Page 49 of Fake It for Christmas

He looked better than I’d ever seen. Better than I’d ever seenanyonelook, to be honest.

“Do you like the green? I didn’t know if it was right,” he asked, looking down.

He was in a forest green colored suit with a cream-colored shirt underneath. His tie was covered in a pattern of holly branches with little red berries throughout.

“It’s fucking perfect,” I said. “You look like you belong in a catalog. Goddamn, you can rock a suit.”

He leaned in and gave me a hug.

“How are you feeling, Shane?”

I sucked in a deep breath. “For so long, it had seemed like the Christmas party was something in the far-off distance, but now it’s here. It snuck up on me.”

“Me too,” he said.

A clattering sound came from behind me, emanating from my kitchen.

“Frankie, that isnothow you do it!” my aunt Jeanine’s voice called out.

Rowen grinned in the doorway.

“You ready to meet my extended,extendedfamily tonight?”

“I was born ready, babe,” Rowen said. “Fake boyfriend extraordinaire.”

My heart panged in my chest. I’d been trying not to think about how much Rowen had affected me during the Fixer Brothers interview, but in the back of my mind it had been there ever since.

I knew it hadn’t been real when he’d talked about falling in love with me, but it had stuck with me.

“Is he here, Shane?” Frankie called out from the kitchen.

“Yes! Just a sec,” I called back, then turned to Rowen. “They’ve been excited about meeting you, if you can’t tell.”

“I’m a little nervous,” he said.

I lifted my eyebrows. “You?Nervous?”

“What?”

“I’m the one who gets nervous, not you.”

He bit his lower lip. “Maybe I get nervous more than you realize, but I’m just good at hiding it.”

“Nervous to meet my family,” I said. “Maybe you should be. They’re totally crazy.”

“I like crazy,” he said. “I’m also nervous to see you, a little.”

“Now I know you’re fucking with me.”

“I’ve missed you, this past week,” Rowen said. “I thought about coming to the inn about a hundred times, but I didn’t want to bother you at work.”

Something shifted in my chest.

Thatfelt real. What he was saying to me right now, nowhere near my family where he’d have to be faking it.

“I’ve missed you, too,” I said truthfully.

His eyes scanned over me, like he was considering saying something.

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