Page 80 of The Wrong Date Deal

“Yeah, because I had a bad experience and needed some time.”

“That’s all?”

“Yes?”

“Nothing to do with feeling like you need to put your life on hold to help me with mine?”

August stared at him in surprise. She had no idea he felt like that. She did feel responsible for him, for helping him, but she’d never blamed him, and she’d tried to avoid doing anything that suggested she was putting her life on hold to look after him. “No? Ford, I love you but you’re a grown man. I’m pretty sure you can look after yourself.”

He laughed and relaxed back into the couch. “I know you know that logically, but even you have to admit you’ve been willing to move your whole life around to help me.”

“I don’t know that moving apartments is that big a deal. I’ve done it before, I’ll do it again. People move all the time.”

“Yes, because they want to, not because they’re trying to house their siblings.”

“People do all kinds of things for the ones they love,” she said, slightly surly.

Ford sighed. “I know. And I am unbelievably grateful to you. I just want to make sure that you aren’t putting your thing with Piper on hold because you’re worried about me.”

“How would that even be connected?”

“Well, because I know you well enough to know you’ll have thought through the logistics of whether Hermes would still be willing to house me if things went badly with Piper.”

August huffed. She had thought about that. Damn him. “Fine. That has… occurred to me. But Hermes is going to have you sign an actual rental contract, right? You’ll be protected.”

He laughed and August knew they were both thinking about the fact that his lease hadn’t protected him from a bad environment in his current place. Contracts were great, but they only did so much.

But wasn’t that true in life, too? August couldn’t plan for every little thing. She’d stayed out of the dating game for a long time precisely because she’d seen how much control she had to give up to be in a relationship and she’d seen how that worked out. Piper, however, was making it feel fun and liberating to let go. Maybe she needed to learn to let go of things—like the idea that Hermes would screw Ford over if she and Piper didn’t work out.

August sat up and looked at Ford. “Okay. Fine. I can’t promise that it would protect you entirely, but I can’t promise that it wouldn’t, either. Hermes seems like a decent guy. It wouldn’t be fair for me to judge him on the way he might behave if a theoretical relationship went down the drain.”

Ford raised his eyebrows. “Theoretical relationship? As if this whole thing isn’t absolutely happening before our eyes?”

“We don’t know what’s happening. It’s not like Piper and I have really talked about it.”

“Oh, shehasn’tasked you out on a date?”

“Well…”

“And she wasn’t holding you for most of the night?”

“Um.”

“And you don’t light up every single time she texts or calls you?”

August cleared her throat. “What’s your point?”

He laughed.

“Fine,” August said. “Maybe it’s nottheoreticalbut it’s also not actual, and until it is… it’s not.”

He narrowed his eyes, pausing as he tried to figure out what she’d even said. “What?”

“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“You’re so far gone you’ve stopped making sense.”

August groaned. “It’s a good thing Hermes is letting you move in, otherwise, I’d be kicking you out with nowhere to go.”

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