Dating the Guy Upstairs (7 page)

“Hey, what’s this about almost as handsome?” Tucker suddenly appeared at the bottom of the stairs with a mock look of outrage plastered across his face. “Sure, Will has got the six pack from all that exercise, but I like to think I’ve got a bit more going for me in the way of male grooming.”

“Point taken.” Jude beamed as she wrapped her arms around Tucker, despite the fact that they’d only met the once. “And congratulations. Will was just telling me the wonderful news. I hope you’re both very happy.”

“Thank you.” Tucker released Jude and gave her a thoughtful look. “I don’t suppose you have any last-minute tips to cure the nerves? I know you’ve done this more than once.”

“Ha, well my first piece of advice is that you make this one last,” Jude said in a saucy voice before letting out a wistful sigh. “And my other advice is to remember that it’s not just the day that’s important. Make sure that you treat every day like it’s your wedding day.”

“God, no.” Will tried to imagine a world that involved talking about chest waxing and the perils of missing out on your preferred wedding florist, and shuddered. It wasn’t a pretty sight. “You have no idea how obsessed he’s been over this whole thing.”

“I just want to make sure that everything is perfect for Danni,” Tucker retorted as he gave Will a playful punch on the arm before he turned to Jude. “And thank you for that advice. I’m still pinching myself that I’m going to spend the rest of my life with her, so I’ll make sure I never forget.”

Will, who was now getting familiar with his brother’s new sappiness, managed to keep a straight face. Not that he didn’t hope Tucker and Danni would be blissfully happy for the rest of their lives, it was just the odds were stacked against them. Will wondered if that’s what their mom thought when she first got married to their father. Was she idealistic? Enthusiastic and hopeful about the future?

More to the point, when did it change?

When did her passion get bypassed for the role of society wife? Her dreams forgotten?
No.
He clenched his fists and pushed his memories back. Thinking of his mother and the life she endured with their father was never a good idea. Not when it was riddled with his own guilt for the part he played in it. Or the fact that he never got to tell her how sorry he was before the accident that took her life.

“You’re welcome. And thank you so much for inviting Riley. I’m sure she’ll have a wonderful time.” Jude beamed. Tucker gave a jovial shrug. “Of course. I mean those two always came as a pair anyway, but now that they’re dating it’s even better.”

What? Will was jolted out of his thoughts by Jude’s squeal of delight, realizing too late what his brother had just said. Talk about wicked webs. He rubbed his brow and tried to muster up a smile.

“Oh, my dear boy, you have no idea how happy I am to hear that you and Riley are dating.” Jude enveloped him in another hug before she pulled away and frowned. “Though why didn’t you tell us? Is this because Riley’s still annoyed with me?”

Will rubbed his chin at the forlorn note in Jude’s voice. Now he understood why Riley screened her calls.

“Of course not,” he assured her, dredging his mind for a solution. Nothing appeared, and he was just about to wish for a large hole to appear in the floor when Tucker gave him a friendly slap on the back and turned to Jude.

“Don’t take it personally. The pair of them hid it from everyone. They tried to tell me that it was because they didn’t want to ruin my wedding news. Isn’t that right, Will?”

No. Not even a little bit. But short of telling them the truth there wasn’t much he else he could do but nod his head and force a fake smile onto his face.

“Yes, that’s the only reason we were keeping it private. But now that you know, I’m sure Riley will want to tell you all about it,” Will lied, trying to imagine just how many ways his fake girlfriend was going to kill him when she found out. He was going to have to come up with something pretty incredible to get her to forgive him.

“I can’t believe that you told my mother that we were dating,” Riley wailed on Thursday morning. She was attempting to brush her hair while using her foot to encourage Bingley to stop trying to eat the pile of library books that were stacked in the corner, and she failed on both counts. While Will scooped Bingley up and put him back in his hut, she looked in the mirror and realized that she was fighting a lost cause. She tied it into a ponytail and turned her attention back to Will, concentrating on staring at his ears.

Not because there was anything wrong with them, but because after spending an entire day at work thinking about his mouth and the second kiss that they’d shared, she’d come to the conclusion that the only way to save her sanity when she was around him was to look at his ears.

Hopefully it would stop her from being so hyperaware of everything that Will did. It was like a disease that seemed to be growing in her mind, because the more she told herself not to think about him, the more she wondered what it would take for him to kiss her again.
No. Think ears.

