Page 85 of Loving You

“So, you know my thing with Cherry, right?”

“Yep.”

“You know I wanted to avoid her.”

“Yep.”

“Well, turns out Quinn wanted to avoid some guy, too.”

“Who?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me.”

“Still doesn’t matter. Anyway, she told her friends, who I don’t think she should call that, that she was dating me.”

“What? She just made it up when she saw them?”

I shake my head.

“No, she told them last summer.”

“You’ve been dating since last summer.”

“No. Pay attention.”

“I’m trying.”

“She told her … people that she was dating me so that they’d stop trying to set her up with this guy. Fast forward to this summer and those people show up here to get married at the lodge, so Quinn came to me with a plan that both validates her story and helps me keep Cherry away.”

“And that was …”

“To fake date. We are fake dating.”

“I fucking knew it!” He stands so fast his chair flips onto its back. “There was no way she fell for your grumpy ass that fast. Not to mention, you’re always a dick to her.”

Was it that fucking obvious to the entire town?

“Anyway,” I go on, “the fake dating thing has been working out and Quinn even devised a plan to set Cherry up with the guy she’s avoiding.”

“Whoa, whoa, so you?—”

“But the reason I’m here is because we kissed last night.”

His jaw drops.

“And there may have been more than kissing.”

His eyes widen.

“We may have taken clothes off.”

He slaps his forehead.

“And I want to do it again.”

His hands cover his ears.

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