Page 16 of Accidental Proposal

“Actually, yeah,” I said. He turned his head and looked at me, surprised. I was surprised myself that I’d enjoyed it a little bit.

“See, told you it would be fun,” Lennon said, grinning widely as she leaned back in the seat. I rolled my eyes inwardly but turned to her.

“Thank you for taking me shopping, Lennon. It was nice doing something somewhat normal.”

“No problem. I don’t mind.”

On the ride home, all three of us talked about random topics before we pulled up the driveway. Garrett helped Lennon, and I grabbed my bags from the back before heading inside.

“God, woman, what did you get? Do you have the entire mall in these?” Garrett asked, his arms full of bags.

“Oh shut up,” Lennon replied. As soon as I got the door open, we all trudged in before dropping the bags in the living room.

“Thank you, Garrett. You can go home. I don’t plan on leaving again.” I sent him a smile. He nodded and said goodbye to both of us before leaving.

“Thanks again, Lennon,” another voice said from behind me.

“Hey, Lennon,” Liam said.

“Hey.” She went over to him and hugged him. I stared at them with wide eyes. I hadn’t heard nor seen Liam so informal since I’d first met him. He always spoke formally, and I didn’t think I had ever seen him smile like that before. His face was relaxed. “What are you doing here? I thought you were at work all day.”

“I had a few things to talk about with Jenna,” he said, looking over at me. Just a glance in my direction and his facial expression seemed to change. It seemed just the thought of me made him go sour. I looked down at the ground, hating the way he looked at me.

“I’d better get going then. See you later, Liam.” I looked up just in time to see her kiss him on the cheek and give him a hug. A flash of jealousy ran through me at the sight of them. For some unknown reason, I wanted to know what it was like to be hugged by Liam. His strong arms wrapped around me would probably make me feel safe. “Bye, Jenna. Thanks for all the fun today. I’ll text you later.” She came over and surprised me by giving me a hug before leaving. I stood there, shocked. It’d been so long since I’d been really hugged that it was weird. There had only been three people I had hugged in the last few years, and they were Sophia, Candy, and Tom from work. They didn’t really count, though.

“Jenna.” Liam jerked me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“Are you ready to go?” he asked. I stared at him, confused.

“What?”

“Did you not hear what I said?” He rolled his eyes at me. “I said we need to leave and pick out a ring.”

“I thought we were doing that tomorrow?”

“We were, but not anymore. Instead of meeting my parents on Saturday, we are meeting them tomorrow.”

Hot man say what?

Chapter Eight

I stared at Liam, frozen. In less than twenty-four hours, I would be meeting his family for the first time and pretending I was deeply in love with him. I didn’t think I could do this. No, I couldn’t do this. As I stood there almost hyperventilating, a voice in the back of my mind started talking.

Jenna, it doesn’t matter if you can’t do this. You are going to have to. You got yourself into this mess, and you’re going to have to get out of it yourself. This is not about you anymore. You are going to suck it up, stop whining, realize this is happening, and deal with it. From now on you are going to have to fake that you’re in love and happy with Liam. Stop acting like a little girl.

I realized that the voice was right. My time of whining and thinking about how stupid I was to take the deal was over. It had happened, and I was going to have to deal with it. Time to start acting mature and not like some high school teenaged girl. I could do this.

“Yes, I’m ready,” I said, swallowing and tilting my head up. With a nod to Liam that I had everything I needed, I walked past him toward the garage. It took a minute before I heard his footsteps following me. Walking out to the garage, I stood off to the side waiting for him to grab the keys.

Without saying anything, he grabbed a random set hanging by the door before walking over to the Audithat hadn’t been here the last time I was in the garage. I stood there gawking at it while Liam was already inside the driver’s seat, obviously waiting impatiently for me. I quickly walked to the passenger’s side and slid into the dark grey leather seat. The inside of the car was just as sleek as the outside.

Dark grey leather graced the seats, and the dashboard was black and smooth. There was a touch screen stereo system that could also hook to a phone. Clicking my seatbelt on, I ran my fingertips across the dash. This car probably cost more than my life and everything I own, doubled. I’d always loved cars, and even in high school I took an auto class all four years. It was by far my favorite class. Learning what made a car tick fascinated me for some reason. To me it was easier figuring out what was wrong with the car and fixing it, rather than communicating with people. Cars were simple. People were not.

Liam backed out of the garage, and soon we were flying down the driveway onto the road. Surprised at first at the speed we were going, I gripped the door handle, but after a minute, I let go and relaxed into the comfortable seat. Going fast didn’t bother me. It made me feel free, like nothing could touch me.

As we came closer into town, Liam slowed the car and weaved around others. I watched as we passed by tall buildings and cute little shops lining the street. People dressed in suits and pant suits walked briskly past one another, either heading home or back to work. I noticed a few tourists as they walked slowly on the sidewalk, pointing at things.

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