Page 7 of Redeemed

Sofia covered her face and groaned. “Oh, no, JT. That’s so embarrassing.”

He pulled her hands away and tilted her chin up to meet his gaze. “It’s not embarrassing. You’re not doing anything wrong. Anyway, she came up with an idea that might help us both.”

Sofia looked at him quizzically, silently waiting for him to continue. “She said if I was your boyfriend then your family might leave you alone. Yourpretendboyfriend,” he said in a rush when her mouth dropped open. “If we pretended to be together then your family would have to quit trying to fix you up with and mine would quit worrying about me not dating. Win, win.”

Sofia didn’t speak but continued to stare at him, eyes wide. “I thought it was actually pretty brilliant but if you think it’s dumb then...”

“A pretend boyfriend,” Sofia repeated slowly. “How would that work?”

“Well, I haven’t really thought it all out, yet,” JT admitted. “But I’m thinking we just tell everyone we’re dating and hang out together. I imagine we’d have to be seen out in public together, other than at work events, of course...”

“Would there be PDA involved?” Sofia interrupted.

JT ran a hand across the back of his neck, feeling slightly uncomfortable. “I would imagine so. At least a little. I mean, only what you were comfortable with.”

Sofia’s mind was racing. Could she do this? With the way she felt about JT, could she keep her heart intact if they were just pretending?

JT worried as her silence grew longer. “It was a stupid idea. Never mind. Pretend I didn’t say anything. We’ll figure something else out.”

“No,” Sofia said quickly. “I think it might actually work.” She smiled and held out a hand to shake. “Put her there fake boyfriend.”

A slow smile spread across JT’s face as he reached out and took her hand in his. She had actually agreed. He couldn’t believe it. He grasped her proffered hand tightly and shook, then continued to hold it for several beats longer. “Who should we tell first?”

“Well, we could just kinda show up together at the Fall Y’all Festival this weekend. It would be weird if we made some kind of announcement, wouldn’t it?” Sofia opined.

“You’re right,” he agreed. “If we really were dating, we wouldn’t do that. Okay, I’ll pick you up at eleven on Saturday and we can go together.”

Sofia nodded but then she frowned. “Are we telling Maggie, though?”

JT’s mouth turned down mirroring Sofia’s frown. “I hate to lie to my sister, but part of the whole exercise is to get her to stop worrying about me not dating, so I don’t think we can.” He scratched his chin in thought, the stiff bristles making a rasping sound under his fingernails. Sofia wanted to reach out and feel it, too but held back. It was too soon to be touching him. “Dani is going to know, though, obviously, since it was her idea. She’s not going to like the idea of keeping it from Maggie but I’m going to have to convince her.”

Sofia gathered her courage and reached out a hand to cover the one that rested on his thigh. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out. Dani trusts you. And I'll go along with whatever you come up with.”

His hand turned and he took hers, intertwining their fingers. He searched her face, her almost black eyes, her high cheekbones, those plump pink lips that he suddenly wanted a taste of. He shook himself mentally.Cut it out, dude. Fake boyfriend, remember?He gave her hand a quick squeeze and sat back in his seat placing his hands on the wheel.

"Okay, then," he said. "Operation fake boyfriend will commence at 1100 tomorrow morning." He threw her a signature JT grin.

Sofia let the air that had been held in her lungs at he released her hand. "Great. 11 am tomorrow."

Chapter seven

Fall Y'all

JTpulledupinfront of Sofia's apartment at a quarter to eleven that Saturday. He rubbed his hands on his jeans. He was suddenly nervous. This would be their first public 'date'. He was dismayed at how not fake it felt. He took a deep breath and went to get out of the Jeep to go to her door when he saw her coming down the sidewalk toward him, a big smile on her face. She was in a jewel-toned flannel shirt tied at her waist over a black tank top and black jeans that left nothing to the imagination. Rather than her normal ponytail, her hair was down with two small braids on the sides keeping the silky black strands out of her face. JT swallowed hard then raised a hand in greeting.Quit staring at her like a dumbass, dude.

When she stood before him, he leaned forward and kissed her quickly on the cheek, not sure of the protocol. "Hope that was okay," he whispered near her ear.

Sofia looked down at the ground but smiled.Was she blushing?"Sure," she responded a little breathlessly. "We're a couple, right?"

JT nodded and opened the passenger door for her. The metal gave a loud creak and he cringed. "Sorry about that. I haven't had any passengers lately. I'll get some WD-40 and take care of that."

She waved away his concerns as she rolled down the window. "No worries, bo...uh, JT," she said.This calling him by his name instead of 'boss' was going to be more difficult than I thought. "It's not a big deal."

She settled herself in the passenger seat and pulled her seat belt in place while he rounded the hood to get in the car. When he climbed in, they both just stared at each other a beat. JT cleared his throat. "Okay, here we go," he said, putting the truck into gear. They rode in silence for a couple of long minutes before JT continued, "So, I thought we should talk about the whole PDA thing. I don't want to make you uncomfortable at all, but I want 'us' to be believable."

He gave her a sideways glance. "What do you think?"

Sofia looked at him and away quickly and started to pull at a loose thread on her shirt. "Well, I guess whatever you'd normally do. I mean, it's not like we're going to be making out under a tree or anything, right?"Oh, but wouldn't that be wonderful!

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