Page 24 of Eligible Best Friend

“Then we’ll meet on Sunday. Samuel said the country club is adequate.”

The country club. Where it all started. “Let me know what time and we’ll be there,” I say before we hang up. I just have to make sure Ford can and will make it.

When I walk back out to the living room, Cass has Jayden on her hip and she’s inches away from Ford, speaking so low I can’t make out a word she’s saying.

Ford’s planted his hands on his hips, his stormy expression wiping away any creeping jealousy regarding their proximity. Samuel and his ex-wife used to talk like that. She’d stop by the house with some urgent reason to meet with him and I’d find them standing toe to toe, her earnest expression too hopeful to be about how the electric company won’t take his name off her account, so she can’t fix an overcharge.

“Sorry. Bad time?” I ask, shaking off old memories. Cass is pissed. This isn’t about a simple overcharge.

Cass clenches her jaw shut but keeps glaring at Ford. “No. I was just leaving.”

She yanks the diaper bag from his hand and storms out.

“See ya, buddy.” He calls to Jayden and waves. Then he watches her leave, his jaw rigid.

I tuck my hands into my back pockets. “She took it that well?”

“I think it’s that you’re here when Jayden’s around and I didn’t tell her.”

I want to fire back with, “Yeah, well, does she have dudes over and not tell you?” but I keep it in. If we were working together, I would. This is different. We’re not coworkers right this minute and I’m the girl she’s upset about. “I’m sorry.”

“If it wasn’t you, she’d be pissed about someone else.” He rubs a hand down his face. “Anyway, I think she’s more pissed because she can’t find fault with you.”

Ford talked about me that much with her? No, she’s just done her homework. Easy enough. A quick search on me and my parents would show her everything but the last year or so and that she’d know from Ford. “The intro’s over. There’s that at least.”

His smile is weary. “There’s that.”

“But we still have my parents. And guess what? They want to meet you.”

“Okay.” He goes to the pile of blocks and starts picking up.

“Sunday.”

“What’s that?”

Perhaps he can’t hear me over the clatter of toys. I raise my voice. “They’re coming Sunday.”

Slowly, he turns. “I have to meet Elaine and Jensen Wescott that soon? Are we going to get a punch card for the country club?”

“Three fake dates and the fourth is free.”

He smirks but falls quiet. I’m afraid he’s going to pass and leave me to explain why my new boyfriend flaked out. It’d be easy to go back to the way we were before. Tell everyone that nope, we didn’t work out, but hey, we’re still friends. I’m already rehearsing the speech in my head.

Finally, he says, “I guess if we have to go on this call, we’ll do lights and sirens all the way. What time?”

Seven

Ford

Is this what Lia felt when she was waiting in my house for Cass to arrive? My palms are sweaty, I’ve checked my hair in every window and reflective surface on the way here, and I have a strong urge to run.

I wasn’t this nervous when I met Cass’s parents. I was almost excited. Serious about Cass, I’d been intent on making a good impression. But there are so many differences between then and today.

The primary one being that Lia and I aren’t a real couple.

But despite all the differences, there’s one thing that feels all too familiar. I’ve been down this road before—and I crashed and burned.

From everything Lia said, her parents are doppelgängers for Mr. and Mrs. Pruitt. Image, prestige, and the social circles they run in define their lives, and all of those parameters extend to their only child.

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