“Pleasure to meet you,” said Sylvia, though the words were nicer than her expression.
Adrian slapped the reception desk, yanking the boy’s attention from his phone. “And this is my little brother, Jordan.”
“Hi,” Goldie said with a timid wave.
The good-looking teenager blinked a few times before giving her a robotic wave.
“She needs a room, Jordan. Mom said we have something available?”
Jordan set his phone on the desk and focused on the laptop before him. Adrian stepped away to speak with his mother, leaving Goldie to ruminate. Doubt began to waft through her. What was she doing? She couldn’t afford to stay at a place like this, not with these unfamiliars and their mother who kept glaring at her with all the pleasantness of a threatened raccoon.
Maybe Aunt Bethany was home now. If only she’d given Goldie her number. Goldie was ten seconds from withdrawing when Jordan said, “Here we go. Room Four.” He pronounced a fee that would have covered two weeks’ worth of groceries. “Credit or debit?”
Goldie was grateful Adrian wasn’t close enough to witness her humiliation. “Credit,” she said, handing him her card. Whatever his conversation with his mom entailed, Mrs. Bear didn’t seem too happy about it. Their glances kept shifting in Goldie’s direction.
Just one night, she told herself again, pushing down the nausea at spending so much money.
Jordan returned her card, along with a good, old fashioned key. Every other hotel Goldie had stayed at used plastic cards, but this was a legitimate, dangling key.
“You’re up there,” he said, pointing toward the stairs. “Second door on the left.”
“Thank you.”
Adrian returned his attention to her, acting more chipper than he had earlier. Was he that happy to be home? “Here, honey, you don’t need to worry about that. Jordan, whatever you just charged her, cancel it. She’s my guest.”
Did he just call her honey? Not charge her for the room, was he serious? “That’s really not necessary,” Goldie argued, but Adrian bent for her bag as confusion from what he’d said rankled her.
“I insist,” he said, adding a wink.
What was with the winking? He was bounding up the stairs before she got the chance to ask, and she was hot on his heels, eager for an explanation.
“What was that about?” she asked, rushing to catch up to him.
Adrian glanced behind her but didn’t slow his pace. She didn’t fail to notice the patch of red in his cheeks. “Here we are. Room Four.”
He waited for her to unlock the door, followed her in, and then closed it behind him.
Goldie’s eyes widened, her senses pitching into high alert. Had she made a mistake trusting him? What about the warm feeling she’d had? “What are you doing?” she asked.
Her conversation with Sadie may not have been that far-fetched, though she seriously doubted he would try anything. He seemed too classy, too put-together, to ruin his own life or hers like that. But what if she was wrong?
Adrian set her bag on the bed and faced her, running a hand through his dark hair. “Sorry about that. I wanted to talk to you, about tonight.”
“By calling me ‘honey’?”
He cleared his throat. “Right. Again, sorry. My mom is under the impression I need to marry a girl I used to date. I told her I was going with you to the fundraiser tonight, and since my mom can’t believe I’m picking an outsider over Danica, I may have given her the impression you and I didn’t just barely meet…”
“You what?”
“I wanted to talk to you about it, though,” he said, holding out a hand.
“Seems like it’s a little late for that. You called me honey.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know, I should have said something sooner. Called you, or something and explained. But I didn’t want to tell her I caught you sleeping in our fishing cabin, and in the moment, I wasn’t sure what else to do. I didn’t really think things through.”
Chagrined, Goldie ducked her head. He did have a point there. He’d been gracious enough not to press charges, and he’d helped her find her way into town. If it hadn’t been for her, he wouldn’t have been put in the situation in the first place.
“How about it?” he asked, resting a hand on the back of the nearby chair. “Want to be my fake girlfriend while you’re in town? At least until either you or I go back home?”
She frowned. “I thought this was your home.”
“Not anymore,” he said. “I’m just visiting.”
If that was the case, she was curious where he was from. She decided not to ask. “I have about a week here in Two Pines,” she said. “And if I get ahold of my aunt, I’d like to stay with her.”
“Works for me,” he said. “Does it work for you?”
Goldie pressed her lips together. This was getting more and more unexpected by the minute. “I’ve never been a fake girlfriend before. What does that even mean?”
“Just spend time with me.” He shrugged. “Act like you like me.”
A thousand things could go wrong, couldn’t they? In the moment, she couldn’t think of anything. She was going to be here for one night. She’d go to this fundraiser with Adrian, find her aunt, and move on with her life. He’d go to wherever he was from, and she would go home. That would be that.
“This feels so weird,” she said.
He chuckled. “It does for me too.”
Goldie bobbed her head, grateful they were on the same page, at least. After a few more seconds, she exhaled. “I can do that,” she said. “You know, be your girlfriend. But I don’t like lies.”
He stepped closer to her, and something inside of her shifted. His closeness made her breath quicken. “Then it won’t be a lie. Goldie Bybanks, will you be my girlfriend for a day? Possibly a week?”
She
