Page 119 of Behind the Bars

Ray got his goofy big smile on his face and puffed out his chest. “Jasmine, if you don’t marry this hunk, Iwill.”

I blushed. “Good night, Dad. I’ll see youlater.”

“Have her home by midnight,” heordered.

I laughed. “We might not be home by midnight. Don’t wait up.” I kissed his cheek and hurried over to Elliott’s car. He opened the door for me and kept looking up at the sky. I giggled. “You two are the two most ridiculous men Iknow.”

“Well, Ray looks like the type to kill me, and I don’t want to lose my life before I take youout.”

He hadn’t given me any clues about the date, had just told me all I had to do was show up, and that’s just what I did. We drove for a while, and when he parked the car, I looked around, confused. “Where are we goingexactly?”

“You’ll see,” he replied, hopping out of the car then racing over to the passenger side to open my door. “Oh, and please don’t take this as something more than it is right now, because it’s just a part of the act fortonight.”

“The act?” I asked as he took my hand and helped meout.

“Yeah.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring. “You gotta wear this on your ringfinger.”

I knew he’d said not to read too much into it, but I was a female, and we read into everything—and once we finish reading too far into something, we reread it five moretimes.

“Why am I wearing a weddingring?”

“It’s fake,” he assured me as we started around the corner. “And this is why.” He gestured toward the building, and I couldn’t stoplaughing.

“Seriously?”

“Yes. Today we are fake-engaged and we are going to try thirty-four different vanilla frostings at Cake & PieBakery.”

“Oh my God, dreams do come true!” I exclaimed, jumping up and down. “Wait, I thought you didn’t eatsugar?”

He shrugged. “I’ll do it for you. I’ll try anything withyou.”

“Careful what you say,” I warned. “Because I like food, and you might get a little fat hanging aroundme.”

We walked up to the door and before we entered, he turned to me. “Okay, so we’re planning a wedding for the first weekend in June. The theme is rustic. We’re super excited and can’t wait to tie the knot. I think that’s all you need to know. And,Jasmine?”

“Yes?”

“Act like you loveme.”

Easyenough.

We walked into the bakery, and we tried every single vanilla frosting they had in the place, along with six different chocolate frostings. The time with Elliott seemed effortless. When we laughed, we laughed loud, and when we were quiet, it was peaceful. We ebbed and flowed just like we had askids.

It was so easy to be around him and fully bemyself.

“My favorite was twenty-eight,” I toldhim.

He grimaced and shook his head. “They all taste like a heart attack waiting tohappen.”

I leaned over, took his leftovers of thirteen and fifteen, and licked them up out of the cups. “Or they taste like heaven onearth.”

“I don’t know if I should be turned on or disturbed by you licking frosting from those littlecups.”

I picked up his chocolate number four and licked it dramatically slowly, twirling my tongue around the edges. “Mhmm,” I moaned. “This is my favorite kind ofchocolate.”

Elliott huffed and cocked an eyebrow. “Really?That’syour favorite kind ofchocolate?”

I snickered at his comment. “I’m just saying, one night I tried to taste a different form of chocolate, and the supplier said the store was closed thatnight.”

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