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CHAPTER TWENTY

SUTTON

Quinn:

Don’t think I didn’t notice how you ran out of the clinic like your pants were on fire.

You can’t avoid me forever.

Sutton:

I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Quinn:

Sure you don’t.

Just know my interest only grows the longer you put off this conversation.

And the more rumors I hear.

It wasn’t that I was avoiding Quinn exactly.

More just…artfully dodging any one-on-one interactions with her ever since the night at One Night Stan’s.

Because the truth was, I didn’t know what to tell her.

Mostly because I didn’t know myself.

Other than Atlas driving me home—and then showing up on my porch the following morning with a toolbox in one hand and a new dead bolt in the other—he’d been scarce.

And that was fine with me.

Totally fine. For the best, actually.

Because between him goading me just to take my mind off a shitty day, to claiming me where anyone could see, to his almost innate sense to protect me, things were only getting more confusing.

And I definitely didn’t need that.

Something I’d learned time and time again was that people’s views of teenage single moms weren’t very flattering.

Adding fuel to that fire by spending more time with Atlas would only fuck me over in the long run.

And I was not interested in being fucked over in a town this small.

Especially when my daughter and I had to make our life here for the foreseeable future.

This was my first time being on the receiving end of small-town gossip, and I could officially say I didn’t love it.

I’d heard a dozen speculations today from various patients, each person more desperate than the last to find out what was really going on between Atlas and me.

Hoping I could smother the rumors if I didn’t give them oxygen, I’d neither confirmed nor denied any of them, even the more outlandish ones.

Who in their right mind thought our fling was actually part of a reality show and Starlight Cove was about to become famous?

As much as I’d been desperate to squash all talk of Atlas and me, I figured that would only stretch this out longer than necessary.

Needless to say, I’d been exhausted by the end of the day and hadn’t been able to leave fast enough.

After I swung by the library to pick up Laurel from a study group, we headed back to the cottage.

We didn’t even make it two steps inside before she asked, “What’s for dinner?”

The age-old question I’d never been able to escape, even during the times she was mad at me.

“Tacos,” I said. “Sound good?”

“As long as we can have guac with them.” Laurel tossed her backpack on the kitchen counter.

“Great, you can be in charge of that,” I said.

She groaned with the force that only a sixteen-year-old could muster.

“I never agreed to that.”

“Yeah, well, I never agreed to come up with three meals a day, every day, for the rest of my life. Yet here we are.”

“And you say I’m dramatic.”

“Go change and get comfy. We can binge that new murder documentary tonight.”

“Fine,” she grumbled, but I spotted unmistakable interest in her eyes before she headed to her bedroom.

Once again, I was thankful my daughter liked hanging out with me most of the time.

Okay, a solid 70% of the time, but I’d still take it.

I grabbed her backpack, intent on hanging it on the hook by the door rather than the any-fucking-where she usually dropped it, when a bright-pink flyer fell out of the front pocket and floated to the floor.

I reached down and picked it up, the bold font at the top catching my eye and proclaiming, CLASS TRIP TO PARIS.

I quickly scanned the paper, my attention pinging to the important details.

Fuck me. A week for my daughter in the City of Love would cost more than I’d paid for my first car.

My heart dropped, a boulder taking up residence in my stomach.

Laurel desperately wanted to see the world, and Paris was her number one bucket list location.

But this was a lot of fucking money, and being a single mom didn’t exactly allow for the cultivation of a nest egg.

Her bedroom door opened, and I shoved the flyer back into the pocket before hanging up her backpack.

I knew she’d talk to me about it when she was ready.

And the truth was, I needed a little time to figure out some kind of plan where I could make this a possibility for her.

After a quick detour to my bedroom to change, I pulled out the taco fixings and started dicing a tomato.

“Are things better at school?”

Laurel pulled out another cutting board and grabbed three avocados from the counter.

“Define better.”

“Are you still actively plotting my demise every day when I drop you off? Or have we graduated past that to just sullen resignation?”

“Maybe somewhere in the middle.”

“That’s progress. You and Cami are hanging out more. Things are clicking?”

Laurel shrugged.

“She’s cool. I just miss my old friends.”

I glanced over, taking in the slump of her shoulders, and blew out a long sigh.

“I know you do. But you’ll make those same connections here. And maybe we can plan a trip there in the summer.”

She glanced up at me, her eyes bright.

“Really?”

Fuck. Why had I said that?

If I had any hope of sending her to Paris, I sure as hell couldn’t afford a random trip to Georgia this summer.

Before I could respond, a knock sounded at the front door.

I glanced over at her with a raised brow.

“You expecting someone?”

“No. My one friend is busy tonight. Maybe it’s the guy you made out with at the bar over the weekend.”

My mouth dropped open, a shocked breath leaving me.

“Excuse me?”

She rolled her eyes.

“Please, Mom, we live in a town of, like, twelve people. Did you think I wasn’t going to hear about it?”

