Page 84 of Four Steps to the Perfect Fake Date

“You okay?”

She met his gaze in the mirror. “You keep asking me that.”

“And you keep dodging the question,” he said, pressing a kiss to her shoulder. His hands slid down to her waist, and he sighed as she leaned her back against his chest. They fit together so perfectly. It didn’t matter that this date had started as a silly agreement. Calvin was all in. This was the woman he wanted. She was everything he dreamed of and so much more than he deserved.

After tonight, he’d ask her to move in with him. His house was lonely, and he was ready to lay new, happy memories over the old. He’d clear out the spare room of his mother’s junk and make it into an office for Daphne. She could start a business. People always needed accountants, and she was good enough at her job that she’d always find work.

A future unfurled before him, one without loneliness or neglect. One where the woman he’d chosen decided to choose him back. As he inhaled the scent of her perfume and ran his fingers over her stomach and ribs, watching the way Daphne’s eyes fluttered shut in the mirror, Calvin dreamed of wedding bells and babies. Milestones that even acouple of months ago had seemed both wildly improbable and entirely mundane. Other people’s dreams and realities—never his.

But she was here, and she’d come to him when he’d waited, and he knew in his heart that they belonged together.

“You look beautiful,” he said, because she did. She’d looked as perfect with black eyes and messy hair as she did in her buttoned-up accountant’s uniform and her racy lingerie. She was beautiful when she wore a ridiculous dress, when she wore jeans and a T-shirt, when she wore nothing at all.

But Daphne opened her eyes and gave him a flat look. “I look like an eight-year-old girl’s bed skirt,” she said.

He huffed and pressed another kiss to her shoulder, then turned her around and nudged her chin up so he could kiss her lips.

The woman made a fool out of him, and he couldn’t help begging her for more. She always had, and he suspected she always would. She was the most beautiful thing that had ever happened to him, and all he wanted to do was make sure she stayed his forever. He pulled away from the kiss and looked into her sky blue eyes, wondering how it was possible to love someone this much. The emotion felt too big for his chest, like if he inhaled too deeply, his ribs would crack from the pressure.

“Maybe we should skip the vow renewal,” he said, hands sliding down to her ass. He could lay her down on the bed and show her what she meant to him, even if he couldn’t yet put it into words.

Daphne surprised him by stiffening and pulling away. “Don’t be silly,” she chided. “This was the deal. I intend to hold up my end of the bargain.”

He blinked, surprised. Sourness coated the back of his throat as he tried to think of something to respond with. She was still talking about their deal? For the first time since they’d spent the night together, Calvin wondered if he’d completely misread the situation. Was it possible she didn’t feel the same way he did?

This wave of feeling that threatened to drag him under suddenly seemed dangerous. How could he open up to her when she could easilydecide to turn around and walk away? She could leave him, just like everyone else. Except it would be worse, because she’d made him believe in a life he’d never thought would be his.

He forced some cheer into his voice as he said, “I’ll let it slide, I promise.”

If they stayed home from the vow renewal, it would mean this thing between them was real. It would give him the chance to tell her all he felt for her without risking his own sanity—his own heart.

Daphne threw him a little side smile and fluffed her skirts. “Can’t let an outfit like this go to waste. Come on. We’re going to be late.”

She marched out of the bedroom and down the hallway, no sign of a limp in her confident gait. Calvin watched her disappear, and his world tilted. What if this had just been sex to her? What if he’d been completely delusional to think that a woman like Daphne would actually choosehim?

He followed her more slowly, looping his tie as he tried to shake the bitterness from his thoughts.

Their exchange of favors would be over after tonight, but that didn’t mean Daphne would leave. All it meant was that from tomorrow onward, he’d have to be honest about what she meant to him. Just a few hours, and this charade would be finished. He’d know whether or not Daphne felt the same way he did.

When the doorbell rang, they both headed toward it. Daphne opened the door and paused while Calvin came to a stop behind her.

Mabel grinned wide, cheeks carved with deep wrinkles as her blue eyes sparkled with mischief. “Big night,” she said.

Daphne glanced over her shoulder to meet Calvin’s gaze. “Yeah,” she said to her grandmother while staring at him.

Suddenly, Calvin felt the same current of tension he’d felt in Helen Davis’s living room. There was something here he didn’t understand. Doubts echoed in his mind, even louder than they’d been a moment before.

His mother had left him to fend for himself while she jumped from man to man. Virtually every responsible adult had written him off and tossed him aside. Why would Daphne be any different?

She was a magnetic, intelligent, beautiful woman. She was meant for bigger things, and no matter what insecurities she might have shared, she knew that Fernley wasn’t the end for her. That’s why she’d wanted an exit plan with their bargain. Hell, it’s why she’d been so mad about those scholarships back in high school.

Why would she settle for Calvin? He was just the screwup who’d pulled himself together against all odds. He wasn’t the type of guy that women chose in the end. He’d learned that lesson young.

History had taught him that the only person he could rely on was himself. Over the weeks, he’d lost sight of that. He’d let himself get caught up in a woman who could easily decide to walk away, just like everyone else.

What if he’d been wrong about Daphne all along?

Chapter 33

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