Page 25 of Among the Stars

The flinch was nearly imperceptible. “Why am I doing what?”

“Helping him.” Cam leaned forward. “You drank yourself into unconsciousness last night over this man, yet you’re willing to come here on his behalf. To help him marry another woman. Why?”

Veronica’s eyes dropped to her lap. “Ash is my best friend. This is what you do for friends.”

A commendable, if masochistic, sentiment.

“The third floor is yours. How early will we need to close off the stairs?”

Her face jerked up, her blue eyes wide. “Seriously?” His charmingly disarming Veronica was back.

“Yes.” Cam rose from his chair. “Bring them by tomorrow and we can settle the details. I assume they want food.”

“Um, sure. But there’s one more thing,” she said, less confident than she’d been so far. “Ash thinks we’re together.”

He probably should have seen this coming. “And you didn’t correct him.”

Anger flashed in her eyes. “Call me crazy, but that little stunt you pulled this afternoon gives a pretty good indication that pretending to date me wasn’t overly difficult for you. I’m not asking you to marry me. Just keep up the pretense for one more week. When they come back from their honeymoon, I’ll tell him we didn’t work out.” One golden brow arched. “It’ll be your fault, of course.”

She was proving a worthy opponent, and Cam accepted the challenge before him. “We’ll see about that.”

“Holy shit,” she whispered. “You’re smiling.”

Cam sobered. “Excuse me?”

“You smiled. No wonder you don’t do it often. That’s a weapon of mass panty-melting destruction.”

“Panty-melting?” he repeated.

“Yes,” she affirmed. “You even have dimples. No woman would stand a chance with that combination.”

Despite himself, Cam fought a full-out grin. “You’re one of a kind, Ms. Shepherd.”

“Technically, I’ll be two of a kind in a week.” Rising to her feet, she shared a smile of her own. “But if you keep flashing those dimples, I might not care.”