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Ana hugged me.
“It’s not real anyway. It’s a ruse,” I confessed.
Lexi’s jaw dropped.
Ashlyn snorted.
Heat hit my cheeks hard and fast. I’d thought I’d liked her but now I wasn’t so sure. I was just as surprised as the rest of them when the truth popped out.
Ashlyn exchanged a look with Harper, and finally controlled herself.
My body stiffened with embarrassment, and I wondered if it would be rude to leave.
Ashlyn squirmed in her seat. “I’m sorry I made you feel uncomfortable. Please forgive me. I’m not laughing at you. Truly.”
She reached across the table, put her hand over mine, and squeezed. “It’s just that Dean and I, we started out that way too. And now look at us.” She pointed to her wedding rings.
Now that her reaction made more sense I relaxed a smidge. I believed her. “Trust me, it’s not like that with me and Killian.”
Ashlyn withdrew her hand. “Why do you think that?”
“It’s … because it’s Killian. If he wanted to date me for real, wouldn’t he have said that, oh I don’t know,anytimein the last fifteen years and not come up with this elaborate scheme? He thinks that by saying we’re dating, it’ll get guys to notice me more.”
Harper shrugged. “He’s not wrong. Guys definitely started to pay more attention to me when it came out that Lincoln and I were together.”
Lexi shook her head. “But I was there in his apartment with you. Jenn and I both saw how you looked at each other.”
I waved my hand in dismissal. “What you saw was an old friendship between two childhood best friends.”
Ana snorted. “Nah, girl. If that’s just friendship between you two, I want a friend like that.”
I gaped at her. “When did you … ”
“That day when Hottie McHottie was standing outside your door. It was like the best soap opera ever when those workers showed up, and then Killian. The heat coming from him directed at you was nuclear. And you looked so darn cute together.” The nuclear heat that Ana seemed to remember was me being pissed at Killian.
I’d forgotten she’d been there when Max tried to pick me up.
She pointed at me. “And you never did tell me what was going on or why a team of people were installing cameras at your apartment.”
“Killian wanted me to be safe,” I mumbled.
“Won’t your landlord have something to say about that?” Hazel asked while sneaking a bite of dessert off Jess’s plate.
“No.” I hoped to leave it at that.
“We just got notice that the building has a new owner. Maybe he or she won’t care.” Ana jumped in.
I dropped my gaze to stare at the beautiful mini apple cake I’d been picking at. “Yeah, he’s good with it.”
“When did you talk to him?” Ana, not one to let things go, asked. “Is he nice?”
“That day. And sort of.” I prayed this conversation would shift soon.
“Could you give me his info since the new building manager hasn’t started yet? I have a few things I need looked at.” Ana was so sweetly oblivious to the sweat beading my brow.
“I can reach out to him,” I said quickly.
The girls around the table stared at me with quizzical looks on their faces. What Ana was missing in our conversational subtext they seemed to be picking up.