Page 40 of Just (Fake) Married
It was weirdly hot.
“What’s going on?” Mac asked, coming up behind me.
“Oh,” Amity said. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“It’s why I asked,” Mac said dryly. Then looked at me. “You need help getting them home?”
“Yes, please.”
We’d taken two cars to get here tonight. Carter wanted to make sure he could leave at any time because of the kids. But he was still here. So he could take Mac and Tag back to the Swinging D while I could escort Harmony and her sisters home.
“Come on, ladies, you’re coming with me.”
“I live above the bar,” Bliss informed me, and linked arms with Harmony. “And Harmony is coming home with me.”
Harmony made a face at me. “Her couch sucks,” she staged whispered.
“There. You see. Harmony’s coming with me.”
“What about me?” Amity asked.
Mac grabbed her arm and steadied her. “You’re going upstairs with Bliss. That way, I don’t have to worry about you walking home.”
“I don’t have to do what you say,” Amity grumbled. “But I think I’ll go upstairs with Bliss. I don’t mind her sucky couch so much.”
“Good idea,” Mac said, leading her behind Bliss who was heading to a locked door behind the bar, which must lead to the stairs to the apartment above it.
I caught Carter’s eyes and silently communicated my intent. He gave me a two finger salute.
“Let’s go,” Harmony said with a yawn.
She’d put on her parka and pulled her stocking cap over her ponytail. I held open the door for her and glanced back to see every single person in the bar staring at us. The rumor mill tomorrow would be in high gear.
I’d kissed her neck. Thrown around the word mine. And now I was taking her home.
The town was going to have a field day with this.
It was going to take some getting used to, but in one night, we’d made real headway towards making our epic fake romance believable.
“Come on,” I said, tucking her arm in mine as we hit the sidewalk. “This way.”
We walked in tandem, her hip brushing mine, our breath fogging in the air in front of us.
She tilted her head back. “Look at the stars,” she whispered, as the dark sky splashed with bright pin pricks of light.
“Wow,” I said. I wasn’t sure how long it had been since I’d noticed the night sky, but whenever it was, it didn’t look like this.
“Does the sky look the same where you are?” she asked.
“Seattle? No. Too much light pollution.”
“That’s too bad. I don’t think I could live anywhere where I couldn’t see stars.”
I hummed in my throat. Most of the people in my family felt the same way. I was the oddball in that regard. Although, leaving Wyoming for college hadn’t been about the place so much as it had been the life I’d wanted.
“There’s Orion’s Belt,” she said, pointing at the three stars in a row just over the northern horizon. I didn’t look up, I was caught, mesmerized by the jugular vein to the right of her sternal notch throbbing in time with her heartbeat.
I put my finger against it and she sucked in a breath and stepped away from me.