“Tucker told her,” Will corrected. “And since I couldn’t exactly deny it, I had to go along with it. Why, what’s been happening? I hope she hasn’t being giving you a hard time.”

“I’ll tell you what’s been happening,” Riley said as she reached for her cell phone and held it up for him to exam the screen. “So far I’ve had a text message from Jude’s friend who suggests we get married this year because Mars is in retrograde. My father’s arranged for our auras to be cleansed by his prayer circle and his girlfriend, Angel, is making us matching bonding bracelets. And before you ask, no, I don’t know what a bonding bracelet is, but I’m pretty sure that I don’t want one.”

“Why would she think that we’re getting married? We’ve only been fake dating for three days.”

“Because you told my mother. She puts two and two together and gets wedding bells.”

“I had no idea. I’m so sorry. I should never have answered the door when I knew you weren’t home. And then there was the carrot cake
.
I sold you down the river for cake.” He twisted his mouth into a grimace, which caused his ears to move ever so slightly. Why had she never noticed what nice ears he had? They were just the right size, and she loved the way the tips of his hair curled around them. She groaned.
Enough
.

Besides, as much as she’d wished her mother (and now her father) hadn’t found out about their fake dating status, she always felt bad complaining to Will about her erratic parents. Despite how frustrating she sometimes found them, she loved them and they loved her, unlike Will, with his dead mom and his father who was . . . well, the kind of man who would marry his son’s ex-fiancée. Plus, Will really did love Jude’s carrot cake, which would explain why by the time he delivered it to her, half of it was missing.

“It’s fine,” she said.

“So, what have you said to her?” The worry around his eyes disappeared as he seemed to realize that she was no longer mad at him.

“Nothing about us yet.” Riley sat down on her favorite reading chair and tucked her feet underneath her legs. “I called after you left to say congratulations about the exhibition and I promised I’d go and see her next weekend. So, I guess I’ll tell her that we broke up then.”

“What?” Will sat up straight like he’d just been prodded, which in turn caused Bingley to stick his nose out of his hiding hut to see what all the commotion was. “We’re breaking up?”

“Um, well, yeah. I mean we’re only pretending to date for Tucker’s wedding, so at some stage we’ll have to break up.”

“Oh. I guess you’re right.” He ran a hand over his smooth chin. Riley watched in fascination, almost feeling like it was her own hand that was touching his face. Then she let out a soft groan. First ears and now chin? This was getting ridiculous.

“Don’t worry. I won’t throw you under the bus. I’ll just say that we realized that the long-distance thing wouldn’t work.”

“Come on, they’ll never believe that.” Will shook his head as he stood up and began to pace the room. Not that Riley was surprised, since as long as she’d known Will he’d had a restless spirit that always got agitated if he was stuck in a confined space for too long. Which was probably why he enjoyed his nomadic life so much. Not to mention why his body was in great shape, thanks to his habit of jogging whenever he needed to let off steam.

“What do you mean?” Riley tried and failed not to look at his butt as he moved. “You use that excuse all the time. In fact, the reason I thought of it was because it was straight from the Will Henderson Playbook.”

He came to a halt, his mouth set in a straight line. “You’re my closest friend. I’m hardly going to break up with you with an excuse like that. Actually, if you did tell them that, I wouldn’t be surprised if your father came over to Indonesia to call me out. Closely followed by my brother. More to the point, I’d judge them if they didn’t.”

“O-kay.” Riley took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. Who knew that having a fake boyfriend could be so complicated? “Oh, I know. You’ve decided that my habit of eating cookies in bed while I read a book is annoying.”

“Why would that be annoying? You love cookies and you love reading. Doing the two things together makes sense.”

Riley frowned. “It’s the crumbs. Not everyone likes crumbs, and while I love that you obviously don’t have a problem with them, you’re not making this any easier.”

“Yes, but we can’t break up over something so petty.”

“So we can make a list of non-petty things and figure something out. Would that be better?”

“I guess,” Will said, then let out a soft groan. “Sorry, I don’t suppose it even matters how we break up. It just surprised me because I hadn’t thought about it before. After the wedding we’ll make a list of potential scenarios. But right now there’s something very important that we have to discuss.”