“Well, I-I…guess I didn’t think that through exactly. Look, it was just a?—”

“Oh my god, please stop. I promise you don’t need to have this conversation with me. Make out with whoever you want. One of us might as well be having some fun.”

The knock came again, louder this time.

I wiped my hands on a towel before heading to the door and glancing out the front window.

My brows shot up the second I spotted who stood on my porch.

Less than two days was definitely not enough time for me to get my shit together following the kiss and subsequent fuck that had rocked my entire world.

Especially not when I had all these confusing emotions swirling inside me.

But it looked like I didn’t have much of a choice.

I opened the door to a looming Atlas, his hands braced on the doorframe, the overwhelming bulk of his body blocking out anything beyond his shoulders.

Rather than imposing, his stance only served to remind me exactly how safe and protected I always felt in the shadow of his presence.

He gave me a quick once-over like he always did, that barest hint of attention lighting me up in ways that should have been illegal.

Then, without so much as a hello, he stormed into the cottage.

“We have a problem.”

“We have a what?”

“A problem .” He glanced around, offering a grunt at Laurel that I assumed was supposed to be a greeting.

“Well, this seems like something I don’t care about.” She wiped her hands on a towel, the guacamole forgotten as she headed toward her bedroom.

“Call me when dinner’s ready.”

As soon as her door shut, Atlas turned back to me, arms crossed.

“We need to fake date.”

My brows hit my hairline as I stared up at him, not quite able to believe what I was hearing.

“We need to what now?”

“ Fake date ,” he enunciated, as if that was the issue I was having.

“I know you’re familiar with the concept. It was in that book from?—”

“I am familiar with it. What I am unfamiliar with is why we need to do that.”

His attention snagged on my lips for the briefest moment, but I still felt it…

everywhere . “Our activities at the bar didn’t exactly go unnoticed.”

If the rumors I’d been fed all day were anything to go by, that was the biggest understatement of the century.

“It was just a kiss,” I said, my voice sounding unsteady, even to my own ears.

Ha . The lie was laughable.

It wasn’t just anything, and neither was what had come after.

From the look he shot me and the heat in his eyes, he knew it too.

“It’s never just anything in Starlight Cove,” he grumbled.

“People are also hung up on my…investigation…yesterday.”

“What investigation?”

“I did some asking around.”

“About?”

“Pillow Humper.”

“So?”

“They’re drawing the conclusion that we’re together.”

My stomach flipped…

for no other reason than because I was clearly drunk.

Except I hadn’t had so much as a drop of alcohol tonight.

Which meant it was the casual way he’d said we’re together that had caused this chaos inside me.

I cleared my throat, shoving those feelings aside.

“Why would they be doing that?”

He flattened his mouth into a hard line, his brows bunched, jaw ticking.

As if he didn’t want to tell me.

Finally, he said, “I was on a time crunch. The fastest way I could get people to talk was to tell a few…white lies.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“What kinds of white lies?”

He stared at me for a long moment, that impenetrable gaze locked on me.

I had no doubt he’d made far tougher people than me cower with that look alone.

Too bad I seemed to be immune to it.

When it was clear I wasn’t going to take his scowl as an answer, he heaved a sigh.

“That Pillow Humper stalked you across state lines, and I needed to find out where the hell he was because I didn’t want my—” he cleared his throat before rubbing a hand over his mouth “—girlfriend being harassed.”

There was that goddamn stomach flip again.

“Your what ?”

“I just rolled with what I already said at the bar,” he snapped.

“And it worked. I found out he left town. But details still got back to my mom. And my shit-stirrer of a brother confirmed it.”

“Okayyy…” I said, drawing out the word.

“She’s expecting us at dinner this week. She’s already asking about your food preferences.”

Mouth agape, I could only stare at him in a stunned stupor.

I had no idea why I hadn’t anticipated this becoming so much larger than just Atlas and me.

Sure, our night in Portland had stayed between us.

But that possibility had been removed the second Atlas had stepped up behind me at One Night Stan’s.

“I know this is…inconvenient.” He blew out a heavy sigh.

“But I’m willing to offer an incentive.”

“It better be one hell of an incentive.” I wasn’t so sure he could offer anything that would get me to agree to this.

Not when this would end up being the exact opposite of what I needed—namely, to stay far, far away from the man who turned my brain to mush and zapped every one of my instincts into silence.

The less time I spent around Atlas Steele, the better.

He studied me for long moments, as if hoping to get a read on what could lure me to his side.

Then he blew all my best intentions out of the water with a few choice words.

“I’ll waive your rent for the rest of your lease.”

Holy fucking fucknuggets.

Six months of free rent?

My god . That was probably a tiny drop in a very large bucket to a former pro football player.

But on my end? That amount of money would be life-changing, offering me a hell of a cushion.

A cushion I could use to send my daughter to Europe.

