Page 33 of Sweet Harmony

She nodded, andhe ignored the tingle of pleasure he felt from the softness of herpalm. God, his lust for her was bad. He studied her with littlesideway glances as they walked. She had to still be upset aboutpotentially losing her job, but she was doing a remarkably good jobof hiding it.

“Are you sureyou want to do this tonight?” he asked. “We don’t have to. I knowyou’re worried about your job.”

“No, it’sfine.” Her smile looked a little fake around the edges. “It’s goodto take my mind off of it, right?”

He didn’t replyand she widened her fake smile. “We need to do this tonight. If Ican’t answer even simple questions about you, the fake relationshipcrumbles before it even gets started.”

“Yeah, okay.”He skirted around an exposed root in the path. “My birthday is Junethirteenth. I’m an only child, my middle name is Robert, after mydad. My parents’ names are Gina and Rob. They own a mom and popstore in Willington. Both were born and raised in Willington, andthey were high school sweethearts. My dad proposed to my mom thenight they graduated from high school.”

“That’s veryromantic,” she said.

“I had a normaland happy childhood. I played baseball from a young age, just likeevery other kid in Willington.”

She laughed.“Same as Harmony Falls. What position did you play?”

“Shortstop.”

“Were yougood?”

“Average.”

He glanced ather and the way she was looking at him, like she knew he was lying,made him nervous. Hell, she probably did know he was lying. Herbrother was a cop, after all.

He waited forher to call him on his lie, but instead, she said, “When did youmeet Lisa?”

“I first mether when we were kids. We were in the same grade and went to thesame school all through elementary. We started dating the firstyear of high school. She was, uh, big into cheerleading and afterwe graduated, she started up her own cheerleading coachingbusiness.”

“Wow, that’simpressive,” Kira said.

“She always hada lot of drive. I was a little late in deciding what I wanted to dowith my life, so I worked at my parents’ store after graduating,and then applied for dental school. I earned my bachelor’s inbiology while I went to dental school.”

It wasn’t acompletelie. He had worked at his parents’ store once hefucked up and destroyed his dream forever.

“Holy crap,”Kira said. “You can do both at the same time?”

“Yeah. It’smore work, but I wanted to fast track my career.”

She gave him anadmiring look. “Good for you. Why did you decide to open a clinicin Harmony Falls?”

“I met GrantHenderson at a dental convention.”

She giggled.“They seriously have dental conventions?”

“Yes.”

“Do they handout free toothpaste and floss?”

He laughed.“Maybe.”

She grinned athim and he studied the way the early evening sun got caught in herblonde locks, the way it gave her pale skin a soft warm glow. Hisgaze dropped to her mouth. He wanted to kiss her.

Instead, hesaid, “Grant and I got along really well, right from thestart.”

“Even though heknew you were a Willington guy?” she teased.

He laughedagain. “Even though I knew he was a Harmony Falls guy. Anyway, wekept in touch through email and social media and at the nextconvention, we had dinner and drinks one night. Grant told me hewas leaving the Harmony Falls Dental Centre and opening his ownclinic and he wanted me to partner with him.”

“Wow, you musthave made quite the impression on him,” Kira said. “You couldn’thave been a dentist for very long at that point.”

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