Page 41

actually want a girlfriend and that was because even at thirty-five, he wasn’t

near ready to settle down. he wanted to keep playing the field. If his mom

found out that he was continuing his streak of one-night stands when he was

supposed to have a girlfriend, Kiera figured that she’d probably castrate

him. No, Gwen was way too nice for that. Shane was the freaking apple of

her eye. He was an only child too, which kind of explained why his mom

was both way too clingy and semi-frantic for a grandchild.

“Hey,” Kiera responded after far too much silence. “I-I’m just coming

back from a pick. Going to be a couple hours yet.”

“That’s fine. I was just calling to see if you’d like to have dinner

tomorrow night. Mom invited us over. Again.”

“That sounds great. What time?”

“I’ll pick you up at six?”

“Sounds good. I’ll be ready. Should I bring anything?”

“Considering Mom always makes enough food to feed twenty of us, I’d

say she’s good. If you wanted to bring some wine, though, I don’t think

she’d refuse it.”

“Okay. Will do.”

“I can’t wait to see you, honey buns. I’ve missed you.”

For the love of… “I’ve missed you too,” she scraped out. “See you

tomorrow.” Kiera punched the button to end the call before Shane could

spew anything else. He kind of thought the whole fake relationship was

funny and when his mom wasn’t around, he wasn’t immune to making her

regret ever entering into it with his disgustingly fake terms of endearment.

She wondered what kind of pickup lines Shane used on the women he

actually slept with. Gross. It was enough that every single time Shane

hugged her or kissed her or put his hand on her ass or whatever, her skin

crawled. She didn’t want to actually start thinking about where those hands

and lips had been.

“Your boyfriend sounds nice,” Romi said sweetly.