Page 51 of Decidedly Off Limits

“Holly mentioned you’re a physical therapist,” he said. Holly spotted someone she knew and left us. Alone.

“Yes, I am…at the children’s hospital.”

“They’re looking for a physical therapist here, if you’re interested.”

Okay, so maybe Holly hadn’t been trying to set me up with him after all. “Thanks, but I love my job. And I love working with the kids.”

We started walking toward Holly and her friend.

“Would you be interested in going out with me next weekend?” Caleb casually asked.

If it hadn’t been for what happened during the hike yesterday, I would have said yes. And maybe I was an idiot for not saying yes, given that what Trent and I were going to do wouldn’t amount to anything beyond satisfying sex. “I’m sorry, I’m seeing someone.”

“You are? Holly said you’re single.”

“It just happened. She doesn’t even know about it.”

“Is it serious?”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “It’s serious enough that we’ve agreed to be exclusive.” Not that it meant much when neither Trent nor I wanted a serious relationship right now.

“If you change your mind,” he said. “You know where to find me.”

Holly approached and glanced between me and Caleb, the eager expression on her face hard to miss.

“I guess I wasn’t fast enough,” he said to her. “She’s already seeing someone.”

Her eyes widened to the size of tennis balls, then narrowed at me. Inwardly I groaned.Brilliant going, Kels. I guess I should have thought of that before telling Caleb that I was seeing someone.

He left and I braced myself for what was coming next.

“So do you want to explain why you told him you’re seeing someone?” Holly asked and I winced.

I couldn’t tell her the truth and I had no intention of lying to her. So I did the next best thing—I changed topic.

“How long have you been playing tennis? I knew you were going to be good, but I never expected you to be that good.”

Rule #1 for changing the topic: pick one that focuses on the other person and flatter them to death.

“Nice try, Kelsey, but it’s not going to work. Spill it.”

So much for rule #1.

“It’s really no big deal,” I told her. If rule #1 didn’t work? Try rule #2.

Too bad I didn’t know what that was.

Her face glowed, and it had nothing to do with the sun shining on it. “If you’re not dating Josh, then who are you seeing?”

“Um, no one you know.” Although for all I knew, she did know Chris Hemsworth. Not that she would guess he was my make-believe boyfriend.

“I would love to meet him. Maybe you and I can double date with him and Trent some time.”

That was right—all the gods in the universe had planned to torture me. They couldn’t have done a better job than if they had tied me up and made me watch a twenty-four-hour marathon of a lame sitcom, minus the commercial breaks.

I glanced up at the sky and silently cursed them.

My phone played Trent’s song. The temptation to ignore it wrapped around me, but Holly knew it was his song and was peering at me expectantly.