CHAPTER 16
“What are you doing here?” Ali’s eyes widened when she walked into the community center room and saw Jess.
Jess looked around at the other women seated around her. “I’m here for knitting club.”
“Yeah,” Ali’s response was in the affirmative but her head was shaking no. “But you’re early.”
“Oh, right, I am.” Jess chuckled. She managed to be on time for some things, but she’d never been early for anything in her life. “I needed to talk to you. In private.”
Now it was Ali’s turn to scan the area around her. “Um, do you want to go somewhere else?”
“No. Just sit down.” Jess patted the chair beside her.
She and Ethan got back to Whisper Lake two days ago, but Ali had still been sick. Today was the first day she was feeling better, and they’d both had to work. This was the first chance that she’d gotten to speak to her since her wild weekend in Chicago.
Her friend sat and got right down to business. She dug into her bag, grabbed her needles and yarn. The Needlepoint Mafia had strict rules about the meetings not being “social visits.” They took their knitting seriously, so both girls cast on before Jess leaned over to Ali.
“I have to tell you something, but don’t have any reaction.”
“Okay.” Ali’s face was blank. Comically blank.
“And no sudden movements.”
“Is this a stick-up?” Ali teased.
“No. I just don’t want you to draw any attention to us.”
“Got it.” She looked down at her hands as she worked on one of the beanies that she sold in the shop.
“Ethan and I hooked up,” Jess whispered and then held her breath waiting for Ali’s reaction, but her friend didn’t have one.
For a moment she was disappointed, but then she remembered the instructions she’d given her less than five seconds earlier. This sex brain she was running on was no joke.
“Okay, you can have a little reaction,” she modified.
“I mean…” Ali’s eyes darted up to hers before returning to her beanie. “I kind of figured that you would.”
Crap. Jess had forgotten that she’d never told Ali this was a fake relationship. At least that’s how it started. Jess wasn’t sure where they stood now.
After the first night of debauchery she’d gone to the convention and returned around midnight. Ethan ordered her up food, they ate, talked, and then made sweet love until the sun came up. They sat on the balcony of the room and watched the freaking sunrise. All of her life she’d wanted to live in a John Hughes movie, and that’s exactly what she’d felt like she’d done last weekend.
They’d caught a few hours of sleep, or at least she had. Ethan had been awake when she passed out and had woken her up in time to shower, they’d checked out of the hotel, grabbed breakfast, and then drove back to Whisper Lake. When he dropped her off, he told her he was on call for the next forty-eight hours. He’d texted a few times with updates of where he was, but she hadn’t seen or talked to him since.
And she missed him. Her body ached for him. And she had to talk to someone about it. About all of it.
“Remember how I told you not to have any reaction or make any sudden movements?”
Ali’s brow wrinkled as she slowly said, “Yeah…”
“That’s back in effect.”
“K.” Ali nodded in agreement.
“Ethan and I aren’t a real couple.”
“What?” Ali looked up at her. “You just said you guys-”
“I know.” Jess nodded, and she spoke at a very low volume as she continued doing a double stitch. “We did. But the whole us being together was a show. He proposed that we pretend to be a couple to get the matchmakers to back off. He didn’t want to spend his entire summer having random run-ins with Laura or Kennedy or whoever else they threw at him.”