Page 78 of Counterfeit Boyfriend
Tori tilted her head back and forth and then shrugged. “You can certainly try.”
As much as I wanted to scream at Tori to let him in already—as well as shout at him to get his fine ass in here—I enjoyed that they seemed to be getting along. That’d be important if this was going to work.
For the first time since our crash, optimism that we might be able to fix things thrummed through me, growing with each passing second, even as I warned it to slow its roll.
“Gwen, your dopplebanger’s here!”
Ethan groaned as he pushed inside. “Please never say that again.”
“Yeah, I’m probably gonna keep saying it. Like, a lot.” Tori gave me a questioning glance, checking that I was okay with her leaving me alone in the apartment with Ethan.
Ethan, who was standing across from me, wearing a faded blue T-shirt and jeans and looking sexy as ever. “Hey,” he said, the low timbre of his voice making a lusty mess of my insides.
Be strong, be strong. No crumbling apart just because he’s here.“Hey.” Yeah, my voice totally squeaked. “Thank you for the stuff and the notes.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “I wanted to show you that I know you. And that you know me, while also providing a bit more about me.”
The paper in my hand crinkled as I lifted it. “This last letter doesn’t say anything about you, though.”
He dipped his head, those blue eyes snagging mine and robbing me of oxygen. “What do you want to know?”
Everything.My logical side warned that knowing more would only get me in deeper, but let’s be honest, I was already in deep. Already a complete fool for the guy.
Already ruined for anyone else.
But I did want to know more, to proceed with caution, and so I decided to start with some basics that we’d missed. “What made you want to become a lawyer?”
“Well, I waxed poetic about justice on our trip—all that was one-hundred percent my nerdy love of the law. At first I was leaning toward it because it’d make my dad happy, and sometimes I still worry that I won’t ever live up to him, but I stuck with it for me.”
“Was law school hard? I mean, duh, of course it was hard. How’d you get through it?”
“Wow. Do people still say ‘duh’?”
I cocked my head, giving him a warning glance that clearly didn’t do its job, because the corners of his mouth ticked up. “Law school was ridiculously hard. There were times I worried I wouldn’t make it. I got through with a mixture of Mountain Dew, energy drinks, and enough coffee it’d have you speaking at the speed of light—which is why I don’t care much for coffee anymore, although I’ll drink it when necessary.”
That jittery sensation that usually followed a cup or two of coffee coursed through me, along with one that turned my insides all mushy on me.
“There was some determination thrown in there, too,” he said, “and I graduated at the top of my class. That might sound braggy, and it totally is, but it’s something I’m proud of.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. The graduating at the top of your class part.” I gathered my strength and swallowed. “Have you and your brother ever done the switching places thing with other girls?”
Anguish tightened his features, the lighter vibe sucking right out of the air, but I had to ask the hard questions or I wouldn’t respect myself. “No. We switched for tests or classes here and there. The occasional this or that. Once he pretended to me while asking a girl to prom on my behalf. Since she had a boyfriend who punched me for it, it didn’t go so well.”
A laugh burst out, and then I clamped my lips. “Sorry.”
He shrugged. “That’s all part of being Evan’s brother. Remember when you told me about Madison, and how she could somehow talk you into the craziest things?”
There he went, showing he’d been listening. Proving that he did know me. A knot formed in my throat, so I simply nodded.
“The truth is, I’ve cleaned up my brother’s messes more times than I can count. Sometimes I resented that he got to be the happy-go-lucky one and I had to take on all the responsibility. In every single scheme we’ve pulled off, I always got the short end of the deal.” He took a step toward me, not quite closing the distance, but if I wanted to, I could reach out and touch him, and I was definitely tempted. “Until you. Spending time with you, it changed something in me.”
It’d changed something in me, too, but I was too scared to say it. “Are you and Evan okay?” I hated to bring him up since it was a tricky subject and all, but I also didn’t want to be the cause of a big rift between them. Unlike my mom, I didn’t find the Guinevere effect romantic.
He nodded. “We’re okay. He even helped me out with all of this and wished me luck.”
“Good, good,” I said, searching my brain for what else I needed to know. “And you have a job here? You’re not… leaving to go somewhere else?” I couldn’t give my heart to him if he was, although admittedly it was too late for that. Either way, I needed to find out what I was in for.
“I started my first official lawyer job about a week after we got back. But I haven’t been quite as focused as I’d like to be, thanks to being all messed up over a girl. If you’d like to go ahead and forgive me for being a giant ass, that’d really help me out.” He said the words lightly, but a raw vulnerability underlied them as well.
