a feeling you’d be here.”
And just like that, Justin had reversed the roles. The man was all things to all people. “You weren’t supposed to do that. I was supposed to be looking after you. Not the other way around.”
He shrugged. “For the record, we’re best friends. So we take care of each other. When I moved out here after grad school, who actually had a place to stay and let me crash on their couch for six months?”
Yeah, the early days. She’d been apprenticing to a painter, Peter Maine, at his gallery here in San Diego. She’d sold a piece early and those proceeds covered school. She’d saved all her money and was able to afford a decent place to stay. It had been like summer camp.
“How is she?”
Justin let her go, then leaned back against the fridge, one leg propped back against it. “She’s actually not terrible. She’ll stay there a few more days for observation. But the doctor thinks there might be a problem with her medication, so they’re trying to figure out the right dosage. Until they do that, they said no stress, no running around, she’s to take it easy.”
Alex snorted. She might not know Grandma Lucy personally, but from everything Justin had told her, the old lady was never slowing down. “How’d she take that?”
Justin shook his head. “About as well as can be expected for her. She was in no kind of mood for that noise.”
Alex cocked her head and studied his face intently before hopping up onto the counter. “Okay, spill, Justin. You always have that look when you aren’t sure how to get out of a problem.”
He rubbed the end of his nose, and Alex wondered just what kind of trouble he’d gotten himself into.
“So you know how Grandma has been trying to get me to settle down?”
She nodded. And every time Justin brought home some blonde with big boobs and an attitude, she often had to bite her own tongue. But that was neither here nor there. “Yeah, what’s that have to do with anything?”
“Well, I might have told her I had a girlfriend to get her off my back.”
Alex rolled her eyes. “Of course you did. Why would you do that? Because at some point, she’s going to request to see this girl.”
The look on his face told her that something just like that had happened. “Justin. Spill it.”
“I know it probably wasn’t a good idea, but I was desperate. She was constantly trying to set me up with girls. They would show up at the hotel. At my gym. I had to get her off my back. So I made up the perfect girl that would never have to be seen. One that was so busy with her career. Problem is, now Grandma Lucy wants me home for the holidays. And she wants me to bring said girl.”
Alex stared at him for a long moment. Blinked several times, tried to open her mouth to say something, anything. But nothing came out. Finally, she managed, “Justin. She’s sick. What are you going to do now? You clearly can’t tell her that you made up a girlfriend. That will stress her out.”
“I know. I know. I should never have lied. But now I can’t just tell the truth because she’s sick. She’s supposed to stay calm. So I’m caught between a rock and a bad situation.”
Alex tried to force her brain to work. “You need to figure this out. Is there someone in your roster? Is this a couple of days including Christmas?”
“Christmas.” He nodded.
“Well, I’ll think of something before then.”
“You don’t have to think of something. I already have a solution.” Justin grinned.
“Yeah? What’s that? If it involves hiring a hooker, you’re crazy. Maybe it’s better to tell her the truth and not dig a bigger hole for yourself.”
Justin’s brows snapped down. “No. I’m not telling her the truth. She needs me to have a girlfriend, so I’m going to have a girlfriend. I’ll do anything to make sure she gets better and on the road to recovery.”
And that was part of Justin’s problem, he was always wanting to be all things to all people. But he never spent too much time worrying about what would actually make him happy.
“So what can I do?” she asked.
“Well, since you’re trying to make me feel better and you are my best friend in the entire world, I was sort of hoping you’d pretend to be my girlfriend.”
Her heart leaped in an attempt to escape from her chest, beating so hard and so fast, Alex was sure there would be splinters and shards of her rib cage floating around. He was asking her out? No, silly. Listen to his words. Pretend. Girlfriend. And suddenly her heart stuttered and skipped to a stop. The pain was so immediate and so hot, she had to fight to not show any expression.
He wasn’t suddenly going to ask her out. Out of the blue. No, he was asking her to be his girlfriend because he needed a way out of this mess. Under normal circumstances, she would do anything for him. Except this. Because if she did this, then he would know.
He’d know that she’d been lying this whole time. And she wasn’t going to expose her soft side. “Justin, I love you. And you know that. But I’m not going to pretend to be your girlfriend.”
Hell. She’d said no? Justin really hadn’t considered a negative response. “Alex, look, I know. I know you hate to lie. You’re not very good at it. But I am up the creek with no paddle. I need my wing-girl. Wing-woman. Whatever, you know what I need. It’s just for a couple of days, a week tops, and it’s not like we weren’t going to spend the holidays together anyway.”
They did have a plan for Christmas. Christmas Eve would be at her place and there would be takeout and alcohol and holiday movies. Then Christmas Day, they would start at his place; he was pretty good at breakfast. His grandmother had taught him. That was the best day, opening presents.
Most of the artwork he had in his place were her pieces. And though each of them had been given as gifts, he knew full well how much they were worth. Even though to him they were priceless, to the rest the world they were...expensive.
In the evening, they would go to the big Christmas spread at his hotel. It was a tradition he’d started the first Thanksgiving they were open. It was so successful, he did it again for Christmas, with employees and guests alike.
So far, he hadn’t been dating anyone over the last few holidays. Which was fine by him. But if he ever was, she’d just have to get used to the fact that Alex was in his life. Yeah, how well do you think that’s going to go when your new girlfriend realizes that sometimes you have inappropriate thoughts about your bestie?
He shoved that thought aside. And to be fair, he hadn’t had inappropriate thoughts in, oh, days now. That was good. It wasn’t his fault. She was stunning, with all that beautiful café-au-lait skin that always seemed to glow, it looked so healthy. And her hair that always smelled like lemon-meringue pie. He knew it was her hair products. But he almost loved hugging her just for that. Almost. There were other reasons he liked having her in his arms. Reasons he wasn’t going to explore right
