Jane’s chest tightened at the thought of Cat crying for her. “I can’t keep him. You know I’m leaving. It wouldn’t be fair to him to live with me for the next month, and then be out on the street again.” She picked up a piece of paper with a list on it. “What’s this?”
Charlotte shrugged. “My family and some others keep asking for my birthday wish list.”
Jane slid her a look. Charlotte hated accepting gifts, but it was the “some others” that interested Jane. “Is one of them named Mateo?”
Charlotte pretended not to hear her. “I made the list, but it seems greedy, so I’m not sending it to anyone.”
Jane stealthily pulled out her phone and snapped a pic of the list. If Charlotte wouldn’t take her damn money, then she’d give the woman a hell of a birthday gift, and make sure others did as well. The southern belle would never, ever, turn down a gift—it would be rude.
“So . . .” Charlotte said.
“So . . . what?”
“You going to do it? Be the hot guy’s girlfriend?”
“I knew I was going to be sorry I told you about that. I’m going to shower and then run errands.” Jane turned to go.
“Don’t forget to buy a bed for Cat to sleep on in your room,” Charlotte yelled after her.
“Sure, soon as you stop taking care of everyone but yourself,” Jane yelled back.
Back in her room after she’d showered and dressed, Jane pulled out her phone and sent the photo of the list to Mateo with a text:
JANE: She’s made herself a list and she’s checking it twice. I’m attaching a copy. Calling dibs on the ski jacket.
MATEO: Look at you showing your sweet.
JANE: Take that back.
MATEO: You’re a good friend, Jane.
Not sure that was actually true, she shoved her phone into her pocket and headed out for the jacket. Charlotte didn’t put a lot of stock into material things, unless it involved skiing. The woman loved to ski.
Jane wasn’t as big on clamping two skinny boards to her feet and flinging herself down a steep mountainside. But she could appreciate the need for good equipment, so she was going to Cutler Sporting Goods.
Had she picked the jacket to give herself an excuse to go there? No. Definitely not. Or at least probably not . . .
Okay, yes.
Yes, she had.
The store was downtown, which consisted of a four-block-long area called the Lake Walk, lining the lake the length of Sunrise Cove. It was filled with bars, cafés, touristy stores, galleries, anything and everything that might lure more tourists in. The buildings were mostly from the early 1900s, and though they’d all been renovated many times over, they still held a certain Old West style that was hugely appealing. At night, every storefront and tree on the sidewalk would be bright with thousands of twinkle lights that reflected off the lake and made the place look like a postcard.
But even by daylight, the charm was still there. Cutler’s was done up like an old warehouse with turn-of-the-century sporting equipment decorating the walls and hanging from the open rafters. Old-time skis and sleds, wood surfboards, and the like.
Jane walked in telling herself her mission was to get in, find the jacket, and get out—all without catching a glimpse of Levi. She had no idea if he was even here, but she strode directly toward the ski section, not looking left or right, just straight ahead, stopping at women’s jackets.
Girlfriend.
Levi had wanted her to pretend to be his girlfriend.
If he’d known her better, he’d have laughed at the idea of her doing any such thing. After all, she’d never been successful at making a real relationship work, much less a pretend one.
But there had to be someone out there for her, right?
Damn. She needed to stop secretly watching the Hallmark and Lifetime holiday movies. She found a jacket that seemed to match Charlotte’s description and pulled it out. When she caught site of the price tag she almost passed out.
Damn.
You can’t put a price on friendship, she told herself. At least not when it came to Charlotte’s friendship and all she’d done for Jane. Calculating how to cut her food bill down for . . . oh, the next year, she headed to the checkout counter and stood in line. The woman ahead of her was saying, “Don’t forget the fifty percent off employee discount, which is of course why I’m getting too much. I couldn’t resist. Thank God Robby loves working in your bike department, right?”
Employee discount . . .
Did pretend girlfriends qualify?
“Good morning,” the checkout clerk said when Jane was up. “You find everything you need?”
“Actually, I just realized I need to check on something. Do you know where I can find Levi Cutler?”
The girl pointed up.
Jane looked up. And up. And up . . . The entire back wall was a climber’s paradise. The wall itself was divided into three different climbing heights, the tallest being the entire three stories of the building, and there was Levi near the top and, close as she could tell, the only thing holding him up there was a very thin-looking rope.
The man was clearly insane.
She walked up to the wall and stood next to a tall, lanky guy in cargo shorts and a store employee shirt. His pale blond hair was a wild mane around his face. His name tag said Dusty.
“Can he hear me if I yell up to him?” she asked.
“Dude hears everything. We think he might have bat hearing.”
“It’s true,” Levi said calmly, like he wasn’t hanging high above them.
“Hey, Tarzan,” she called up. “Have you lost your marbles?”
He smiled. “Nope. They’re all in play.”
“Really? Because you’ve had a concussion, which comes with blurry vision and dizziness. So being a hundred feet up is a bad idea.”
“It’s thirty feet and I’ve been cleared by my doc.”
She crossed her arms, and his smile went to a full-out grin. “You’re worried about me. Cute.”
Cute? She was a lot of things. Sarcastic. Irritated. Stubborn . . . not cute. “We need to talk,” she said.
He grinned down at her. “Sure. Come on up.”
“Funny.”
His laugh floated down to her. “Thought you weren’t afraid of anything.”
Turned out, she was afraid of plenty, including how just looking at him could change the rhythm of her heart.
Kicking off from a rock, Levi suddenly arced into the air, making her gasp as she looked over at Dusty, who stood there hands on hips, just watching. “Wait, aren’t you belaying him?”
“He’s on an auto belay system.”
Levi dropped to the ground, landing lightly on his feet like a cat. A sleek, powerful wildcat. Eyes bright with the thrill of adventure, Levi flashed Jane a smile and killed a bunch more of her brain cells.
“You do that on purpose,” she murmured.
“Do what?” he asked innocently.
Dusty snorted and moved off.
Jane went hands on hips. “There’s no way you’re cleared for rock climbing. Who’s your doctor?”
“Mateo Moreno.”
She blinked. “Dr. Mateo Moreno?”
“Yep, and he’s an old friend. Best friend, actually, from middle school. So trust me, he knows me well and realizes climbing in here is tame in comparison to half the shit the two of us did growing up.”