Page 43 of Reckless With You

“No, I can’t. I love my family. And they love me.”

“Then why do I need to be your beard, Amelia?”

“Now you’re using the word.”

He stepped into the house even though I hadn’t actually invited him in. That’s what happened when I was a little off. I became rude.

“I don’t know. I don’t want them to worry about me. Can I just have a minute where I don’t have to keep being that sister?”

“They don’t think of you like that. They love you.”

“You say that, and yet they were the ones always worried that I was making a mistake by not being with Tobey. Or by being with him. And then look what happened.”

“But that’s not your fault.”

“We can agree to disagree that it was sort of my fault.”

He sighed. “I’m here for you. I said I would be. Just make sure you put ice on my bruises once your brother kicks my ass.”

“He’s not going to hurt you,” I said quickly, wincing. “Though he might. He’s strong. I really should have used someone else.”

Tucker narrowed his eyes. “No. You shouldn’t have. Because someone else would have taken advantage. And I won’t do that. I’m just going to make sure that everyone knows you’re fine and that we’re keeping this casual. And that I am in no way going to hurt their precious baby sister.”

For some reason, that sent warm flutters down into my stomach, but I quickly brushed them away. I put on my leather jacket and pulled my purse over my shoulder. “I really wish they would stop calling me their precious baby sister. I’m not precious.”

Tucker reached out and slid a piece of hair behind my shoulder, the wisp of it delicate on my skin. He was so gentle with me. As if I were indeed precious. “Baby, you are. At least, to them.”

I looked at his eyes, swallowing hard. Damn it. He was really good at that smooth-talking thing. No wonder all the women fell for him. Wasn’t going to be me, though. No, thank you.

“Okay. Let’s just get this over with,” I said quickly, pushing past him to the door.

“Not so fast,” he said, putting his hand on the door to block me.

“What? Did I forget something?”

“Yeah. Like how we’re dating. The story. How many lies I’m supposed to tell my best friend. Because I really shouldn’t be lying to him at all, you know.”

I heard the guilt in his voice, and I knew he was doing this for me. Only I didn’t know why. And that worried me. But then I remembered the looks on everyone’s faces. The pity. And it was just a little lie. Maybe if we went on enough fake dates, it would even become real. At least in terms of the technicalities. Because there would be no feelings involved. We were already casual. A little more wouldn’t be that far off the mark.

“I don’t know. Maybe keep it as real as possible?”

“So…say I saw your boobs after you threw up and couldn’t keep my hands off you?”

Yes, completely deadpan.

I put my hands on my face and screamed into them. “Oh my God. We’re never telling that story.”

“Mmm, I might. Maybe not to your brothers because they may actually kill me, but to someone.” He grinned as I lowered my hands and punched him in the stomach.

Sadly, I only hurt my hand, he was that solid. I shook it off. “How many days do you work out? It’s ridiculous. Don’t you have a full-time job?”

“I do. One that I put in far too many hours for.” He rubbed his stomach and then smiled. I hated that smile. Actually, maybe I kind of liked it. “I’m just blessed with good genes, though I do work out a lot. But, okay. We’ll go with part of the truth. I can do that. You had a bad day, got drunk, I took care of you, and things progressed slowly from there. So we’re casual. Friends who hang out.”

“That’s fine. And that’s really almost totally the truth. We are friends.”

“Even though you said you were dating me.”

“Well, yes. But that’s only a little addition. It’s not too crazy. Right?”