Page 34 of Fake It for Christmas

Reallyreal. Like, tell-him-everything levels of real.

All the ugly details of my life.

“Thanks, Rowen,” he said in the front doorway of my guest house. “Have a good night.”

Kiss me.

Please kiss me?

“Good night, Shane,” I said.

He waved and headed on down the lit-up path toward the front driveway.

Because fake boyfriends didn’t kiss each other good night. Even if we’d both gotten off together and he’d made me come like I hadn’t in way too long. And even if I was starting to have a very dangerous crush, we weren’t boyfriends. Now he was gone.

I went to lie down on the couch. It still smelled like him, and I grabbed a pillow and hugged it close to my arms, staring off at the Christmas tree.

What in the hell was I even supposed to do with him? He made me feel… good. And it had been too long since I felt like I even deserved that feeling.

This freaking sweeter-than-hell, near-perfect Tennessee boy. A man with a heart of gold, who had somehow crashed into my screwed-up life.

9

SHANE

“I thought tonight was going to be a holiday party,” I protested, my cheeks flushing red the moment Rowen laid eyes on me.

He was sitting in the driver’s seat of his car, outside my house, laughing at me.

Correction: he was tryingnotto laugh at me. It was very obvious from the way he was shoving his fist up against his lips, hiding a massive smile.

“I didn’t say it was a holiday party,” Rowen finally said, dropping his fist to reveal his wide smile. “I said you could come with me to a get-together and it could be apractice runfor when we go to your Christmas party. But I didn’t expect…”

His eyes scanned over my outfit again.

I had gone all out.

I wasn’t just wearing a Christmas sweater.

I was wearing a Christmas sweater underneathlight-upChristmas overalls, complete with little glowing LED multicolored lights that slowly blinked all around in a pattern on top of the fabric. I had a reindeer antler headband nestled in my hair, and I’d even put on my red sneakers to really tie the whole look together.

And now Rowen had shown up to pick me up wearing a simple black long-sleeve and jeans, and I realized the mistake I’d made.

“Let me go inside and change,” I said.

“No,” Rowen protested. “We’re already twenty minutes late. Get in the car. You look so fucking cute, Shane.”

“I can feel myself blushing on every inch of my body.”

His eyebrows lifted. “Even your cock is blushing?”

“Oh, shut up,” I said, but I was smiling as I finally pulled open the passenger side door to his car. “I can’t believe it’s not a holiday party.”

“It’s just some local theater people meeting up at the Hard Spot Saloon,” Rowen said. “I thought it would be good to act like we’re boyfriends and get more used to it before your family’s party.”

“Your theater friends are going to think I’m a Christmas freak.”

“You kind of are,” he said, “but I am, too. They’ll love it.”

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