The Sweetest Fix

She giggled, scooting closer to him, sighing over the way he lifted his arm automatically to let her into the warmth of his side, lifting the comforter over them both. With her head resting on his shoulder, their legs twining together in a tangle, Leo and Reese finally got their nap. With her body so deeply sated and the comfort Leo provided wrapped around her, Reese slept more deeply than she could ever remember, waking up with no idea of the time, a lopsided bun on her head and deliciously sore muscles.

Reluctantly disengaging from Leo, she sat up and stretched her arms up over her head, purring in her throat, when Leo lifted a hand, trailing his fingertips down the center of her bare breast, perking the nipple right up.

“We’ve either been asleep five minutes,” she said around a yawn. “Or five years.”

He hummed, his palm skimming down over her belly. “What time is your curtain call tonight?”

Thank God she wasn’t facing Leo or he would have witnessed the blood draining from her face. The pulse in her neck started hammering a million miles an hour, guilt and alarm colliding in her belly. “Um…” Weeknight. Shows are at seven. “Six o’clock.”

When Leo stiffened beside her, Reese assumed her answer must have been implausible. Good. She was caught. Part of her was relieved. How could she share such perfect intimacy with someone while being a total fraud? “Reese…” Leo started, sitting up. “It’s five-forty-nine.”

In other words, she was late for her fake job.

This is why lies were poisonous. It was never just one. One was only the beginning.

Reese looked around Leo’s cozy apartment. Through the door, she could see his perfect, grown-up kitchen. Just down the street, he had his own successful business. Knew exactly who he was, what he wanted, how to get it. Meanwhile, she’d reached for her dreams over and over, failing—just look at this afternoon—and the humiliation scrabbled up her spine.

She couldn’t make herself turn to him and admit she was an unemployed dancer. That their meeting hadn’t been random. That she was actually in New York on a shoestring budget, taking one final shot at glory. The odds of her succeeding were so precarious, she couldn’t even talk about it out loud, lest they topple completely. Lest someone say to her, out loud, what a ridiculous idea it had been to stay. To try at all.

Well if she wasn’t woman enough to tell Leo the truth, then…right here, right now, is where she needed to break it off. Right? She’d gotten in too deep, never expected to…to bond with him so quickly and completely. Meaning, the longer she waited, the harder this would be.

With her heart lodged in her throat, Reese pushed out of bed, trying to remember where she’d put her clothes. Right. They were in her bag. “Whoops.” She swallowed hard and left the bedroom, beelining for her duffel. “Good thing we’re not too far away.”

As quickly as possible, she pulled on her red bodysuit and loose pants, not bothering with the underwear. She sensed Leo watching from the doorway of his bedroom and heat pressed in behind her eyes. “I could come watch you dance sometime,” he said.

Oh God. How far had she expected to take this lie?

“Yeah. I don’t know,” she returned, standing and shouldering her bag without turning around. “That would be like, a really big step. You know?”

Leo said nothing.

The acidic words that would end their budding relationship completely sat heavily on her tongue, but she couldn’t bring herself to say them. To outright hurt him. It was hard to believe, but in a short space of time, she’d fallen for Leo. Causing him pain simply wasn’t in her repertoire. Reese schooled her features and turned, sending him a quick smile over her shoulder.

“I should run,” she blurted, turning the deadbolt lock and jogging out into the hallway, out of the building and onto the sidewalk, the memory of his somber expression haunting her all the way back to her rented closet.

Chapter 12

Leo stared through gritty eyes at the cheerfully written note on the dry erase board.

Today is Saturday the sixth. Only eight days until Valentine’s Day!

He pounded his fist into the pastry dough a little harder than necessary, wanting nothing more than to scrap the Sweetest Fix idea. It might have great margins and invited more local interest in the bakery, but every time Jackie handed him a new order, he thought of Reese and the way he fucked everything up so spectacularly. Asking to see her perform had been too much too soon. He could still remember the way her shoulders stiffened at the suggestion.

Buying a ticket to a performance might not seem like a huge deal to most, but in the world of behind the scenes Broadway, it means things were tipping toward serious. If he’d just taken a moment to think, he might have taken a more cautious approach with Reese. After all, she’d originally turned him down for a date before grudgingly agreeing. Then she’d tried to cancel. When he finally got her pinned down—literally and figuratively—he’d read way too much into her interest. Assumed it matched his own.