While I’d always been able to provide the necessities for Laurel, there’d been so many things in her life she’d wanted that I hadn’t been able to give her.

It had been hard as hell getting a GED and putting myself through nursing school, all while scrounging to make ends meet.

We’d been given a bit more breathing room as I racked up years of experience, but I still had an ungodly amount of student loans that didn’t exactly allow for a ton of discretionary spending.

That could all change with this agreement.

I tried to get a read on him, see if he was as conflicted as I was, but he’d shut down his emotions tighter than Fort Knox.

“I’m not lying to my daughter.”

He studied me for a moment, then lifted one massive shoulder.

“Laurel can be in on it.”

Her timing was as impeccable as ever, because she chose that moment to come strolling out of her bedroom.

“What am I in on?”

He raised a brow, clearly deferring to me on what, if anything, I wanted to tell her.

So I did. I gave a brief rundown of the situation we found ourselves in and Atlas’s proposed solution.

It was a testament to how many romances she read because she didn’t even blink.

She just split a gaze between us before settling it on me.

“What’s in it for you?”

“He’s cutting us a deal on rent.”

She lifted a single brow, then turned her attention to Atlas.

“Okay, what’s in it for me ?”

I nearly huffed out a laugh but somehow managed to tamp it down.

I should have expected that was coming from her.

If Atlas was thrown by her question, he didn’t show it.

Instead, he asked, “What do you want, kid?”

She paused for all of three seconds before she walked over and pulled out the bright-pink flyer I’d stuffed into her backpack earlier.

She smacked it against his chest. “This.”

Atlas grabbed the paper, quickly scanning the details.

Then, without hesitation, he nodded.

“If your mom says you can go on the trip, done.”

I couldn’t stop the surprise from showing at his immediate agreement, despite the fact that the deal on rent and this trip for Laurel were going to cost more than my first four cars.

At least.

I had a feeling this was going to be a very, very bad idea.

I was already intimately aware of just how charged things were between Atlas and me—and I wasn’t even talking about when we were naked.

It hummed in the space between us even now.

The last thing I needed was to suddenly be his girlfriend and have to spend more time in his presence.

But I could handle myself.

I could control myself.

Especially when, on the other side of this, my daughter would get something she desperately wanted.

“Can you give us a minute, Lolo? We have some things to discuss.”

“Fine. I don’t need to know your sex schedule anyway.”

“ Laurel .” My mouth dropped open in shock, though I really shouldn’t have been surprised.

She came by her lack of filter naturally.

With a shrug, she walked past us and headed out the front door.

“I’m going down to the beach to make sure I don’t hear any part of it.”

Once the door shut behind her, Atlas turned his attention back to me.

“Is that a yes?”

“It’s a yes, with stipulations. Rule number one, no kissing in private.”

His eyes heated as his gaze dropped to my mouth, and I felt the brand of his stare against my skin.

It didn’t take a genius to guess he was recalling what we’d done in the bar a couple nights ago.

How he’d kissed me like I was his to claim…

Taken me like he couldn’t help himself.

Worse, I was recalling how much I’d loved every minute of it.

“We’ll need to in public,” he said, his voice just a low rumble.

And we both knew exactly how heated those public kisses could get.

But he was right. We’d already participated in some PDA, so it would look strange if we suddenly stopped once officially becoming a couple.

“Fine,” I said. “If we go out, you’re paying.”

He pinned me with a look that said he was offended I had even suggested otherwise.

“Obviously.”

“What about events?”

Blowing out a sigh, he ran a hand over his beard.

“My mom’s going to expect us at weekly dinners. Probably need to make an appearance at the Harvest Festival. And homecoming. There are some…traditions before the game.”

“What kinds of traditions?”

“A kiss.”

Ignoring the low flare of jealousy that had sparked in my belly, I raised my brows.

“And who do you usually do that with?”

“No one.”

“Never?”

“Never,” he said without hesitation, and I absolutely was not going to examine why that settled me so much.

“It’s just for people on the team who have partners. It’ll be suspicious if we don’t join.”

“Fine.”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah. When this all ends, you have to promise that whatever happens between us won’t affect my work with the team. I like being their nurse.”

His gaze softened the slightest bit, and he dipped his chin in a nod.

“It won’t. They’d stage a revolt if you left.”

Now, it was my turn to soften.

While I’d worked with kids here and there, I’d never had so many of my hours devoted to them.

And I found I loved it.

Loved my job here, period.

Working at the clinic was more relaxed than I was used to, but it was still interesting enough to keep me on my toes each day.

I wasn’t sure I’d be ready to leave when my contract was up.

“Do we have a deal?” he asked.

I had a sudden, overwhelming feeling that I was about to make either the best decision or worst mistake of my life.

But considering Laurel would get her dream trip at the end of this, and my last worst mistake had just stalked me across the country, I was hoping for the best.

“We have a deal, boyfriend .”