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“Ah, yeah.” Reed rubbed the side of his neck as though my reaction was making him uncomfortable. Maybe his dad wasn’t as happy to fix Betty for free as Reed was making out.

“Please, I insist, just let me pay for the repairs.”

He shook his head though. “You can insist all you want, but like I said, you got the ‘Reed Darling girlfriend’ special. Dad won’t hear of you paying for it.”

“But I’m not even your real girlfriend.” I instinctively lowered my voice as I said it.

“It’s fine, Sunshine. Seriously.”

I folded my arms over my chest. I really wasn’t comfortable with this, but I didn’t want to sound ungrateful. “Well, will you thank him for me?”

“You can do it yourself on Saturday at my game, if you’re free?”

“You’ve got a game on Saturday?”

“In the afternoon. I’m well aware of your opinions on hockey, but it would probably help with this whole fake relationship thing if you were there.”

“Oh,” I murmured. “I guess so, but I don’t think I can come. I’m scheduled to work this Saturday afternoon.”

“Okay, no problem.” His relaxed response was such a stark contrast to the way Jeremy would have replied if I’d told him I couldn’t make a game. I had no doubt he would have suggested I change my shift and then made me feel guilty when I couldn’t.

“How about Sunday night then? Would you like to come over for family dinner?”

“Family dinner?” I struggled to hide my surprise.

“Uh, yeah.” He glanced away from me, and while he’d sounded confident at first, he now seemed uncertain. Was he already regretting the invitation?

“We should probably do something together this weekend if we’re going to keep up this relationship ruse,” he said.

“Plus, my mom found out we were dating. She got all excited and wants to meet you. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her we’re not for real.

I know it’s a lot to ask though, so we can figure out something else if you want. ”

“Your family doesn’t know about our…arrangement?”

“Only Grayson does,” he replied. “I didn’t want to tell my parents, and my other siblings can’t be trusted.”

“You’re talking about Parker, right?”

“And my younger sister, Cammie.”

“There’s another one of you?”

Reed laughed. “Yeah, and she’s the scariest one of us all.”

I drew in a breath as I considered his request. I was definitely anxious about the idea of going to Reed’s house for a family dinner. We were only pretending to date, and meeting the family was most definitely something you did with a real boyfriend.

In my experience, getting introduced to your boyfriend’s family, fake or not, was also a very stressful experience.

At least, it had been with Jeremy’s parents.

They’d taken us out to a restaurant, and they grilled me with questions for the first half of it, and then we pretty much sat in silence for the second half.

The whole thing had been completely awkward, and I wasn’t sure I was prepared to subject myself to something like that again.

“I’m taking your silence for a hell no,” Reed said.

“Sorry, it’s not that.” I hadn’t realized I’d been quiet for quite so long. “I was just thinking about the last family dinner I went to for a guy. It didn’t go very well.”

“Well, I’m going to assume you’re talking about Hoffman, in which case I can guarantee that says more about him and his family than you.”

I slowly nodded. “It was like interviewing for a job I wasn’t qualified for.”

“Well, you can be sure dinner at my house won’t feel like that.”

Still, I hesitated. What if Reed’s family hated me as much as Jeremy’s? It shouldn’t matter since our relationship wasn’t real and would be over soon, but a part of me still wanted them to like me.

“Remind me, how exactly does this help our fake relationship?” I asked.

“Well, you’d be helping me out by getting my mom off my back about meeting you,” he said.

“But I was thinking we could take some pictures of us together for social media. I barely post about anything other than hockey, so if I put something up showing us together, with my family, that would definitely prove we’re serious.

” He was rambling a bit, which was totally unlike him.

“I guess we can’t really show off our relationship at your school,” I added.

“This could be good way to get the message across to all those girls chasing you. Are they still giving you a hard time about the winter formal?” I did my best to sound unaffected, but my stomach twisted uncomfortably as I spoke.

“Uh, sure.”

I felt conflicted by the thought of other girls throwing themselves at Reed, and I wished I hadn’t brought it up.

It was a strange position to be in. I shouldn’t be bothered about it because he wasn’t really my boyfriend, but those girls didn’t know that our relationship was fake.

And all I could think was that they needed to back off.

“I guess I better come over for family dinner then,” I said before I could reconsider.

“Great.” Reed grinned. “I’ll swing by and pick you up on Sunday.”

Reed’s truck came rumbling down the street, and as it pulled up behind Betty, I could see Parker behind the wheel. His eyes lit up when he saw the two of us, and I had a bad feeling he was cooking up some kind of mischief.

