equally. . .” she twirled her finger to encompass all six foot whatever of him. “Large.”
He raised his brows.
She continued, “Give them personality tests to separate the groups into those who are most likely to use their strengths offensively versus defensively—”
Her cell rang again. She flipped it over, saw it was Jen again and flipped it back around.
“Not gonna answer that?” he asked.
“Nope,” she said.
“All right.” He sipped at his beer.
She couldn’t ignore her sister forever but she could for now. Unfortunately, she’d have to see Jen live and in person in just a few days at her sister’s Valentine’s Day Party.
Although after what she’d done tonight it would serve Jen right if Alicia did bail on the party.
Sadly, she couldn’t do that to her sister. Jenny took her parties very seriously.
Alicia sighed and mumbled, “Fucking Valentine’s Day.”
The comment had him glancing up and locking eyes with her. “What did you say?”
“That I hate Valentine’s Day,” she clarified.
“Really? I do too.”
Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. “What do you have to hate about it? Jeez. Valentine’s Day is easy for men. You can just ignore it.”
His eyes widened. “What are you talking about? Valentine’s Day is a nightmare for men.”
“Well, I’m not sure I believe that, but trust me, it’s no cake walk for women. I have to go to my sister’s party. And no doubt she’ll have a whole bunch of single losers there to fix me up with.”
“Your sister does sound a bit obsessed.” He sighed. “But my teammates are no better. They stick their noses in my business way too often for a bunch of men who should be more concerned with other things.”
She nodded. “We’ll agree then. Valentine’s Day sucks.”
“Agreed. But what can you do? We’ll both have to suffer through it on the fourteenth.”
“Sadly, that’s true,” she said.
His eyes narrowed. “What if we didn’t have to suffer?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, glancing at him over the top of her beer glass.
“What if we could get both your sister and my teammates off our backs?”
“How?” She frowned.
“We pretend to date.”
No doubt she looked as shocked as she felt because he held up one hand, preemptively halting her protest.
“Just hear me out. They’re already bugging me about what I’ll be doing on Valentine’s Day and who I’ll be seeing while we’re stateside. Your sister is obviously throwing idiots at you and you say she’ll keep doing it at this party of hers. But what if you arrived with a date? Me.”
“You want to go to my sister’s house? I don’t even want to go. How can you want to?”
He lifted one shoulder. “It might be kind of fun. It’s either go with you or I’ll be sitting here drinking alone.”
“So you’d rather go to a party at the house of a complete stranger than drink alone?” She had to wonder if he had all his faculties.
“Hey, if it gets my teammates to leave me alone, hell, yeah, I’d rather go to your party. And it’ll help you too, with your sister. But you gotta know that if I get spun-up, then all plans are off.”
Stateside. Teammates. Spun-up.
It was becoming very obvious this guy was from the Navy base. But more than that, with his unshaven face and longer than regulation hair, she’d have to assume he wasn’t just a sailor.
“Jesus. You’re a SEAL,” she guessed, shaking her head.
His brows rose. “Why do you say that?”
“You talk like one. You look like one.”
He frowned. “And if I were, what do you have against SEALs?”
“Too much to discuss here.” She left her answer at that as she considered his proposal . . . and he continued to frown.
Never in a million years would she actually date a SEAL. She’d lived near the base her whole life and knew too much about the breed in general.
They were woman-magnets. And they were gone all the time. Her track record with relationships was bad enough without those added challenges.
Nope. He was not for her. But maybe that was what would make this work.
This wouldn’t be real. As he’d suggested, they’d just be pretending.
And, oh my God, seeing the expression on her sister’s face when she walked into the party with this big hunk of SEAL would be worth a million dollars. The sham would at least keep Jenny’s matchmaking at bay.
“So it would all be fake?” she asked to clarify.
“Yup. I’m not looking for a relationship.”
“Neither am I.”
“Good.” He nodded.
She raised one finger in warning. “No sex.”
He let