Page 66 of Rival Darling

“Uh, yeah.” He glanced away from me, and while he’d sounded confident at first, he now seemed uncertain. Was he already regretting the invitation?

“We should probably do something together this weekend if we’re going to keep up this relationship ruse,” he said. “Plus, my mom found out we were dating. She got all excited and wants to meet you. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her we’re not for real. I know it’s a lot to ask though, so we can figure out something else if you want.”

“Your family doesn’t know about our…arrangement?”

“Only Grayson does,” he replied. “I didn’t want to tell my parents, and my other siblings can’t be trusted.”

“You’re talking about Parker, right?”

“And my younger sister, Cammie.”

“There’s another one of you?”

Reed laughed. “Yeah, and she’s the scariest one of us all.”

I drew in a breath as I considered his request. I was definitely anxious about the idea of going to Reed’s house for a family dinner. We were only pretending to date, and meeting the family was most definitely something you did with a real boyfriend.

In my experience, getting introduced to your boyfriend’s family, fake or not, was also a very stressful experience. At least, it had been with Jeremy’s parents. They’d taken us out to a restaurant, and they grilled me with questions for the first half of it, and then we pretty much sat in silence for the second half. The whole thing had been completely awkward, and I wasn’t sure I was prepared to subject myself to something like that again.

“I’m taking your silence for a hell no,” Reed said.

“Sorry, it’s not that.” I hadn’t realized I’d been quiet for quite so long. “I was just thinking about the last family dinner I went to for a guy. It didn’t go very well.”

“Well, I’m going to assume you’re talking about Hoffman, in which case I can guarantee that says more about him and his family than you.”

I slowly nodded. “It was like interviewing for a job I wasn’t qualified for.”

“Well, you can be sure dinner at my house won’t feel like that.”

Still, I hesitated. What if Reed’s family hated me as much as Jeremy’s? It shouldn’t matter since our relationship wasn’t real and would be over soon, but a part of me still wanted them to like me.

“Remind me, how exactly does this help our fake relationship?” I asked.

“Well, you’d be helping me out by getting my mom off my back about meeting you,” he said. “But I was thinking we could take some pictures of us together for social media. I barely post about anything other than hockey, so if I put something up showing us together, with my family, that would definitely prove we’re serious.” He was rambling a bit, which was totally unlike him.

“I guess we can’t really show off our relationship at your school,” I added. “This could be good way to get the message across to all those girls chasing you. Are they still giving you a hard time about the winter formal?” I did my best to sound unaffected, but my stomach twisted uncomfortably as I spoke.

“Uh, sure.”

I felt conflicted by the thought of other girls throwing themselves at Reed, and I wished I hadn’t brought it up. It was a strange position to be in. I shouldn’t be bothered about it because he wasn’t really my boyfriend, but those girls didn’t know that our relationship was fake. And all I could think was that they needed to back off.

“I guess I better come over for family dinner then,” I said before I could reconsider.

“Great.” Reed grinned. “I’ll swing by and pick you up on Sunday.”

Reed’s truck came rumbling down the street, and as it pulled up behind Betty, I could see Parker behind the wheel. His eyes lit up when he saw the two of us, and I had a bad feeling he was cooking up some kind of mischief.

“That’s my ride.” Reed didn’t hesitate as he made his way toward the truck. He was probably worried about what Parker had planned too.

“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you on Sunday,” I said.

“See you then.” He grinned before he climbed into the truck.

I released a sigh as I watched him drive away. I hadn’t expected to see Reed today, and I found I was disappointed our meeting had been so brief.

I was delighted to get Betty back though, and I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at her. It had been incredibly generous of Reed’s dad to fix my car free of charge and sweet of Reed to drop it off to me.

“So, Betty has returned,” Mia said when I entered the house. She was waiting in the front living room, standing suspiciously close to the window. She’d clearly been peering through the curtain.