“It’s because I can’t afford to move out.”
“Shh. Don’t ruin my fantasy.”
Tess laughed, but Jane actually felt her heart tug hard at these two women who’d somehow become a part of her life.
How was she going to let them go? How was she going to let Levi go? To distract herself, she looked at the recipe. “This might be above my pay grade.”
“Levi loves this recipe,” Shirl said.
“Are you suggesting that Jane cook it to snare Levi?” Tess asked in horror. “Mom, women don’t have to cook for their men anymore. You know that, right? Love comes from the heart, not the stomach.”
“Bull pucky,” Shirl said. “Cook the meatloaf, Jane. Trust me on this.”
“Mom, seriously. Stop. You’re setting women back fifty years.”
Shirl shrugged. “I’m still married to the man I married forty years ago. The proof’s in the pudding. Or, in this case, the meatloaf.”
Jane didn’t want to be rude and disagree, but personally she thought if a man wanted her for her meatloaf, he was going to go through life greatly disappointed.
But if said man loved her for her and her alone . . . and if that man was Levi, she knew she’d do everything she could to make it work. How scary was that?
WHEN JANE GOT off work, she stopped at the store and bought the ingredients for the meatloaf. But only because it’d been a most excellent meatloaf.
She wandered into the kitchen and found Mateo, who had Charlotte up against the fridge. They were . . . well, kissing seemed too tame a word, but even from across the room Jane could see how much he loved her even as his hands slid up her back, pulling her even closer.
Jane cleared her throat. “Nice use of appliance.”
Charlotte gasped and broke free.
Mateo grinned. “We got hungry.”
Jane loved the look on Charlotte’s face. Happiness. “Good thing I’m cooking then.”
Charlotte blinked. “Did you say . . . cooking?” She smacked Mateo lightly on his arm. “I knew it. You kissed all my brain cells gone because I could swear she just said she was . . . cooking.”
“Ha-ha,” Jane said. “Watch and learn.”
When she pulled the meatloaf out of the oven an hour later, the kitchen was crowded. Zoe and Mariella had joined them, brought in by the scent.
“Who are you and what have you done with my Jane?” Charlotte asked.
“Ha-ha. And it’s just an experiment.” Jane handed out forks and everyone dug in. Jane knew it had to be good when the only sound in the room was chewing.
“You’ve been holding out on me,” Charlotte said, mouth full.
“On all of us,” Zoe said, shoveling meatloaf into her mouth.
Mariella was eating and working on her laptop at the same time. “Is it for fuck’s sake or for fuck sakes?” she asked the room. “It’s a work email, so it has to sound professional.”
Charlotte choked on her bite. “Honey, what have I told you about using the f-bomb for work?”
“To do it behind my boss’s back, not to his face?”
Charlotte waved a hand like Well, there’s your answer.
Mariella sighed. “And to think, I grew up for this shit.” And then she hit the delete key a bunch of times.
“You know who should have some of this?” Mateo asked. “Levi.”
“Seems only fair,” Charlotte said, looking at Jane. “Seeing as his mama gave you the recipe.”
Just yesterday, Jane would’ve agreed. But she’d been jerked out of her fantasy bubble after Shirl and Tess’s visit, making her realize that one, she’d fallen for Levi for real and she still didn’t know what to do with that, and two, continuing the charade and hurting the people Levi loved felt incredibly wrong. “I’ve got someone else in mind for the meatloaf,” she said.
Charlotte smiled. “Your grandpa.”
Jane touched the tip of her nose. Charlotte pulled her in for a warm hug.
“He looks good on you,” Jane whispered.
“I rather think it’s the other way around,” Charlotte drawled.
Jane pulled back and looked into Charlotte’s eyes. “You’re okay?”
“Well, I’m still neurotic as hell, but okay? Yes.”
Jane laughed, kissed Charlotte on the cheek, and headed out.
When she pulled into her grandpa’s driveway, she stared at the truck parked in it.
Levi’s truck.
Her heart skipped a beat in confusion, but also happiness.
She walked up the driveway and looked inside Levi’s truck. Empty. And the hood was cold. She knocked on the front door, but when no one answered, she let herself in. “Hello?” she called out, walking through the living room before coming to a stop.
Levi was on a ladder, head into the attic access, so all she could see was a pair of long denim-clad legs and possibly the best ass in Tahoe. “What are you doing?”
There came a solid thunk, followed by an oath, and then Levi craned his neck to look down at her, rubbing the top of his head.
“You okay?”
He smiled. “I am now. And hey.”
“Hey yourself,” she said casually because it felt way too good to see him. “What are you doing here?”
“Your grandpa called me. He wanted to know who to hire to make this place a smart house. I told him I’d do it for him.” He twisted and put his head back into the attic.
Fine with her. Great view. “You didn’t have to do this.” His jeans were faded and fit just right. His long-sleeved Henley rose up a bit when he stretched to reach something, exposing a strip of skin that made her mouth go a little dry.
“Don’t stand too close,” he called down. “It’s dusty up here.”
“Just appreciating the view.”
He craned his neck and met her gaze, his own hot. “Say that again and I’ll come down.”
“And then?”
“And then you’re coming too.”
She laughed, but he began to climb down the ladder with intent and she almost swallowed her tongue.
He grinned at the look on her face. “Later,” he promised huskily and kissed her. When he pulled back, he eyed the bag she held with great interest. “That smells delicious.”
“Hungry?”
“Always.” He kissed her again, a long, deep, drugging kiss that had her forgetting time and place. By the time she came out of the sexual haze he’d put her in, she realized he’d stopped kissing her and had taken ahold of the bag.
Grandpa came in the back door wearing a tool belt, and she walked over to him to greet him with a hug.
“Found my hammer,” he said with pride, and Jane realized that Levi had clearly included him in the work, which meant that the job was probably taking him three times as long as it should.
Damn. He was truly the best pretend boyfriend she’d ever had. More than that, he was the best man who’d ever been in her life.
“Your man’s had me working,” her grandpa said, looking pleased with himself.
And here was yet another person who was going to be hurt now that her pretense was over. “Grandpa, you know he’s not. That we’re . . . not.”
Her grandpa glanced over at Levi, who had moved away from them and was cleaning up, then gave Jane a rather impressive eye roll. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You got stuck on the gondola, thought you were going to die, promised his mom he was happy with a woman in his life so she wouldn’t think her son had died lonely and alone. It’s alllllll pretend.”