“That’s my ride.” Reed didn’t hesitate as he made his way toward the truck. He was probably worried about what Parker had planned too.

“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you on Sunday,” I said.

“See you then.” He grinned before he climbed into the truck.

I released a sigh as I watched him drive away. I hadn’t expected to see Reed today, and I found I was disappointed our meeting had been so brief.

I was delighted to get Betty back though, and I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at her. It had been incredibly generous of Reed’s dad to fix my car free of charge and sweet of Reed to drop it off to me.

“So, Betty has returned,” Mia said when I entered the house. She was waiting in the front living room, standing suspiciously close to the window. She’d clearly been peering through the curtain.

“She has.” I smirked. “Enjoy the show?”

“I was only looking out for you.” She collapsed onto the couch. "Had to make sure you didn’t get abducted by a Darling Devil.”

“He wasn’t going to abduct me. He brought me my car.”

She shrugged as if that did little to convince her. “Reed doesn’t seem nearly so scary when he’s smiling,” she commented. “And he smiles a lot when you’re around…”

My eyes narrowed on her. “He’s just playing the part of my fake boyfriend.”

“And those pining looks were just him playing the part too?”

“There were no pining looks!”

“There were so pining looks. Reed is totally hot for you.”

“He’s not even lukewarm for me.”

“He’s a boiling kettle about to start whistling.”

Now she was just being ridiculous.

“Hey, Violet,” Uncle Luke called from the hallway. “Is that your car out on the street?”

“Yep,” I called back. “She’s all fixed.”

Luke appeared in the doorway, a familiar look of suspicion etched on his face. "I was supposed to come with you to pay the invoice.”

“I told you I had it covered,” I replied. He’d insisted on helping out, but I’d constantly refused. Apparently, the decision about who was paying for the repairs had been made for us. But there was no way I could tell Luke that without him worrying why my repairs were free.

“How did it get here?” he questioned, folding his arms across his chest.

I glanced at Mia, unsure how to answer. She simply grimaced and averted her eyes, like she didn’t want to get involved.

“Uh…” I paused, giving myself one more chance to come up with a believable story. But there was no point in lying to Luke. He’d find out eventually. “Reed dropped it off.”

“Reed Darling was here?”

“Well, he was outside. He just dropped off the car and left. All part of the service, I guess.”

“All part of the service, huh?” Luke repeated my answer, almost too himself. “You sure there’s nothing else I need to know?”

“Nope.” I smiled sweetly.

He didn’t look convinced, but he eventually nodded. “Okay, well, I’m glad you got your car back.” He studied me and Mia for a few seconds longer before he gave up and left the room.

As soon as he was gone, I released a loud breath, and Mia fell into fits of hushed laughter.

“Oh my god,” she gasped. “I don’t even want to know how much my dad would freak out if he knew you were dating Reed Darling.”

“We’re not really dating,” I hissed at her. “And keep your voice down.”

“You know what I mean.”

I relaxed back on the couch and stared up at the ceiling. “With the way gossip spreads at our school, he’s probably already heard something.”

“He can’t have heard,” Mia said. “If he had, you’d be locked in your room right now, and he’d be escorting you to and from school. That’s what he’d do if he found out I was dating one of the Darling Devils.”

“I guess it’s different with me.” I shrugged. “I’m just his niece.”

“You’re not just his niece,” Mia argued. “You’re like his adopted second daughter. He’d go to bat for you just as viciously as he would for me if he needed to.”

My cheeks flushed, and I slowly nodded. Mia didn’t know how much it meant to me to hear her say that.

To know I had at least one parental figure in my corner.

Especially when I’d barely heard from my mom other than a few texts in weeks.

She had some big show she was preparing for, and apparently that took precedence over checking in on her daughter.

It was hardly something new, but at least when we’d lived together, I’d see her briefly in the mornings and when she came home at night.

“I guess he hasn’t heard then,” I agreed. “Might be hard to stop him finding out when Reed comes to pick me up on Sunday.”

“What?” Mia gasped. “Where’s he taking you?”

“Uh, family dinner at his house.”

Mia’s eyes widened with surprise. “You’re having dinner with his family?”

I’d been a little unsure about my decision to accept Reed’s invite but also somewhat intrigued to meet his family and see what he was like in his natural habitat. But Mia’s reaction only increased my doubt.

“Apparently,” I replied. “Why? Do you think I should be worried?”

“You’re having dinner with the whole Darling family.” Mia snorted. “Venturing into the heart of the Devils’ lair. Oh no, I’m sure you’ve got nothing to worry about at all.”

I wished she could have been just slightly more convincing.