Page 41 of Loving You

“What the hell is that?” Miles points at me.

I glance down at my shirt and then at my jeans and shoes.

What?”

“Your shirt.”

I smile. “You don’t like it?”

“I think it’s overkill.”

"No, it’s not, ” I say and hold my hands out so he can read the entire thing. “We’re going for a vibe that says we fell hard and we fell fast,” I say. “It’s perfect.”

“No. Can you change?”

"I cannot.” I laugh. “It’s fine.”

He groans, running a hand through his hair. “I cannot go to this event with you wearing a shirt that says Dibs on the Mechanic in bold letters.”

“You can and you will. Who cares what people think anyway? This isn’t real. We are just playing a part to avoid breaking hearts. Let’s go.”

“You know,” he says as he follows me out the door, “I’m not really looking forward to this.”

“Yes, I can sense that.”

“The part where we will be the focus of attention, I mean.I’m not used to it. Plus, I think I should tell Luca. It feels weird that Hudson knows and not him.”

I pause.

When I first started posting online, not many people liked, commented, or even followed me. As all of that increased, I was uneasy at first, but then it got easier because I wasn’t doing anything but being myself. As long as I stayed true to that, it didn’t matter to me who was paying attention and who wasn’t.

“First off, if you want to tell Luca, I trust your judgment. Second, outside of the fact that we are going together, nothing has to change. You can still sit with your family like you always do, you can drink beers if that’s what you want. Snack on some appetizers. You can sit in the same spot the entire time and let people come to you. Nothing has to be different other than your company.”

He nods.

“But you do need to act like you like me. That might help.”

I turn to walk away, and he’s hot on my heels.

“I know that,” he scolds as we head toward Main Street and the festival. “That part isn’t a problem.”

“Good, now take a breath. You plan to work all summer, and I plan to do whatever I want. We don’t have to make a ton of appearances if we don’t want to. I mean, we could play this off as we are goal-driven people who like to stay in. Easy.”

“It doesn’t feel like it’s going to be easy.”

“That’s because you’re still obsessing over how it won’t work.”

“It might not, and we?—”

“Quinn!” Brooke shouts and waves me over to where she, Sadie, Hudson, Luca, and Sadie’s brother are sitting under a tent right between Hudson’s bar and B’s Bakery.

“We saved you both a spot,” Sadie says as we sit down.

“Yeah, both of you,” Luca says with a smile.

“Thank you,” I say honestly and face Miles's twin. They’re fraternal, so it’s not like I’m looking at Miles’s duplicate, but Luca also has sharp features, and they both have the same bright blue eyes and dark scuff.

When Miles sits, he leaves enough room between us for another full-grown adult to take, so I casually scoot next to him. “Do you want to go get us something to drink?”

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