Just Pretend (Love Comes To Town)

Since when am I sharing my whole life story with this girl?

“Enough about me,” I say, and as she chuckles, I throw up both hands. “OK, OK, I mean it this time.”

As the waitress approaches, I order us a fine red wine, then get back to our conversation. “What about you? What were you like in high school?” I look her up and down with a knowing smirk. “The same?”

“Because you know me so well?” she sasses me with a little smirk of her own. “Yeah, I guess I wasn’t overly different, just a bit more scared I guess. Of letting down my mom—failing out of school or ending up a teenage pregnancy case like she was—which is the last thing she wanted for me.”

“You’re not scared now?” I ask.

Despite my jokey tone, her blue gaze cuts to mine. When she speaks, there’s no joke in it. “A little bit. You?”

I meet those blue eyes, the kind you could drown in and not even realize you’ve hit water. “We’re all scared.”

A few seconds, that pass too fast. So fast, that only after them do I realize I missed my cue to kiss her.

A minute or so later, the waiter shows up with our wine.

“On a happier note.” I lift my glass once he’s gone, eyes on her. “Here’s to wine.”

“To wine,” Sierra says, lifting her glass.

We order our meals and they’re delivered not long after: two delicious plates of roasted lamb, followed by chocolate cheesecake.

Then, after dessert, more wine, and then, it’s time to kiss her.

Really, it was time to kiss her the moment I laid eyes on her. Or the second we sat down here. Or after my ‘scared’ comment and that missed moment.

Still, there’s now. Better late than never.

“Hey,” I say softly, leaning in.

“Hey,” she says quietly.

Her eyes flit with a cocktail of fear and excitement as I lean in further to cover her mouth with mine.

Chapter 8

Sierra

Just as his lips are about to land on mine, he says, “Want a job?”

I freeze, staring at him blankly, as he moves back to sit in his seat like nothing happened.

Am I going crazy, or were we this close to having a moment? And did he just offer me…

“A job?” I say blankly.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed…” Nolan trails off, that boyish smile still endearing even under the circumstances. “Are you free? To work, I mean—would you have time to take on another project?”

“This is kind of sudden.” I eye him, waiting for the ‘kidding!’ or giveaway chuckle that doesn’t come.

“Yeah, well, I’m a sudden kind of guy.” Again, that smile, which I now find slightly less endearing—he’s actually being serious? “Will you do it?”

“Do what? All you asked me was if I wanted a job.”

“True.” He bobs his head a few times, mulling it over. Who hires people on a whim? Nolan Storm, I guess. “Alright, here’s what I think. We could use some of those press articles you were telling me about. It’s a damn good idea. Keep the comedy club in the news until we’re back in business. What do you think? Are you interested?”

“I… Maybe?”

Is this actually happening? Did the hottest guy I’ve been on a date with in, well, ever just almost kiss me and hire me instead?

“Yeah, sorry.” He has the decency to look a bit chagrined, although it doesn’t dim his obvious excitement. “It is a lot at once. No rush.”

I rise. Whatever happened or is happening here tonight, I’m not going to figure it out by sitting here and trying not to drool over how extra-handsome Nolan looks when he’s excited and chagrined at the same time.

“You have to go?” he asks, disappointed.

“Yeah, I… need to think about all this.”

You just got cockblocked by a job opportunity is what happened, sister. WTF.

“Right.” He rises too. “I’ll drive you home.”

On the way back, we don’t talk. After all the talking we did, I don’t mind some silence now. Gives me some space to begin to collect myself.

Besides, maybe he’s waiting for the more stereotypical time to have a goodnight kiss—at the end of the date?

But when he pulls up to my apartment building, his look is once again one of chagrin, not lust.

“Sorry if I put you on the spot back there. No pressure.”

“Thanks, I…” I open the car door. My cheeks feel hot, and I feel like running away, laughing nervously and sighing all at the same time. “I’ll definitely think about it. Night.”

“Night,” he says, starting to say something else, but me shutting the door cuts it off.

I pause, looking at him questioningly. He just laughs and waves me on.

Back at my place, I don’t waste any time calling up the twins.

“Holy moly,” Josie says when I tell them about our almost-kiss replaced by an actual job offer.

“What state are your lips in?” Wynona wonders instead. “Did you forget lip chap again?”