I held my hands out in front of me. “Whoa, whoa. Hang on now.”
Krystal wasn’t backing down. “I thought we were on the same page! You know I have to go back to LA. You know I still care about you, but that we can only be friends! I ran into Monica at the hospital, and she was talking to me about how excited she was for us and how she wasprayingfor our relationship.”
Oh, yikes. Guilt bubbled up in my gut, and I hung my head.
Krystal kept going, unabated. “Why would you tell your mom that you’re trying to make me fall in love with you? Dang it, Bryce. It’s going to be hard enough as it is without knowing you’ve got feelings and I’m the bad guy again.”
I looked up. “Just hang on. It’s not like that. I didn’t say any of that. Listen for a second, okay?”
I paused until she stopped her ranting. “My mom called this morning and had gotten the completely wrong idea about last night. And no matter how I tried to deny it, she railroaded me and kept going on and on about how excited she was about the two of us.”
“So you make her understand, Bryce! How hard is it?”
I snapped at her. “Honestly, it’s about like this, where I can’t get a word in edgewise.”
Her sharp intake of breath registered and regret flooded my emotions. I looked up at the ceiling and then back down with a deep breath. “Sorry. I’m trying to explain here. Mom wasn’t hearing me. I tried to tell her it wasn’t like that and that I don’t have feelings! But she was so excited, and I finally gave up.”
Krystal shook her head. “You shouldn’t have done that. You had no right to let her believe something that wasn’t true.”
“I know. And I’m sorry. But she said she’d stop setting me up. And that she’d make sure Monica stopped too! What was I supposed to say?” I mimicked myself in a higher pitched voice. “No, Mom. Please keep setting me up on blind dates with Missy Andrews. I’ve always wanted to share a house with fourteen cats and three rabbits.” I dropped my shoulders. “Come on, Krystal. Please? I just need your help for a little while. I promise to be the bad guy in the end. Say you were willing to make it work but that I chose to break it off. Then you can go back to Hollywood, and I’ll stay here and go back to my life of awkward dinners.”
Krystal chewed her lip while she thought, and I had to drag my eyes away.
“You tried to tell her, right?”
“I promise you, I did. I meant to tell you right after the conversation, but we got a call and I forgot.” I gave a guilty smile—one that had gotten me out of my fair share of scrapes over the years. “I really am sorry.”
Krystal took a deep breath. “So now what? We pretend to date?”
I shrugged. “I guess? I mean, my mom just thinks I’m going to try to woo you. But let’s be honest, if I was going to try to make you fall in love, you would.” I waved a hand down my body.
As intended, the overly arrogant comment made Krystal tip her head back and laugh.
“Yeah, okay, hot stuff.”
I grinned. “I’d say we can sort of act like we are taking it slow… Maybe just let people see us around town hanging out. A date or two. And if anyone asks, we’re just seeing where things go.”
Krystal nodded absently. “Yeah, okay. That could work. It’ll get my mom off my case, too.” She met my eyes. “And honestly, it doesn’t really change anything. We’ll just sort of let people assume what they want to assume. We’re just hanging out, and if they read more into it than is really there? Well, then that’s on them, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah. If they’d just mind their own business, it wouldn’t matter anyway.”
Krystal looked up at me, trust in her eyes. “Just so we’re clear. I’m still leaving after the auction.”
I nodded. “Yep. And just so we’re clear, there are no real romantic feelings here.”
She nodded. “Back at you, hot stuff.”
I grinned and winked. “Prepare to be wooed, Ms. Daughtry.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Fake wooed,” she corrected.
“Of course. Absolutely zero real wooing going on.” I nodded soberly.
Her smile made her eyes brighten. “Dinner tonight?”
I shook my head. “I’m on shift overnight. Unless you want to bring me dinner here. It might get interrupted, but that’s the risk we take.”
She shook her head. “That’s all right. I’ll let you work. See you tomorrow? We’ve got decorations to buy, right?”
I nodded and pushed away the disappointment about dinner. No real feelings. “Yep. See you tomorrow.”