Page 63 of Betting on You

And I wasn’t sure if I wanted it to or not.

Nekesa: DO ITTTTT I’m dying to hear what happens.

I texted:You’d seriously give up a few days of break? And pretend to be my boyfriend???

Seemed like a really big ask.

Theo: He’d pretend to loooooove you.

“Shut up, Theo,” I muttered to no one in the darkness.

Nekesa: You’re such an idiot. ;)

Charlie: I’d be in Colorado—that’s a big old HELL YES from me.

My phone started ringing—Charlie—and I answered with, “But he’ll probably be a dick to you the whole time.”

“I can handle it,” Charlie said, his voice gravelly like he’d been sleeping before the call.

“Hmmm.” I seriously didn’t know what to do. On paper, what Nekesa/Charlie/Theo were proposing could potentially help my Scott dilemma and make the weekend fun(ish). But there were so many other things to worry about.

My mom’s and Scott’s reaction when Charlie got there—that was an explosion of unhappiness guaranteed to happen. Traveling with Charlie for eight hours; been there, done that, and it wasn’t remotely enjoyable.

And—the biggie—pretending todateCharlie.

Our friendship was safe because it was labeled as only that. Friends. Hell, he labeled itnot eventhat; he labeled us as just coworkers.

So what would happen when we played relationship for a weekend? It might be fine and just return to normal when we got home, but what if it didn’t? What if we crossed a line that we couldn’t come back from?

“Bay, if you don’t want me to, that’s totally fine.”

I didn’t knowwhatI wanted. Taking Charlie sounded like fun and I didn’t want to go alone, but the thought of it set off screechingly loud alarm bells.

“Um,” I said, opening my nightstand drawer and digging for thecoral nail polish while I tried to decide. “Well, for starters, I’m just afraid you’re saying yes to be nice.”

“Do I ever do that?” he asked dryly.

I smiled in spite of my nerves because that was a loaded question. Hedidn’tdo things just to be nice, but he was also surprisingly thoughtful sometimes.

A walking contradiction, Charlie Sampson. “Well, no.”

“I think it sounds like a blast,” he said, “but if you’d rather not, it’s totally cool.”

I thought about the weekend, staying in a condo with just my mom and Scott, and I said, “Ireallywant you to go, but I wonder if I should ask—”

“Nope,” Charlie said, cutting me off. “You do whatever you want about the weekend, but if you ask them, they willfor suresay no. If we pull up in Breck, though, with you in my car, they can’t really send me back.”

There it was again—the ginormously ballsy move that I wasn’t sure I could pull off. I closed the drawer and flopped back onto my pillows. “That is positively diabolical.”

“Thank you.”

“And terrifying,” I added. “I know you’reCharlie, but doesn’t the thought of just showing up make you nervous?”

I expected him to say no, but he didn’t.

“Of course,” he said matter-of-factly. “But I also know that they’re not going to want to throw away their mountain retreat, so they’ll decide to deal with it for the sake of preserving the weekend that Scott has already paid for.”

He’s right.His confidence bolstered mine, so much so that I heard myself say, “Okay, so maybe we should do this.”

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