Page 28 of Sweet Harmony

She traced herfingers over the worn wood of the swing. “Are you hurt?”

“By yourbrother?” He had no idea what she was talking about.

“No, I meanfrom Tank barrelling into you this morning. He can be, um, a bitenthusiastic.”

“I’m not hurt,”he said.

She glanced athim before looking away. “Thank you again for taking the brunt ofhis greeting. That was really nice of you and I appreciate it.”

“It’s what wefake boyfriends do, right? Save our fake girlfriends from beingflattened by horses masquerading as dogs.” He gave her a teasinggrin before mentally berating himself. Was he flirting withher?

“Right,” shesaid.

“Hey, youokay?” She still wasn’t looking at him and he touched her arm. “Youseem upset.”

“I’m not. Just,uh, a long day.” She kept her gaze firmly in her lap.

He shouldn’t beprying into her life, but he couldn’t resist. She seemed sodefeated. “Look at me, Kira.”

She sighed andfaced him. Her face was pale, and her eyes rimmed with red. Shit,had she been crying? Had he upset her? He’d been a dick to her thismorning when he found out she was a virgin.

He cursedinwardly. He wasn’t great at emotional stuff. Lisa had referred tohim as “emotionally distant” when she was trying to be polite, and“cold as ice” when she was pissed with him. He had no doubt thathis refusal to show affection in public, his inability toeffectively share his feelings had all added to her final decisionto walk away from their relationship.

“Listen, what Isaid this morning was stupid of me. It’s your body and yourdecision what you want to do with it,” he said. “I apologize formaking you, uh, feel bad about your choices.”

She shook herhead and he was a bit horrified when it became apparent that shewas close to crying. “No, it has nothing to do with that. I’m fine,really.”

“I might be afake boyfriend but even I know the ‘I’m fine’ line is bullshit,” hesaid.

She pressed herlips together before staring at the daffodils. “I’m pretty sure I’mabout to lose my job.”

“Because youhaven’t made a sale yet?”

She nodded andquickly swiped away the tear that was leaking down her cheek.“Yeah. Ray pulled me into his office this morning and he was, wellhe was super nice about it, but he made it clear that if I don’tsell a house in the next couple of weeks, they’ll have to let mego.”

“Dick move,” hemuttered.

“No,” she saidimmediately. “It isn’t. Ray and Rose are the nicest people around,and I owe them a lot. They gave me a chance and it’s not theirfault that I suck at selling houses.”

“Maybe it’s themarket,” he said. “You can’t tell me that there are a lot of placesselling in Harmony Falls. It’s not that big.”

“Maybe,” shesaid, “but they have another agent working for them, his name isJeremy, and he’s sold like two houses and one commercial propertyin the last month.”

More tears werefalling, and she sniffed loudly before knuckling away the tears.There was awkward silence and feeling useless, he blurted out, “Areyou looking for comfort or a solution?”

Shit. Lisa hadhated it when he said that to her. He really hadn’t learned a damnthing about being a good boyfriend.

Fakeboyfriend.

Instead ofgetting pissed off, a small smile crossed her face as she gave hima considering look.

“Sorry,” hemumbled.

“Why? It’s afair question. I like it, actually. It gets straight to the point,right? Anyway, I’m probably looking for comfort but since we’repractically strangers, I’m not gonna make you do that.”

She sat up alittle straighter and wiped away all the lingering traces of tearsfrom her face. “So, before we get started on learning all there isto know about Dr. Connor MacMillan, I just want to reassure youthat even though we had to start our little dating ruse early, I’llstill go to your cousin’s wedding with you, no matter what.

A little bit ofthe tension he’d been holding all day left his body. “Thank you. Iappreciate that. I’m sorry that we had to announce it early, butDaniel was already halfway up the porch stairs so I…”

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