not so bad,” he said in a tone that seemed as if it might have held some innuendo, except that Jessie thought she was too out of practice with men to be sure. “I just don’t know how that roof is going to get fixed if I don’t get up there and give Coop a hand with it.”
“I’ll try again to reason with Kelsey,” Jessie said as Flint got to his feet, apparently ready to follow Kelsey and Cooper home.
Jessie stood, too, and without thinking about it, began to walk with Flint to the gate that connected her backyard to Kelsey’s.
“Maybe instead of that,” he said along the way, “we should give them a little of what they want.”
Jessie didn’t have any idea what he was talking about that time. “Give them what they want?”
“Maybe we should pretend to go on a date together, come back and say we just didn’t click. Maybe then they’d relax.”
An instant wave of dejection—or maybe rejection—washed through her at the thought that Flint had decided they didn’t click. That decision shouldn’t have been jarring—after all, they didn’t need to click beyond the friendly superficialities that were already in effect. There was no reason for anything more than that.
And she didn’t want there to be anything more than that, Jessie reminded herself. This was strictly a distant, siblings-of-in-laws relationship.
And yet it was somehow demoralizing to hear that Flint didn’t think they clicked …
Especially when she was so intensely aware of him in every way.
She hid her feelings behind what she hoped was nothing more than a curious expression and as they reached the gate, said, “A pretend date?”
Flint opened the gate, stood in the opening and turned to lean one shoulder against the six-foot-high side post so that he was facing her. “We’ll go out alone, have dinner someplace innocuous—Not Red, where all eyes would be on us.”
Red was the local restaurant owned by the Mendoza family, who were extremely close friends of the Fortunes. They even had family ties with them now that the Mendozas’ son, Marcos, was engaged to Wendy Fortune—a member of the Atlanta branch of the Fortune family who had only recently come to Red Rock.
“All eyes would definitely be on us at Red,” Jessie agreed.
“So we’ll go somewhere else. How about that barbecue place outside of Austin that Coop and Kelsey were talking about tonight?”
“They seemed to like it.”
“Then we’ll come home, I’ll say you’re great but there just weren’t any sparks. You can say I’m a big jerk if you want—”
Jessie laughed but didn’t think it was wise to say that she already knew he wasn’t a big jerk, so instead said, “I’ll probably stick with the just-no-sparks thing, too.”
“And then they’ll all have to give it a rest.”
Jessie considered the ruse. “I suppose you do have a point. If they think we gave it a try and it just didn’t go anywhere, they’ll have to accept it and back off.”
“Not that I don’t enjoy working with you and talking to you …” Flint added with a small but genuine smile that convinced her that he actually did. Even if they didn’t click.
“But that roof is in bad shape,” Flint went on, “and even with two of us it’s going to be a big job. Unless you want to volunteer to work up there, then we can keep this going …”
“Mid-June Texas heat on a rooftop? I don’t think so.”
“We do a date, then?”
“I guess we could give it a try,” Jessie agreed. “When?”
“Tomorrow night?”
“Okay.”
“I’ll tell Coop and Kelsey as soon as I get inside. Hopefully they’ll figure if we’re seeing each other socially tomorrow night, they don’t need to push things in the day and Coop and I can get started on the roof.”
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed,” Jessie promised.
“And then we’ll have our fake date—at seven?”
“Sure.”
“Ella’s really going be mad at me after that, isn’t she?” Flint asked.
“It’s probably going to keep you blacklisted,” she confirmed.
“I’ll have to get you home early to convince everyone that the date is a flop—maybe that’ll help.”
And somehow the thought of making sure the date didn’t last too long was also a bit of a downer.
But Jessie shooed that away. Flint was right, a short date was more likely to look like a failure. And that was what they were going for.
“Okay, then,” Jessie said. “We have a pretend date tomorrow night at seven.”
“For barbecue. And we’ll just hope our plan works.”
Jessie nodded her agreement, and in the process her gaze caught on his face once more. On his smoldering eyes. On lips that were so, so supple …
And why she should suddenly wonder if pretend dates ended with good-night kisses, she had no idea. But that was exactly what she was wondering. Along with what it might be like to be kissed by Flint.
But the moment she realized that was what was going through her mind, she jolted herself out of it, telling herself that of course there wouldn’t be a good-night kiss. The whole point of the fake date was to convince their families that they didn’t click.
“Guess I’ll see you tomorrow for work first, though,” Flint said then.
Which seemed like her cue to leave, so she said she would see him the next day and headed to her back door, pondering why she was looking forward to a date that was only for show.
Chapter Four
“Mama, you’re so pretty!”
“Thank you, Braden,” Jessie said to her four-year-old son.
She was putting on the finishing touches for her pretend date with Flint on Wednesday evening by trying to force earrings into pierced lobes that hadn’t been used since Pete’s funeral. It had somehow drawn the attention of all four kids, who were sitting or lying on her bed to watch.
“You look good as Miss Osterman,” Bethany contributed, a compliment indeed because Miss Osterman had been the twins’ twenty-two-year-old drop-dead gorgeous swimming instructor and Bethany had already announced that she wanted to look just like that when she grew up. Who didn’t?
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