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“No.” I laughed, rubbing my nose against my sleeve. “I love my family, but nothing about that trip sounds appealing to me.”

The wooden chair creaked as he shifted his weight. “To be honest, it’s weird to see Aubrey married with kids.”

“Why?”

“In high school? She was kind of wild.”

“Aubrey? My sister, Aubrey?” Was he sure he had the right person?

“She used to sneak out all the time and could drink the defensive line under the table.”

This was mind-boggling information. “I’ve spent so many years in her perfect shadow.” I felt ... cheated, somehow. “I’ve always been trying to either measure up to Aubrey or be better than Rory.”

He reached over, taking my hand. And the same pleasurable warmth filled me; I just didn’t feel so skittish this time. “Why don’t you just be Ashton? Because she’s pretty wonderful.”

How could that make my heart sink and be filled with hope at the same time? “Really?”

“I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about you,” he confessed.

I gripped his hand harder. “That’s a big word.Inordinate.”

“I went to college, thanks. But I wouldn’t spend that much time thinking about somebody who wasn’t worth it. You’re amazing, Ashton. And I know this engagement is pretend, but I think there’s something here. Something worth exploring. Something very real. What do you think?”

What did I think? At the moment I couldn’t think at all.

So I did the only thing I could.

I burst into tears.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Whoa, hey. I didn’t know the idea of dating me would make you cry.” He got up out of his chair and crouched down in front of me, his arm resting on my knees, the other going to wipe away my tears. “I have to admit, it’s kind of a blow to the ego.”

I laughed in between sobs. “It’s not that. It’s ... my family loves you.”

“Yeah, the same family that you said hated me, right? I mean, if that’s what happens to guys they don’t like, I’d hate to see how they act with people they love.”

He didn’t understand what I was trying to say, so I ignored his snark. “Even my mom, who is basically a pessimist, is excited about you. They adore you.”

“I’m ... sorry? I don’t know how to make you feel better about that. I could go back inside and insult your dad and hit on your sisters if that would make you feel better.”

He joked, but he wouldn’t if he knew what I’d been trying to do to him. “There are things you don’t know about me. Things I haven’t told you.”

“Do you like me?”

His question shocked me. I had expected him to pump me for information, asking me what I was keeping from him. “What?”

“Are you attracted to me? Do you like being with me? Do you think about me the way I think about you? Because if the answer to those questions is yes, and my answer is yes, which, to be clear, it is, then nothing else matters to me right now.”

It didn’t matter right now. But it would at some point.

I wanted one stolen moment with him before that happened. The chance to be held and kissed and desired before it went away.

To believe in unicorns and rainbows and boy bands again. For one brief instant it wouldn’t matter that I’d been spending my time doing something awful behind his back. To believe we could be here, right now, just the two of us, and nothing else in the world could possibly interfere.

“Yes.” After I said the word, I threw my arms around his neck and pressed my lips against his. I heard a surprised sound in the back of his throat, but the reflexes that had made him an NFL superstar had him quickly responding.

He stood up, pulling me with him, my body pressed flush against his. My feet weren’t even touching the ground as he held me aloft. I wrapped my arms around his neck and let out all my pent-up attraction, kissing him over and over again.