Page 73 of Love Among Vines

Rett stood at the kitchen island. The wild, bra-less dancing was not helping the pants situation.

“I’m so happy you’re here!” Cindy said breathlessly, pulling Jade in for a hug. She lowered the volume on the music.

“Excellent dancing.” Tom offered a fist bump.

Jade happily accepted. “It smells amazing in here. Oh, here.” She retrieved the flowers from Rett and presented them to Cindy.

“These are gorgeous. Thank you so much. I hope you like lasagna.” Cindy carefully set the flowers so they were exactly in the middle of the spotless island.

“Ilovelasagna,” Jade said.

“Speaking of love, we have to talk to you guys about something,” Rett said.

Tom dropped the spatula he was holding. It clattered to the floor. “You’re getting mazzed! Of course I’ll be your best man!”

He rushed Jade for a hug.

“Mazzed?” she mouthed to Rett over Tom’s shoulder.

“We’re not getting married,” Rett clarified.

“Oh.” Tom took a step back, clearly disappointed.

“Kind of the opposite, in fact.”

“So you’re breaking up?” Cindy looked at them with concern.

“No,” Rett said. “This is all fake.” He gestured between the two of them.

Cindy’s face changed from concerned to interested. She walked over to a bottle of wine and plunged a corkscrew into it.

“Right. Rett helped me out by pretending to be my date for my ex-boyfriend’s wedding last weekend. And I’m helping him by pretending to be his date for the anniversary party next weekend.”

“We wanted to be transparent. I know I can trust you to keep it under wraps around my parents. You know how they can be.”

Cindy nodded and poured wine into two glasses. She handed one to Jade. “So all of this is fake. There are no feelings involved.”

“Correct,” Rett said.

Cindy looked between the two of them with her eyes narrowed. She and Tom exchanged a glance. “Well. That’s disappointing.”

Rett clapped his hands. “Now that that’s out of the way, we’re leaving. I’ll bring Tom back and pick you up.”

Jade shook her head. “You don’t have to. I’m sure Penny and I can walk.”

“In those shoes?” He stared pointedly at her feet, which seemed to be encased in some kind of torture device.

“Fair enough. Thank you.” She leaned in for a hug, and the smell of her perfume gave him half a mind to drag her back out to the truck.

With one hand on her waist, he tipped her chin up to kiss her. An action that felt almost automatic. Her cheeks flushed.

“For practice,” he announced to the room. “I’ll see you later.”

Cindy’s eyes narrowed again. “Apron,” she called to Tom, who had disappeared down the hallway.

“Crikey. I nearly forgot.” He reappeared and ditched his apron in a closet. “Bye, love,” he said to Cindy.

Rett waved, and they left. It was a relief to have Tom and Cindy in on the secret.

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