Or maybe she was just projecting.
“You want me to meet your mom?” she repeated, giving him a chance to laugh and say he was just kidding.
He nodded. “She’s a huge fan of yours. She’d kill me if I didn’t introduce you.”
A fan.Right. The introduction had nothing to do with his feelings for her, it was because she read Liv’s books. He wanted her to meet his mom because she was Harper Rose. That made a lot more sense, but Liv still felt the sting of disappointment that it wasn’t personal.
Liv pasted on her best smile. “Sure. Um, but what are we going to tell her about how we know each other or…I mean, are you going to tell her about the arrangement? I don’t want her to think that we’re…” Liv waved her hand between them.
It was one thing to bring him to a wedding as her date and Liv didn’t care if Grady told the entire town that they were together once she left, but she didn’t want to lie to his mom. That just felt…wrong.
“We’ll tell her the truth,” Grady stated.
“The truth,” Liv agreed. The truth was she feared she was already half in love with her son, but there was no way she’d be revealing that.
She took another drink of her coffee, set it down on the nightstand, and stood up. The T-shirt she’d put on after their third round fell down to her mid-thigh. “Well, I’d better get ready.”
Grady stood as well and she assumed that he was going to get dressed and go back to his place. But instead, he picked her up.
She giggled as her arms wrapped around his neck. “Grady, I have to take a shower.” There was no way she was going to go meet his mom with sex hair.
“So do I and there’s a drought so I think the responsible thing to do is take one together.”
“I mean, it is the responsible thing to do.”
That bad-boy half grin pulled on his lips as he squeezed her backside and carried her into the bathroom.
Everything about being with Grady was fun, simple, and felt right. They just…clicked. This twenty-four-hour fake relationship was better than her decade long serious relationship had ever been.
Without running it by her brain, her heart expanded into a Grady-sized shape. And she feared that after this weekend, she’d have a Grady-sized hole in it.
* * *
As they walked down the hallway toward his mom’s room, Grady noticed that Liv was very quiet. She’d barely said a word on the drive to Well Brook and when she signed in at the front desk, he’d noticed her hand was shaking.
Reaching down he wrapped his fingers around her wrist and stopped. “Are you okay?”
He knew this was a big ask but he’d hoped that framing it as him wanting her to come because of her books was less intimidating than the real reason. He wanted his mom to meet Liv because he had real feelings for her. Feelings he had no business having since he’d known her less than seventy-two hours.
Her smile was wide but looked forced. “I’m fine.”
Without thinking about whether or not it was appropriate, he leaned down and kissed her. When he did, he felt her body relax. Being affectionate with Liv felt like second nature to Grady. It was like breathing. Every other woman he’d dated had complained that he wasn’t attentive and affectionate enough. He’d never understood what they were upset about, but now he did. It was like one of those magic eye pictures that at first glance looks like a solid pattern but when you relax your eyes you see the image inside of it. He could see the image of the man they’d wanted him to be. Apparently, he just needed the right woman to bring it out of him.
Liv’s phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her bag. Once she saw who it was, she silenced it and tucked it back in her purse. He’d seen her do that twice today. Once after they got out of the shower and again when they stopped by his place so he could grab some clothes.
He knew it was none of his business and he had no right to be jealous, but he still found himself asking, “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s my friend Rasha, she’s just checking in on me after…you know… the wedding.”
“Do you need to talk to her? We can—”
“No, it’s fine.” Liv waved her hand dismissively. “I’ll call her later. Let’s go.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, both about the call and if she was actually ready to go meet his mom.
“Yep.” She smiled and gave him two thumbs up, which he thought was adorable but she instantly dropped her hands looking mortified that she’d made the gesture. Which, he of course, thought was adorable, too.
They walked into the room, and he was happy to find his mom sitting up in bed. Today, she had color in her cheeks and her eyes were bright and alert, which meant she wasn’t in a lot of pain. The Bose noise-canceling headphones he’d gotten her for Christmas sat on her head as she watched something on her laptop. She was completely engrossed in what was going on, on the screen, and didn’t notice them enter.