Page 47 of Faking Romance

“This is my brother, Kallen, and his wife, Amber.” He turns to us. “And this is Grayson Porter and Roxy Benedict. Gray’s doing the score for my film.”

“Nice to meet you,” they answer in unison and then look at each other and laugh. It’s clear these two are very much in love.

“Roxy is opening a romance bookstore,” Haven says to Amber.

Amber’s eyes widen. “Really? Where? When does it open?”

I giggle and sit down next to her as Roxy takes the seat on my other side. We begin a discussion, where I have to pretend my social media story is fake. This just keeps getting more and more complicated.

“Hey, I thought you said you were bringing a kitten?” Pierce asks Gray. Gray’s face turns white. I can see the blood drain from it as I watch him talk with Pierce.

“You alright?” Pierce asks.

“Fuck, Licorice,” Gray blurts out and takes off running up the steps without saying another word. Fuck. How could we have forgotten the kitten? I mean, it’s only been five minutes and it’s not hot outside, but still. We are officially the worst pet parents. I stand to go follow him.

Kallen laughs. “Dude, he must really like licorice.”

“It’s a kitten,” I say. “I’m guessing you knew that we were bringing her?” I add as I glance over at Pierce.

“Yeah, he asked about it. Where is she?” Pierce asks.

Sighing, I start up the steps. “She’s in the car.”

Before anyone else can ask, Gray appears on the deck with Licorice swaddled in a blanket. She looks perfectly content and also like she just woke up.

I walk up to meet them. “She looks fine. It was only for a few minutes.”

He runs one hand over his face. “I can’t believe I left her in the car.”

“Well, it’s not hot out and it wasn’t for long,” I try to assure him.

“Thank God I have no kids. I’m the worst parent ever,” he chastises himself.

“It’s OK,” I insist reaching out to run a hand over his jaw, trying to placate him.

“No, it’s not,” he whispers from behind clenched teeth.

Damn, we’re quite the pair today. Maybe my moodiness has rubbed off on him.

I take a deep breath. “It’s new. We both need to do better. We’ll do better. OK?”

I mean that in so many ways, but Gray looks down at the kitten and back at me. “OK,” he finally says and we walk back down to the boathouse.

“There she is,” Pierce says. “Haven loves cats. Not sure if you saw our two at home when you came over.”

“I’d bring them here, but they hate the water,” Haven states as she motions to the lake.

Licorice, on the other hand, is completely unbothered by anything. She’s sprawled on her back in Gray’s arm, her eyes barely open.

“Is it alive?” Kallen teases.

Gray strokes Licorice’s belly and she purrs. “Yep. No thanks to her idiot parents, but she’s fine.”

“One time, we left our two-year-old at my parents’ house in our haste to get our twins home for a nap. He was so quiet, playing in their family room while watching a cartoon and we were so tired because the babies weren’t sleeping. Anyhow, my parents called us five minutes into our drive home. We had to turn around and go back to get him,” Amber admits.

“My parents left me at a funeral once,” Pierce laughs.

We all turn to him.

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