A Flighty Fake Boyfriend (Men of St. Nachos #2) - Z.A. Maxfield Page 0,7
but didn’t open it.
“You want to tell me why you look like your dog just died?”
“My dog just died.”
He reacted with an exaggerated expression—part shock, part horror. “Oh God. I’m so sorry.”
“I’m kidding. Just wanted to see what you’d do if you were right.”
“That’s not okay!” He punched my arm lightly. “Letting me think a dog died.”
I blew smoke away from him. “No dogs were harmed in the making of this moment.”
“You’re funny.” He didn’t sound like he meant that.
“I’m sorry. Bad news from work.”
“Really?”
I nodded. “It’s all bad news, actually. I don’t know why I’m still surprised.”
“What do you do?”
“Dog catcher.” I smirked at him. “Too soon?”
He glared at me. “Just say it’s private if you don’t want to tell me.”
“It’s fine. I work for an international nongovernmental organization called StolenLives.”
“A nonprofit?”
“Exactly.”
“What’s your area?”
“Prevention of human trafficking.”
“Wow.” His brows furrowed as he took my cigarette, hit it, and gave it back. “Tough stuff.”
“Yeah. Now, can I ask you something?”
He glanced at his feet. “I might not answer.”
“How old are you?”
“Oh,” he smiled. “That’s an easy one. Twenty-three. You?”
“Thirty-six.”
“Silver fox.”
I coughed out smoke and surprise. “More like aging roadkill.”
“No. I dig older men.”
I hardly knew what to say to that. “Are you hitting on me?”
“Duh. You’re new around here. And you’re a friend of Daniel’s. He’s like…the ultimate business Daddy. Plus, you look like you need me.”
“I what?” My phone vibrated again. I couldn’t stop myself from reading the message that time, and my heart sank. “Motherfucker.”
Laurie: Don’t hate me. Please don’t hate me. I have to cancel.
“Something wrong?” asked Epic.
“Wait. Gimme a second.” Instead of replying to Laurie’s text, I walked a few steps away and called him back. He answered on the first ring.
“I’m so sorry. Don’t hate me.”
Despair made me sag. “What happened?”
“You know the actor Kelsey D’Angelo?”
“The dude that got arrested for statutory rape?”
“That’s him. He had a small part in the film I just finished, so now we either need to cut his scenes or reshoot them. The director made the decision to hire another actor, so I’m due back in Vancouver tomorrow. I am so sorry, Ryan. You know I’d do anything for you, but—”
“It’s not your fault, Laurie.” I stared at the sky and swallowed my initial reaction, which was to scream. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Will you be able to find someone else? Should I ask around?”
“No. God no. I don’t want to go with a stranger. I’m comfortable with you, so I just thought…” I don’t know what I thought. He was handsome enough to be arm candy and kind enough to make the wedding bearable. He was someone I could have a good time with. “It’s all right.”
“You could hire someone to go with you.”
“An escort? I bet if you think about my life’s work for a second, you’ll see why that might be problematic for me.”
“Bro, I was talking about hiring an actor.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. I know a dozen actors who’d be happy to do it.”
“But how would we get them up to speed at this stage in the game? At least you know me. If we were forced to make small talk—”
“Listen to you. Actors can improvise. That’s part of our training, you know.”
“No improvised relationship talk would fool Luis into thinking any actor I hired was a real date. He’s way too shrewd for that.”
“I’m really, really sorry, Ry. If there was any way I could postpone this, I would, but as it is, this is costing the production a boatload of money, and—”
“It’s all right, Laurie. I know there’s nothing you can do even if you wanted to. I understand. I’m just whining.”
“I’ll make it up to you somehow. We’ll go out to the lake house and spend some time fishing or something. Just you and me.”
“Sounds great.” I couldn’t stand fishing, but he wouldn’t really make me do it. Besides, neither of our schedules would allow time off. “You tried, and I love you for it. I’ve got to go. Someone’s waiting for me.”
“Okay, bye. See you.”
“Soon. It’s a plan.” I disconnected the call and just stood there, staring at the barest sliver of moon in the sky. We had something in common, the moon and me. I’d planned to bask in the sunlight of Laurie’s glory at Luis’s wedding, and even though I was sort of a reduced, barely there bit of myself, I could have reflected his light. But now, without Laurie…I was an eclipse.
“Are you okay?” I turned and found Epic staring at me.