Page 44 of Game Plan

He nods slowly. “I think so, too.”

Great. My stomach knots. “Okay. That was easy. You’re welcome.”

“But there’s still a problem.”

“What now?”

His eyes lock onto mine. “I need a fake fiancée.”

If he thinks I’m going to sit here and brainstorm women for him to dote on, he’s certifiable.

Why would I do that? So I can watch him with another woman tucked under his arm, as he does with me? So he can be so busy with her, making sure they look realistic, that he doesn’t have any time for me? So I can see pictures of them every time I go to the grocery store or log on to the internet?

My stomach drops as I imagine her with Layla and Branch … and my Sunny girl.

Thoughts spiral through my brain, showing me glimpses of what it might look like to sit across from Finn and his fake fiancée on Layla’s porch, with her on his lap because she’s not terrified of being in a relationship. Or running into the two of them at the grocery store and watching her choose what they’re going to eat all weekend while they lie in bed and watch old movies. What if I pass them on the path by the lake on an evening walk, their hands joined together and swinging between them like ours do?

I swallow. Hard.

His life would be so full, and I’d be so … alone. While I know how to be alone and I can do it with the best of them, being alone and being without Finn are two wildly different, terrible things. And if he thinks that I’m going to somehow participate in this selection process, he can go jump in the freaking river.

“That’s a problem you’ll have to answer on your own,” I say, my lips forming a thin line.

His lips twist into a small smirk. “I didn’t ask for your help with this part of it … yet.”

“Good.” I get to my feet, shivering despite the warmth coming through the window. “If we’re done here, I need to dry my hair and get ready for dinner.”

Finn stops me with a look so intense and a smile so mischievous that I nearly stumble over my own feet.

“What?” I ask, growing more leery by the second. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He takes a long breath. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

He licks his lips. “Would you do it?”

Time slows down as he stands, too. The air shifts as it grows hotter and an unseen electricity crackles around us. What’s he talking about?

“Will I do what?” I ask, my throat going dry.

“Will you be my fake fiancée?”

Excuse me?

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

Poppy

I stop my jaw just in time before it smashes against the floor.

My eyes widen as I try to make sense of his question, but it’s impossible, if I heard him correctly, because it’s ridiculous.

Asinine.

Unbelievable.