not important now.” More lies. “It wasn’t like I was dying to meet you or anything.”

“It’d be so easy to prove you wrong.”

His answer surprised me. It also excited me. Irked me. Defied me. I made no sense. We didn’t. “There’s nothing to prove wrong.”

“You thought about me,” Matthew pressed. Determined. His gaze dipped down, I didn’t know where—mouth, chin, neck, a stain on my blouse, I had no idea. But when it returned, there was a challenge in the glint of his eyes. “Before I got here, to Green Oak. You’d given me shit in the group chat, or whenever you were around when I called Adalyn, but you liked me.”

I snorted, but Matthew’s body moved. His legs pushed forward, my knees almost coming in contact with his crotch, and his hands braced on both sides of my seat, caging me. My cheeks flamed, rivers of awareness flowing down my body. “I like everyone,” I whispered. “Ask anyone in town.”

The corner of his mouth tipped up in a smile that should have sent me running for the hills. “Yet I’m the one sitting here.”

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