Nicole Helm - Too Friendly to Date

“Really? Who? If it was Ryan Gosling I don’t think you’re fooling anybody.”

Leah wished she could laugh, but the nerves and fear over Grace’s reaction closed her throat, making it impossible.

“Leah? Who is it?”

“Jacob.”

Grace laughed. “Am I supposed to understand whispered mumbling? Come on. Who is it?”

Leah stared hard at her hands, and this time when she spoke she made sure to enunciate. “Jacob.”

“Jacob,” Grace repeated.

Leah could only nod.

“My brother, Jacob. That Jacob?”

Again Leah nodded. Preparing herself for a lecture on being crazy or explaining how it would never work or anything besides understanding.

“Makes sense.”

Man, the McKnights sure didn’t make it easy on her to beat herself up. Both Jacob and Grace acted as if it was the most normal thing in the world for her to pretend Jacob was her boyfriend.

“Have you told Jacob?”

“Yeah.”

When Grace didn’t say anything else, Leah thunked her forehead against the table. “And this is where you’re dying to tell me I’ve gone batshit crazy.”

“No.” But a weighty silence followed and Leah braced herself for something. “And Jacob agreed to pretend, I’m assuming.”

“Yeah.” Leah shook her head, gave her forehead another thunk. “Say it. Just, whatever it is, tell me. I can handle it.” Maybe.

“Don’t you think it might be a little awkward pretending to be with Jacob considering...”

Leah straightened in her chair, the heat of embarrassment climbing her cheeks and forehead. “Considering what?”

“Well, you guys just have...a thing.”

“A thing?”

“Yeah. Like a weird energy. Like maybe there’s a little interest or attraction there. Kyle and I have both definitely noticed a thing.”

“There is no thing. We’re thingless! Well, he’s not. I mean, I assume he’s not. It’s not like I actually know. Oh, my God. Shut me up. Please.”

Grace was doubled over laughing and Leah wanted to disappear into the floor, but it was all so ridiculous she found herself laughing, too.

When was she going to accept this plan was stupid? Crazy? When would she accept lying probably wasn’t the best way to reunite with her family?

Probably never. Because she’d thought about this problem for months. Going over every detail in her mind. Every possible scenario, but none of them worked. None of them allowed her what she wanted. Nothing except this crazy scheme.

“Leah, be straight with me.”

Leah met Grace’s steady gaze and sighed. “Okay, maybe there’s a little thing. But it’s...nothing. It won’t be awkward. It’s a favor. We’re just friends, and I can’t imagine anything that would change that.”

Grace looked less than convinced, but she didn’t say anything more and that was why she was Leah’s best friend. “It’s just pretend. For a week. What could possibly happen?”

Grace shook her head, but before she could offer any worst-case scenarios, Jacob and Kyle walked into the kitchen.

In the end, Leah didn’t know if the interruption was a good thing or not.

CHAPTER FOUR

WHEN JACOB WALKED into the kitchen of MC, he wasn’t surprised to see Leah and Grace eating lunch together. The two had become close since Grace had moved in. But the pink tinge to Leah’s cheeks was weird, even weirder when it deepened to a full-blown red as she glanced at him.

What had they been talking about that would make Leah, of all people, blush?

“Are we interrupting?” Kyle asked.

Grace glanced at Leah. “You want to tell Kyle, or do you want me to?”

Leah made a go-ahead gesture with her hand, eyes never leaving her sandwich. Funny, Jacob couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the stain of color on her cheeks.

“Or should Jacob be the one to spill the beans?” Grace said in a syrupy sweet voice.

“What are you yapping about?” Jacob muttered, finally tearing his gaze away from Leah. “The favor I’m doing Leah?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“If someone would care to clue me in, I’d be appreciative,” Kyle said, sliding into the seat next to Grace. Grace leaned over and gave him a brief kiss on the cheek.

It was still a little weird seeing his best friend with his older sister even after months of getting used to it, but it was hard not to admit it worked for the guy. Kyle hadn’t changed into a different person overnight, but his tightly wound self had loosened a little.

And Grace loved him and was going to move back to Carvelle with him, the town they’d all grown up in. It was only fifteen minutes away from Bluff City, but it would be strange. Kyle had been his roommate since college and, until his relationship with Grace, hadn’t gone back to Carvelle since they’d left for school.

Still not something Jacob could wrap his head around.

“It’s no big deal. Jacob’s just going to pretend to be my...boyfriend while my family visits.” Leah pushed her plate around, never once touching the food on it. “It’s hard to explain, but it’ll help me out. And it’s not a big deal and we should all just agree not to talk about it as much as possible.”

“Your...” Kyle blinked a few times. Then he coughed. “Oh, I see.”

Awkward silence descended, and when Jacob caught Grace studying him, he crossed to the fridge. Anything to avoid his sister’s scrutinizing stare.

He didn’t need Grace reading anything more into this whole favor than just a friendly gesture. Or, worst-case scenario, telling Mom. That was another ground rule he needed to set with Leah. No telling his parents while they were trying to fool hers. God only knew what his guidance-counselor mother would read into the situation.

“I put an offer in on the house on Jasmine Street.” Way better to discuss business than anything remotely related to relationship stuff. Of the real or fake variety.

“Jacob.” The disapproval in Kyle’s tone was enough to loosen any awkwardness. Kyle’s conservative business nature, Jacob knew what to do with. How to circumnavigate it when he’d rather take a risk.

“Personal project.” Which Kyle very rarely approved of. Probably because they never stayed personal.

“You have a plethora of personal projects. What you don’t have are unlimited funds. Leah, tell him.”

Her body kind of jerked in response. “Why me?”

“He listens to you.”

She snorted, glanced his way and quickly looked back at her plate. Abruptly, she shoved her chair away from the table. “You know what? I gotta go.” She disappeared before anyone could argue.

Jacob ignored Grace’s frown and Kyle’s considering gaze and focused on making his sandwich. Even though he’d agreed to Leah’s plan, he hadn’t thought about the reaction from people they knew. What those people might think.

“Look, you two can get the pinched, worried looks off your faces. The thing with Leah is not a big deal.” And it wasn’t. A favor. A gesture. That was what friends did for each other. Why everyone was being weird about it was baffling.

“No big deal to you,” Grace said.

“What does that mean?”

Kyle and Grace exchanged a look. It was one that conveyed some shared idea, only Jacob didn’t know what it was. He hated that.

“Be careful with her,” Grace finally said.

It was the kind of admonition that irritated him. As if he was somehow careless with people. Just because he dated. A lot. “I don’t know where everyone got this idea I’m an ass to women. They do the breaking up—”

“You know Leah has a thing for you. You have to know that. And I think you’ve got a weird if not fully realized thing for her, and this pretending? It’s going to be messy. Leah’s been a really good friend to me. I don’t want to see her get hurt.”