Page 48 of The Fake Dating Plan

“How is the new boy!”

Hailey and Caiden launched into baby-picture mode and shared all their pictures and videos of their child with Francie. I moved away from them and naturally gravitated to Ax, who was watching the three of them with fascination.

“Whatever else, I never thought he would be that type of guy.”

“Which type?”

“The in-love-and-happy-about-it guy.”

“What’s wrong with being happy?”

“It’s not the happy part I find odd.”

“What’s so wrong about falling in love?”

“It addles you. Look at him.”

My gaze was on Caiden who was gesturing the phone to Francie, who then belted out laughter.

“I see nothing wrong with falling in love. It looks good on him.”

“Of course you’d say that. You were always optimistic.”

“And you weren’t? Once upon a time, I thought you were in love.” I don’t know where those words came from, but the instant they were out of my mouth, I regretted them. His mood turned dark.

“I wasn’t.”

It was like a gut punch. I always thought he held some feelings for me. That was the cinder of hope I had for our relationship. And like that, he snuffed such a silly notion.

“It’s good to know I was the only fool in the relationship.”

He sighed. “What do you want me to say? Were you and me good? Yes, we were. Was the sex good? Yes, it was.”

“So you’re saying you only wanted me for sex?”

His eyes gleamed. “And your company. But you and I had something different. Something inexplicable.”

“Like?” He was making no sense. What could be better than love?

“For one, I like that we have the same tastes.” He pointed to my dress and his sweater.

I rolled my eyes. “It’s just red. It’s Christmas. People wear red on Christmas.”

“And yet it’s the same burgundy shade.”

“Coincidence.”

“We’re the only people in here wearing red.”

“Coincidence.”

“Nah. I think it’s more than that.”

I don’t know when or how it happened, but Ax and I were now standing closer than a few inches. His gaze was searing into me like laser beams, heating my insides. Focus, you idiot, don’t let your body speak for you. But it was difficult. My mind kept wandering to our time in Mallorca. And what would have happened in that wine cellar if I hadn’t stopped it. An odd feeling of wanting to stand on my toes and kiss him came over me, and I had to step back to get out of his spell. It didn’t work. He groaned. His eyes had gone cloudy, possibly reflecting the desire that was in mine.

“Do you want to know?”

The voices in the room drowned until his was the only one I heard. I took a deep breath. I intended to say something meaningful, but I couldn’t think of anything when he looked at me like that.

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