Page 39 of Reckless With You
“Yeah. That’s not a great word. I have an offer. No, that’s not a great word either. An idea. Yes, an idea. And I need your help.”
Intrigue piqued, I leaned forward, my forearms on my knees. “Okay, an offer. An idea. You need my help. Well, I said I would be here for anything you need. But if you’re going to start with the wordproposition, I’m going to need some details.”
“I need you to be my beard.”
I blinked, tilting my head to look at her. “I have a beard. A small one, but I don’t shave every day. Though I don’t actually know what you mean by that. Do you need me to grow a beard? I can do that, but I don’t like it to get too shaggy.”
She threw her hands up and growled.
Why was that so sexy?
“No, I need you to bemybeard.”
“You’re growing a beard?”
“Oh my God. I need you to be my fake boyfriend. Like a beard?”
I shook my head, wondering why that made no sense. Because, what the fuck?
“Excuse me?”
“Hear me out.”
“Oh, I’m going to. And then we’re going to sit down, and I’m going to force some coffee on you. Because this must be one of the side effects of you not having coffee.”
“I’ve had coffee today. And that’s my problem.”
“Well, maybe we’ll give you some fucking decaf. A fake boyfriend? And isn’t the termbeardlike the exact opposite of what you’re doing? And antiquated?”
“Maybe. But we’re making it ours. And people totally use it.”
“Not in common conversation. Hence why I had no idea what you actually meant. Are you insane? Devin is my best friend.”
“Yes. And that’s a problem.”
“My best fucking friend.”
And, yeah, I had come really hard thinking about her, but I wasn’t going to say that. In fact, it never needed to be said. We would never mention that to Devin. Ever. Because I liked my nuts exactly where they were.
“Okay, I didn’t really think it out. You were just the first person I thought of.” A lovely blush spread over her cheeks, and I had to wonder exactly why I was the first person to come to mind and not Tobey.
I did not want to preen at that. I would not preen at that.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
“Okay, I need you to explain exactly what happened. Use small words and go slowly. Short sentences. Why the fuck do you need a fake relationship? Is it because of Tobey? Because you don’t need to prove anything to that fuckhead or anyone else.”
“Stop calling him names.”
“He made you cry. I can call him whatever the fuck I want.” I hadn’t meant to put that much vehemence in my tone, but her eyes widened, and her mouth parted.
“Sorry. He made you cry. And I’m not okay with that. I don’t like how he treated you, and I don’t like the way you keep beating yourself up over it. You’re allowed to have feelings. You’re allowed to love somebody.” Not that I thought it was actually love, but I was in no way qualified to go into someone’s feelings. For all I knew, Amelia really loved the asshole.
“Tucker.”
“Don’tTuckerme. I don’t like the way he treated you. So, he’s always going to be an asshole in my eyes. You do not need to bring up a fake relationship and pretend that you’re happy or doing better than he is or whatever you’re trying to do here. You simply need to be yourself, and that will prove that. He’ll see what he’s missing. Because he knows he’s missing a damn fine thing with you. And not just being your friend. You know that. Everybody should know that.”
I hadn’t meant to say all that. And from the look in her eyes, she hadn’t expected me to say it either.