Page 30 of My Fake Relationship With the Popular Boy (Port Lane Romances #1)

Butterflies erupted in my stomach. Even though I knew he didn’t really mean it, he was probably just saying it because my dad was close by and he wanted to prove that the relationship was real, I still loved to hear it.

“Okay,” I said, trying to suppress my grin. “Um, thanks. I’ll be down in a minute. Do you want me to bring you a towel or anything?”

“Nah, I think it will be fine,” Jaxon said. He ran a hand through his wet hair. “I’m already drying off.”

“Well, if you change your mind, there’s extra towels in the main floor bathroom,” I said.

He nodded. I squeezed his hand quickly then sprinted upstairs.

I got changed quickly, not wanting to leave Jaxon with my dad for too long.

God only knew what they might talk about.

But despite my rush, I took my time leaving the jacket spread out on the back of the chair so it could dry nicely.

I bit my lip and pressed my mouth to my hand as I looked at it sitting there.

Jaxon was a surprisingly good boyfriend.

I wondered whether he ever gave his other girlfriends his favourite clothes or if he saved that just for me.

Not that I was his girlfriend — that was like the fifth time in the last 24 hours that I had to remind myself of that.

Of course, he was giving me his clothes.

He wanted everyone else to see how much he “loved” me, wanted everyone to talk about it.

He didn’t have feelings for me and I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about him like this.

When I got back downstairs, Jaxon was sitting at the table and seemed to be in the midst of a jovial conversation with my dad.

I couldn’t quite understand the context of the conversation, having arrived halfway through, but it was clear that they were getting along really well.

I was a little taken aback at how quickly that happened.

I knew my dad liked Jaxon’s parents but that didn’t really guarantee anything.

I stayed mostly silent while I ate, just listening to them converse.

The topic of conversation soon turned to university — where Jaxon was going, what he was majoring in, did he think he was going to keep running for all four years…

It was like my dad was trying to subtly figure out if he thought Jaxon was good enough for me.

Based on the way he was smiling, I would say yes.

Just as we were finishing eating, Jaxon’s phone dinged loudly.

“Sorry,” he said. He turned the ringer off as he glanced at the text message he’d received.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s just Eli asking if I want to come over now,” Jaxon said. He glanced outside. “Huh, I guess the rain really is over already. He wants to go in the hot tub.”

“Hot tub?” I asked. “That’s fun.”

Eli had just gotten the hot tub a couple of months ago and he was still really excited about it. For the first three weeks that he’s had it, I’d gone over every day to go in it. It got to the point that I just left a bathing suit at his house for whenever I came over.

“Do you want to come?” Jaxon asked.

“Oh, I don’t want to intrude,” I said.

“It wouldn’t be intruding at all. It would be fun,” Jaxon said. He looked to my dad. “That is, as long as you didn’t have any plans with Violet today, sir. I know she just got back from the trip so you probably want to spend time with her.”

Dad smiled kindly and shook his head. “No, that’s okay. I’m sure we’ll spend plenty of time together this week.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. We had gone out for dinner the night before but I didn’t know if he had anything planned for today and I didn’t want him to feel like I was just abandoning him to go out with my friends.

“I’m sure,” he said. “Go have fun with them. I’ll just do some work around the house today.”

He seemed really sincere so I nodded and stood up.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Thank you for breakfast, sir,” Jaxon said, standing as well. He shook Dad’s hand.

“My pleasure,” Dad said. “I hope to see you again soon.”

Jaxon smiled at me then looked to him again. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll be around quite a bit.”

I assumed we were just going to walk to Eli’s place since he lived so close, but when we got outside, Jaxon walked over to our covered driveway. I hadn’t noticed before, but he’d brought his bicycle with him.

“Did you bike over here to go for a run?” I asked.

“What else was I going to do?” Jaxon asked as he unlocked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe drive? Like a normal person?”

Jaxon grinned and walked the bike over to me.

“I needed the exercise,” he said.

“That’s what the run was for.”

Jaxon shrugged. “Yeah, but now if I swim too, it’ll be like I’m training for a triathlon.”

I laughed. “You’re an idiot.”

“But I’m your idiot,” Jaxon said in a false sweet voice. He threw his leg over his bike. “Hop on.”

“What?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. I was surprised he was even riding the bike over. Eli lived so close that it wouldn’t be work at all to just walk the bike there.

“Sit on the rack,” he said. There was a small rack over the back wheel that was designed to carry stuff. I’d seen him attach a milk crate to it and carry stuff around like that, but never a person. “You’ll fit.”

“There is no way I am riding on the back of your bike when I could just walk over,” I said.

“Come on!” he said. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

“Apparently it draws the line at riding your bike,” I said drily.

“It will be fun.”

“It absolutely won’t be.”

“You can’t know until you try.”

“I can and I do.”

“People in the Netherlands do this all the time.”

Jaxon and Sabrina had cousins in the Netherlands and visited them quite frequently, so I had no reason to doubt his words, but it also didn’t make me any more inclined to do this.

“Good for them,” I said. He looked at me in a way that I think was him attempting to pout with puppy dog eyes, but just looked weird.

“Please, Violet?” he asked.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “You know, in the time we’ve been arguing, we could have walked over already.”

“You know what we could have done even faster?” he asked. He looked at me like he was about to change my world. “Bike there.”

I rolled my eyes but laughed a little. I hated that he could make me laugh so easily.

“Fine,” I said. “But if I fall and hurt myself then you have to help me. And admit I was right.”

“Would be glad to do it,” he said.

I awkwardly got on to the back of the bike, the movement feeling strange and unnatural. The rack was not comfortable whatsoever, but I couldn’t complain, given that it was such a short trip.

“Wrap your arms around me,” he said. “It will help with your balance. Then take your feet off the ground.”

I grimaced as I did what he said. A second later, he started pedalling. The ride was smoother than I expected but still not particularly comfortable.

“I hate this.”

“It’ll be quick, I promise.”

“It was also completely unnecessary,” I said.

“Yeah, well.” I guess he didn’t have a good comeback for that because he just left the sentence hanging there. He turned onto Eli’s driveway and stopped just in front of his garage door. As soon as I felt it was safe to do so, I jumped up.

“See that wasn’t so bad,” Jaxon said. I just glared at him and then headed inside. He followed behind me, laughing. The sound of it made my, admittedly limited, annoyance go away. I’d give in to almost anything he wanted just to hear that genuine laugh.