Page 90 of The Fiance Dilemma

SAM: You have three cats.

NICK: Exactly.

“Five more minutes?”

I turned my head to look at the man occupying the driver’s seat of my truck. “Five more minutes.”

Matthew smiled. “Yeah, I was thinking the same. Or maybe I need ten this time. I’ll think about it. I’m sure you don’t mind staying here a little longer, do you?”

I didn’t. And he didn’t need to think of anything. It was me who needed those five, maybe ten, minutes. Not him. But he was an incredibly sweet man, so he’d pretend otherwise if I let him.

We’d been parked here for a while now. Long enough for me to wonder if I’d ever work up the courage to open the door, exit the vehicle, cross the driveway, and knock on Adalyn and Cameron’s door.

“What are you thinking?” I asked Matthew, dragging my gaze out the window.

“Karaoke.”

“Karaoke?”

“Yeah,” he said with a nod. “I was thinking whether you have a song. Cute girls always, always, have a karaoke song. I was wondering about yours.”

Ugh. I couldn’t with this man.

I couldn’t deal with how full he made my chest with the silliest, most simple, things. “What songs were you considering?”

“I was still narrowing it down to genres and decades.”

I pursed my lips just so I wouldn’t smile like an idiot. “It sounds like a very efficient thought process. Do you want to share what genres and decades you think suit my karaoke choices?”

Matthew turned in his seat. The crewneck sweatshirt he was wearing stretched over his chest with the motion, momentarily dragging my eyes down. He looked great in green. It matched the specks in his eyes. “Country. Eighties.”

I wrinkled my nose. “You got one right.”

He made a thinking face. “It has to be the eighties, then.”

“I do love a nice country tune but… yes. Karaoke and eighties go hand in hand for me.” I smiled. “How did you know?”

“Because.”

“That’s not a reason.”

His throat worked. And he looked at me in a way that told me his answer wouldn’t be as trivial as our conversation. “Because it’s my choice too.”

I immediately lit up inside. As if he’d switched on a bulb with a simple click. I didn’t need to ask what he meant. It simply made sense. That was the thing with us. It had always been. “You’re a ‘Careless Whisper’ kind of guy,” I told him. “You have to be. I bet you’re a good singer, too. I bet you even put on a show.”

The grin that tugged at his mouth was incredibly big. “Respectfully, but you give me a mic and I will make that stage my bitch.”

That bright, overwhelming feeling expanded, pulling at my own lips. His words made it impossible not to forget everything for a few moments and imagine Matthew on a stage. Lit by a single spotlight, mic in hand, belting out those high notes with a naturalness he probably had no business having. It really wasn’t right to be this handsome, funny, have those arms,andbe able to sing. Or maybe,just maybe, it wasn’t right how much I loved all those things about him.

My face started to fall. And just as quickly as it all had left—momentarily stretched out of my grasp by his smile, and the image of him—it came right back with a snap.

“I’m a little scared,” I whispered. “To get out of the car.”

Matthew nodded his head even though it was obvious that he already knew that. “Want to tell me why?”

I huffed out a bitter laugh. “The lies,” I said.

He considered my answer, and I was aware that after what had happened back at Lazy Elk the other morning, after what he’d confessed and asked of me, after what was left unsaid, it was an unfair thing to say.The lies.It made it all sound fake. Like he didn’t make my heart flutter with just a touch or a look. Like him distracting me with a silly conversation about karaoke wasn’t worth anything. Like him in this car, making up excuses so I could work up some courage, didn’t mean the world. It did. It all did. More than I could say. But it didn’t change the fact I felt like a fraud going into Adalyn and Cameron’s place.

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