Page 35 of The Fake Out

Blaise shrugged. “I don’t care.”

“But I do!” I shrieked again. “I care what your dad thinks about me, and supposedly, I’m off-limits.”

He made a face. “I think he only said that because Ayden’s a hoe.”

I laughed at that. “Okay, fair.”

He gave me a grin. “Besides, my dad’s European. He doesn’t have the same hangups about sex like Americans do.”

I shook my head. “Well, I’m American, so it’s weird.”

I looked around for my jacket, but it wasn’t in his room because I wasn’t wearing a jacket when he carried me up to his bed last night.

“My jacket’s still in the kitchen,” I said.

“Okay, let me put on pants first.”

I didn’t want Hal to hate me. But if what Ayden said was true, he was going to be mad at Blaise.

Blaise got out of bed and went over to his drawer, pulling on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. I ran a hand through my hair and pulled it up into a ponytail using the hair tie I always wore on my wrist.

Blaise kissed my forehead. “It’s gonna be fine, V. We’re supposed to be dating, right?”

I nodded and followed him out of the room and down the steps. In the kitchen, we found Hal sitting at the table, drinking his coffee and reading the paper. Hal was old school like that.

“Hey, Dad,” Blaise said with a sigh.

“Morning,” Hal said. Then he glanced at me. “I thought I heard you, Veronica.”

All the color drained from my face. Was Hal making a sex joke? I wanted to die. I wanted to melt into the floor and never face him ever again.

“Sweets, you okay?” Blaise asked me.

I nodded. “I gotta go.”

“Will you come to the game tonight?”

I cocked my head at him. “You want me to come?”

He nodded. “I’ll have a ticket at will call for you.”

“Um…”

“You don’t have to.”

I thought it was important to him. Plus, if we were pretending to be dating, I knew I should probably show up and be the supportive hockey girlfriend. “Okay, yeah. I’ll call Dinah and sit with her.”

“You sure you don’t want me to drive you to the shop?” he asked.

“I’m good.”

“Sweets, let me drive you.”

I shook my head and leaned up on my tip-toes to kiss him. He wrapped a hand around my waist and held me up to meet him. He was such a big man—I forgot about our height differences when we were horizontal.

I didn’t let him get another word in and practically ran out the door. When I slept with Blaise last summer, I didn’t know my life was going to get this complicated.

Chapter Eleven