Page 48 of Gold Rush

“You asked me if I was seeing anyone. Just being honest.”

“Are you guys going to Lili’s wedding together?”

I shrug. “No idea. That’s not for months.”

“Yeah. Two.”

I guess October isn’t that far away. I haven’t thought that far ahead. I’m not even sure Rory has.

I doubt she’ll want to get engaged right before her cousin’s wedding or have ended an engagement, which pushes the timeline of this facade out even farther. If we don’t even get engaged before October, we won’t be “broken up” until next year, probably.

That’s a long time to stay celibate. Especially with a roommate who’s become very comfortable wearing shorts and no bra around our shared spaces. Hopefully, she’ll bundle up more when it starts to get colder out. Except I like seeing⁠—

“Flynn.”

I blink rapidly, refocusing on Kit. “Sorry. Crazy morning at work. I’m a little out of it.”

I feel badly that I might have to work this weekend after telling Rory I’d accompany her to the Hamptons, so I reviewed an ungodly number of documents this morning. I see endless lines of text every time I blink.

“I asked how long it’s been going on.”

“With Rory? Uh, a little over a month, I guess? I kissed her first.”

Will Rory appreciate I remembered to clarify that detail? Probably not, but it makes me grin.

Kit scoffs. “Duh. I always knew you had a thing for her.”

I stare at him. “What?”

“Okay. I didn’t know, but I strongly suspected. Monty thought so too.” He pops a chip in his mouth.

I continue staring. Kit calls his girlfriend, Collins, Monty because they met at Montgomery Hall on Yale’s campus. He was smitten with Collins from the second he saw her. I remember when I first met Rory, but it was not a love-at-first-sight moment. Proof I did not—do not—have a thing for my fake girlfriend. Fantasizing about fucking someone is not an indication of secret feelings. Sex has rarely equaled dating for me.

“This is a very recent development,” I stress to Kit. “We’d barely spoken in years before this summer.”

“That must have been your twin sitting super close to Rory at her graduation party then.”

I forgot about that. The same moment Molly called cozy. After seeing the photo, I couldn’t even claim she was wrong.

“I was talking to Wren.”

Kit smirks. “Wren thinks there’s something between you guys too.”

That, I already knew. Wren has made several pointed comments about Rory’s apparent dislike of me.

I swallow another bite of sandwich before saying, “This stays between us, okay? I’m not sure when Rory wants to tell her family about us. I told my best friend, not her cousin.”

“I’m your best friend and her cousin, Flynn.”

My phone starts buzzing on the table. I flip it over, but not before Kit sees the caller.

“He checking on how you’re spending your trust?”

“Probably.” I sip some water, washing away the bitterness of the lie.

I haven’t told Kit my dad is still withholding the money he promised me. Kit would offer the funds. I don’t want his charity. And if I disclosed Julian’s new condition for me receiving my inheritance, he’d find me proposing to Rory exceptionally suspicious. I can’t tell him.

“How’s the foundation going?” Kit asks.