Just Pretend (Love Comes To Town)

“But to just abandon her children,” Sierra says softly.

“She calls now, every so often,” I say. “I think once a year with the others. I don’t keep in touch with her, though.”

“I don’t blame you,” Sierra says.

We lie there for a while longer.

She feels so good in my arms, so warm.

“Sierra?” I say.

“Yeah?” she says.

I almost say it. Tell her how I’ve never talked about my mom to any girl, never taken any girl here.

How, even though I heard about this place years and years ago, I’ve never known any woman I wanted to take here—until now.

But instead, I just hold her closer and say, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” she murmurs.

And because she’s here, I know it’ll be so.

Chapter 20

Sierra

“Rise and shine, beautiful,” Nolan says.

I pause.

I feel lovely, cozy. Warm.

I can hear some robins singing. I can feel a shaft of morning light warming me.

The last thing I want to do is break this beautiful dream.

But when his fingers burrow into my armpit, my eyes snap open as I squeal. “Nolan!”

He just laughs, tickling me furiously, before rushing away with an irreverent grin. “Breakfast’s ready!”

“Ugh, you!” I groan.

“I can eat yours?” he offers, leaning against the side of the cabin with a jaunty smile.

If I had anything to throw at him, I would. As it stands, I just get up and head into the cabin with a determined glare. “This better be good.”

“You’re not much of a morning person, are you?” he jokes.

“Because it’s completely normal to love being woken up via tickling,” I shoot back.

Although my frown can’t stay when I see the feast Nolan’s prepared us: glistening fried eggs, crunchy home fries, crispy bacon and grilled tomato.

“I can think of worse ways to be woken up,” Nolan argues.

“Deadly spider bite,” I agree.

He grins, his eyebrows jumping. “A piano falling on you.”

“Being pushed off a building.”

“An alarm set five minutes after your final exam ended.”

We both chuckle as we sit down.

“I mean it, though.” Nolan’s expression goes faux-concerned as he reaches over to my plate with his fork. “If you’re still too sleepy to eat…”

I elbow his arm away and dig in. “Screw you.”

He’s still all smiles. “Gladly.”

We enjoy our breakfast, then Nolan pounces on me and we make love one more time. And then one more time.

And then… just once more.

When the ‘last time’ we promised each other actually is the last time, I can hardly walk. Him going down on me is nothing short of incredible.

“So, I was thinking,” he says as we drive away, smiling like goofy fools. “If you’re free today, we could have the day to ourselves.”

“Sounds good,” I say.

But when I check my phone a few minutes later, I groan.

“What?” Nolan asks.

“I forgot, I’m supposed to meet the twins today for a late lunch.”

“Ah.” He eyes me. “Well, I’m not going to invite myself into your plans for a second time, but…”

I smirk at him. “Fine.”

“Yeah?” He brightens.

“Yeah,” I say. “They’ve heard enough about you. It’s about time you all meet.”

He makes a faux horrified face. “Should I be worried?”

I raise my eyebrows. “I don’t know, should you?”

“Absolutely not.” Nolan draws himself up with an upward flick of her chin. “A stellar man like myself, I have nothing to worry about.”

I snort.

“Besides,” he continues. “You told me that they too are twins. All twins worldwide have an inborn kinship. You will see.”

I just laugh.

We stop by both our places so we can get changed and I can walk Horatio. By the time we make it to the diner, we’re five minutes late.

“You’re late,” Wynona declares, her navy-blue lipstick lips frowning as she views me, then, when she sees Nolan, “Oh.”

“Ohhhhhhh.” Josie says, her neon pink lips drawing into a smile. “It’s him.”

“It is I,” Nolan agrees pleasantly, throwing out a hand. “A fellow twin.”

Josie snorts, shaking it. “I like him.”

“It’s a bit early for that,” Wynona comments drily.

“Like you and Mr. Lumberjack talking wedding plans?” Josie shoots back innocently.

Wynona cheeks redden. “We were wasted and it wasn’t serious. And his name is Wyatt, as I’ve told you before.”

“My, I have been out of the loop,” I say, grinning at Wynona.

Her scowl gets fiercer as she unconsciously balls up a napkin in her hand. “Enough about me. We’re here finally meeting your Nolan.”

“I like to think of myself as an independent agent,” Nolan remarks placidly.

We all just chuckle.

“So, Sierra isn’t your girlfriend?” Josie says, cocking her blonde pigtailed head.

Her tone doesn’t indicate this is a test, but I can tell from her tell-me-more body language that it is. Josie has uncovered many men’s red flags in this seemingly innocent way.

“She is,” Nolan says without any hesitation. “We just came back from a cabin getaway in the woods, in fact.”

“Aw!” Josie says.

“It was pretty amazing,” I admit, as he and I finally sit down in the booth. “There was this amazing bubble bath—and the stars…”