“Huh?”
“Your mom said you’re engaged. Isn’t that true?”
“Oh, yeah, we are.”
She glanced at my left hand. “Never seen a ring there.”
“I don’t wear it to work,” I lied, grabbing the tray and turning away before she could question me any further.
Shit. I really should have hammered out a story earlier so I could at least try to make this fake relationship believable.
Mom caught my eye from the other side of the restaurant, nodded toward Kai, and mouthed that I should take five with him.
I nodded that I understood and set their drinks down on the table. “Mom said I could take five. Probably to warn you that they’re going to want you to hang around until this has calmed down.” I looked around for a spare chair.
“Here.” Kai got up and pushed his chair toward me. “I’ll go and find one.”
“It’s fine, I—”
“Sit down, Ivy.”
I sat.
Anna chuckled when he disappeared in search for another chair. “So, you’re engaged.”
“Oh, God, don’t.” I groaned, burying my face in my hands. “My grandmother is a staunch Catholic, and I panicked.”
“For what it’s worth, he’s not bothered at all. I think he’s looking forward to pretending to be your fiancée. Or husband. Whichever one.”
“Only because it keeps Amanda away from him.”
“Yeah, sure, that’s the reason.” The sarcasm in her tone made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
“What does that mean?”
“It means—” She stopped the moment Kai came within earshot, carrying a chair.
He pushed the chair between us and sat down. “What does what mean?”
“Nothing. We were just discussing your totally real upcoming nuptials,” Anna said, leaning back with a grin.
Kai glanced at me. “Right. How are we handling that?”
“Very simply,” I said nonchalantly. “We’re going to elope in my living room where my graphic designer best friend will set up a green screen and edit us into the local courthouse.”
“Seems reasonable,” he replied, taking a sip of his beer. “Wait, does it bother you that I’m drinking beer?”
“No. Weirdly enough, I quite like the smell of beer.” I wrinkled my nose up. “Dear God. This is going to be a long several months.”
Anna chuckled into her wine.
“Okay, when are we getting married?” Kai asked, putting the bottle down.
“I don’t know. Do I have to organize everything? I’m already growing a human. That’s a lot of organizing going on down there.”
“Solid point,” Anna interjected. “All her organs have to reorganize themselves.”
“Why don’t you go and order some food at the bar?” Kai said, shoving menus at her. “It’ll give Rachel something to do other than stare at us.”
I peered over my shoulder just in time to see Rachel jerk her head away and pretend to wipe the bar down. I sighed.
Anna took the hint and swiped the menus from him. “You want a burger?”
“And a quiet life.” Kai smirked, ignoring her when she flipped him the bird and headed for the bar. “Would you believe she’s thirty?”
“I’d give you the finger, too,” I said without hesitation. “We really have to figure this out, Kai.”
He leaned forward and set my hand in his. “It’s not hard. You said this was a secret, right? We just have to figure out minor details. So I proposed three weeks ago. When was the last time you dated someone?”
“It’s really not worth bringing up,” I mumbled.
Laughing, he squeezed my fingers. “Well, I’ve been single well over a year, so we could have easily been dating for nine months, engaged for three weeks, and now you’re pregnant. It happens. We’re neighbors. It stands to reason our relationship would progress quickly because we see each other all the time. It’s like those dumb reality shows—how people on things like Big Brother go from strangers to being in love in two weeks.”
“You know that’s all for ratings, right?”
“Of course, but the point is still valid.”
I groaned. “Okay, fine. How did you propose?”
“Over pizza?”
“Really? The only proposal I’ve ever gotten is fake and over pizza?”
“Nobody has ever proposed to you?”
“Has someone proposed to you?”
“Like three times.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Have you ever said yes?”
“That’s a trick question.”
“It’s really not.”
“I’ve never said yes.” He grinned. “Besides, one doesn’t count.”
“How does a proposal not count?”
“It was my cousin.”
“Your cousin proposed to you?”
“Yeah, but she was drunk and thought I was someone else, so it was totally reasonable.”
“What about the other two?”
“Does it matter?”
“As your fake future wife, it absolutely matters. I demand to know your relationship history before I push your watermelon-headed spawn out of my vagina.”
He paused, rubbing his chin. “That’s as a good an argument as I’m gonna hear, I reckon.”
“You reckon,” I drawled.
“Yeah, I do.” He grinned, stroking his thumb across the back of my head.
I hated that I liked it.
Really, really hated it. Especially because it sent goosebumps up my forearm, and the last time I’d felt things for this man, I’d gotten pregnant.
I suppose it was a good thing that history couldn’t repeat itself right now.
“All right. The first proposal was when I was nineteen. We’d dated for six months and she was taking it far more seriously than I was. I broke up with her right after.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, but it was that or lead her on,” Kai mused. “It seemed kinder to be honest with her.”
Ugh. I hated it when asshole moves had totally real reasons behind them. How could you be mad at that?
Cruel to be kind and all that.
“The second one?”
“Ah, that one was a little trickier.” He paused. “We’d been going out a little over a year in my senior year of college.”
“You went to college? And you’re a builder?”
“I don’t like ties, offices, or business hierarchies,” he said dryly. “May I continue?”
I waved for him to carry on.
“We were about to graduate, and she wanted to move with me back here, but I didn’t want to commit to anything so serious. She asked me to marry her, and I said no. She…wasn’t happy about it.”
I couldn’t imagine why.
“Well, aren’t you just a regular modern-day Casanova.”
“Not really. I paid her credit card bill off as an apology.”
“Oh, my God. Is there anything wrong with you?”
He raised his eyebrow as if to say, You’ll have to find out.
I wasn’t going to push it. I had enough on my plate.