We’ll make sure they know they have nothing to feel guilty about. No reason to feel bad for you. But it’s really going to have to be good. If we’re just together for a while and then we break up, it might confirm to them that you’re not over her. You tried but you’re not over her.”
“So what can I do? What do I need to do?”
It was so strange that he was looking at her with that kind of trust in his eyes. She couldn’t remember anyone trusting her like that. Except maybe Kayla. “I don’t know exactly. But if you really want them to believe you’ve fallen in love, we need to do what Summer said. Show that you’re really letting go. Figure out something that... that makes them think you’re unbuttoning a little.”
“Unbuttoning?” He frowned and adjusted the collar of his shirt.
“Just a little. You have to admit you’re pretty well buttoned-up.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing.” She smiled up at him, reminding herself that this was a plot and that his warm brown eyes didn’t mean what she might want them to mean. “I like you as you are. I’m just saying. If this whirlwind romance is going to be convincing, you probably want to make it seem like you’re being all of yourself. You’re not holding back. And that you’re remembering how to have fun.”
He was quiet for a minute as he opened the passenger door for her and walked around to the driver’s side. Then he met her eyes and said softly, “I am having fun.”
Her heart did a silly little bounce. “Me too.”
Three
“SO YOU ACTUALLY GOT a ring?” Ruth asked three weeks later.
“Of course I got a ring.” Carter frowned at her over his shoulder. They were in the kitchen of his family home—a mansion by any estimation and a degree of luxury Ruth still wasn’t used to, even after fake dating him for a month and a half. It was almost nine in the evening, and Carter had called Ruth on his way back from Charlotte an hour ago, explaining his mother was back in town (from a monthlong yoga retreat in the desert). Since tonight would be a good time to casually bump into her and meet her for the first time, Ruth had driven over.
Since she’d been working all day on the three new jobs she’d gotten thanks to Carter’s contacts and neither one of them had had a chance to eat dinner, Carter had suggested making sandwiches. He was currently slicing a loaf of freshly baked sourdough that looked scrumptious.
“We’re supposed to get engaged next weekend. How is that supposed to happen without a ring?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I hadn’t even thought about it. It seems a shame to waste money on an engagement ring since it’s going to be for so little time. I hope you didn’t spend too much money on it.”
“I didn’t spend too much money.” He slanted her another backward look. This one slightly impatient. “And I don’t want to hear any complaints about money. This engagement was your idea. Just remember that. I never would have suggested such a ludicrous scheme.”
She chuckled at his aggrieved expression. She kind of liked when he was grumpy like that. Not that he was ever mean or even genuinely bad-tempered. Rather, it was like he’d shed the veneer of perfect civility that he nearly always wore.
The grumpiness made him feel more real.
“Okay. Can I at least see the ring? Where is it?”
“It’s hidden safely away. I’m not going to tell you where.”
“What? So you’re not even going to show it to me?”
“It’s an engagement ring. It’s not supposed to be seen until the proposal.” Carter was now buttering four thick slices of bread and laying them out neatly on the counter. He already had a pan heating on the stovetop beside him.
“But it’s not real!”
“Who cares about that? It will be more convincing if you look genuinely surprised.”
“I can act surprised. I’m a great actress.”
Carter appeared to be smiling as he layered sliced cheese—cheddar and gruyere—on the bread. “You’re an okay actress. You’re not as good as you think.”
“I am too as good as I think!” Her cheeks were warming, and she was strangely flustered. She wasn’t quite sure why. “I mean, I’m good by anyone’s standards.”
“But you’re more convincing if you’re feeling something for real. So you don’t get to see the ring until the proposal.”
She grumbled under her breath and tried not to enjoy too much the