Page 35 of The Fake Date (Brides of Beaufort 4)

I patted Lyndi’s arm as I answered Ms. Hattie. “Yep. We’re a couple. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”

“Right,” Lyndi said, managing a smile.

Ms. Hattie’s eyes narrowed slightly as she looked between us. “Uh-huh. Well, isn’t thatlovely?Sorry, Brett. I suppose I was wrong about Lyndi being single.”

“Suppose so,” Brett said, looking annoyingly disappointed about it. “Shame.”

“Excuse us. Nice to meet you, Bruce.”

“Brett,” Ms. Hattie corrected me, but her words landed on my back as I’d already spun Lyndi around and guided her to a safe space to chat.

As soon as we made it inside the main house, I steered Lyndi off to the side and out of sight. I had a feeling I had some explaining to do, and I didn’t want an audience.

“Beau, what the heck was that?” She pulled her hand out of mine, using it to swat me on the arm.

“Ow,” I said as I paced away from her, hand on my forehead. “I don’t know.”

“You don’tknow?You just told the biggest gossip in this entire town that we were dating.”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Why?”

I stopped pacing and looked over at her, hoping my face looked as apologetic as I intended it to. “Would you believe me if I said it seemed like a good idea at the time?”

“Uh, whether I believe you or not, it wasn’t a good idea.”

“Why not? You said it yourself, you don’t want to be with someone who’s leaving Bluffton.”

“Okay, but how—”

“So, now you don’t have to deal with Ms. Hattie and your grandmother trying to set you up with him.”

She thought about it for a second, then she shook her head. “I get that, but now I’m going to have to deal with them constantly asking me about myboyfriend, and we’re just pretending.”

“Will you, though? Because in my experience, people don’t care after the couple is paired up. They move on to the next single person.”

“What? That’s crazy…” She trailed off, then her eyes lit up. “Oh my gosh, it’s like in books.”

I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me. “Of course it is.”

“Stop it, I’m serious. It’s like how you read a series and each book features a different couple. Yeah, sure, there’s like an epilogue that shows they’re happy in the future, but sometimes readers are ready to move on to the next couple. If they see the other couples in the background, cool, but they aren’t the focus anymore.”

I shrugged. “Exactly. So, we’ll play our parts. We’ll exist in the background, and then we’ll fade away when I leave. You can blame the breakup on me leaving and you wanting to stay, actually. So it’s good timing.”

“Or, we can say we’re still together even after you leave, just in a long-distance relationship. That way they’ll keep thinking I’m taken and won’t try to set me up again as soon as you leave.”

“Fine with me. Whatever you need to tell them.”

She nodded. “Good. Plus, I don’t love the way that first option makes me look.”

At this, I angled my head and looked down at her with a smirk.

“What? I’m just saying. I wouldn’t like it if the heroine broke up with the guy she loved because his job relocated him and she didn’t want to go with. Especially if he were in the military. It seems unsupportive.”

“Right…”

“What? Why are you making that face?”