Page 11 of Heat It Up (Off the Ice)
“How so?”
“It doesn’t matter. Let’s just leave it at I’ve done the boyfriend thing. It didn’t work out well, and I’m not interested in going through that again.”
“So you want me to fake being your boyfriend, so she’ll quit trying to set you up with this guy?” This could be interesting.
She vehemently shakes her head. “No. No, nothing like that. I just need you to kiss me once. For my grandmother’s benefit. After that, I can pretend I’m talking to you on the phone. She won’t know the difference.”
“Why don’t you just tell her you’re not interested in this dude?”
“She doesn’t understand English, and my Finnish sucks, which makes it hard to tell her anything.”
“Then how’s she gonna know you’re talking to me? Well, fake talking to me.”
Sofia removes her phone from her backpack and holds it to her ear. “Hi Kyle.” Her tone is all breathy and sweet. My junk tightens at the thought of her talking like that to me on the phone. She sounds like a girl talking to her boyfriend. “Can you believe that the Easter Bunny is Santa dressed in a disguise?”
I laugh, and the coffee goes the wrong way. I start coughing. “Do you always fake things this well?”
A blush sweeps across her cheeks and damn does she look hot. But it doesn’t stop me from laughing again.
Chapter Six
Kyle
My grandfather used to tell me things happen for a reason. We might not always agree with them. We might fight them every step of the way. But in the end, it is what it is and a wise man will embrace them, learn from them, maybe even get knocked on the head by them.
Somehow, I don’t think what Sofia is asking me to do is what my grandfather had in mind.
“Will you do it?” Sofia asks, once I stop laughing at the way she blushed at my comment. “Will you kiss me in front of my grandmother so she thinks you’re my boyfriend?”
“If you do something for me.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve been in the city for two weeks now and haven’t seen much of it. I’ll kiss you, but you have to explore Helsinki with me. Show me your favorite places.” And keep me too busy to hang out with Nik. My father’s right. When I’m with Nik, I do tend to get drunk. Sofia’s the perfect excuse I need to keep me out of trouble.
She looks clearly dubious of my intentions.
I can’t tell if that means sex with me is a no go, or a possibility if I play my cards right. “Just as friends. Promise.”
It takes a few seconds but she nods. “Okay, but can we do this now before my grandmother gets any more crazy ideas?”
Sofia and I finish our coffee, then I drive her back to Vantaa.
“We don’t have much time once we enter the apartment before my grandmother pokes her head from the kitchen,” Sofia explains as we travel down a main street. Apartment buildings and pine trees border both sides of the road. “I want her to catch us in the act.”
“So what you’re saying is don’t waste time with niceties once we’re inside?”
“That pretty much sums it up. Yep.” She points at a building. “Over there.”
We drive past a hut on the sidewalk. Small metallic windmills spin in the breeze from a bucket next to the open window. On the other side is a display of magazines.
I point to it. “What’s that?”
“It’s a kiosk. You can buy all kinds of things from them, like stamps, bus passes, drinks, and ice cream. I used to love going to it as a kid, whenever my family visited my grandparents.”
I turn into the parking lot. “I take it you used to come to Finland often?”
“Every year until I was fifteen. This is my first time back since then.”