“There is?” Will was now dangerously close to her. Riley’s breath caught in her throat and her pulse fluttered. She watched as a smile tugged at his mouth and in turn released his roguish dimples. She licked her lips. Her mouth was suddenly dry.

“There is.” He held out his hand to help her stand up. “We have to go and buy a dress, and I believe that I promised it would be fun.”

“You’re using the words
shopping
and
fun
in the same sentence?” Riley forced herself to keep her voice light so that he wouldn’t realize she’d thought he was going to kiss her. She was also hoping it would stop her from deciding whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. “Have you even met me before?”

“Yes, Miss I-Only-Shop-for-Books-and-Kitten-T-shirts.” He continued to stand in front of her, his hand outstretched. Riley wisely scrambled to her feet of her own accord, keen to avoid another explosion from going off under her skin if he touched her. “I know exactly how much you hate shopping. But that’s because you’ve never been on a Will Henderson Extravaganza. I believe that you finish work at two o’clock today, which means that I’ll be waiting to collect you. First up we’re going for coffee at your favorite café and then we’re off to see a personal shopper who’ll hunt down potential dresses, which she’ll then bring to you on the strict instruction that it can’t take up more than half an hour of your time. And while that happens, we’ll go book shopping.”

Riley, who’d been busy fiddling with her purse, narrowed her eyes. “You spend most of the year in wooden huts; since when do you know personal shoppers? More to the point, is this because you feel guilty about letting my crazy parents think that we’re dating?”

A reluctant smile tugged at Will’s mouth as he held his hands up in mock surrender. “Okay, so yes I feel guilty that they found out about our fake relationship, but the main reason is that Josh’s sister, Fiona, has just started up a personal shopping business and it seemed like a great way to give her a job and save you from what you hate. So, what do you say?”

“Fine,” she said. Not because she wanted to have a personal shopper running after her or because she wanted Will to think she could be bribed with books and coffee (though that was entirely possible), but because she had the sinking feeling that if she didn’t have a dress by the time Italy finished her shift at the library, her industrious friend would drag her to the outlet mall on the other side of town and it would take a lot longer than half an hour. Then she narrowed her eyes. “But if this Fiona thinks that I’m going to be wearing anything that’s pink or covered in frills, then she has another think coming.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re safe from pink frills.” Will’s lips twitched with amusement. Riley just hoped that meant this Fiona knew what she was doing.

***

“See, I told you it would be fun,” Will announced later that afternoon, his eyes on Riley as she clutched at the heavy carrier bag that was currently filled with new books. She had to admit that he was right.

So far there was nothing about their shopping trip that had been hideous. Fiona had turned out to be a five-foot-one dynamo who’d admired Riley’s T-shirt and had used sensible words like
black
and
comfortable
as opposed to
figure-hugging
or
sexy
. And after she’d asked Riley a handful of questions and made some notes of her size and coloring, she’d left them to their coffees and books with a promise to call when she was ready for Riley to try on some dresses. Which meant that instead of being dragged to every clothing store in town, she and Will had spent a lazy two hours eating, talking and laughing.

She couldn’t remember when she’d enjoyed herself more. Not that Will needed to know that, since it would only encourage him to think that he was right about other things. Like not giving in to her boss’s crazy demands when it came to guinea pigs and dating.

“You know it’s very unattractive when you gloat,” Riley retorted as the pair of them walked to Fiona’s loft, where they’d arranged to meet.

“Says the person with cinnamon sugar around their mouth,” Will retorted.

“I do?” Riley came to a halt on the doorstep behind Will, who pressed the buzzer. One day she’d learn to eat donuts in a ladylike manner, but today was obviously not that day. She tried to wipe it away, which just caused Will to laugh.

“Stop, you’re making it worse,” he said, closing the distance between them. He lifted his hand up to her mouth. “And stop wriggling.”

“Okay.” Riley forced herself to stand still as he slowly brushed the tip of his finger along the line of her upper lip. Her heart pounded as his finger traced a line along her chin and down her neck. How could she possibly have so much sugar on her face? For a moment she wondered if Will was just doing it to tease her, but when she looked up, his pupils were dilated and there was no hint of laughter in them. Her throat tightened, the urge to close the gap between them nearly overwhelming her. All she wanted to do was snake her hands around his waist and breathe in the citrus woody tang that was Will. She hitched in her breath—but before she could step forward, Fiona appeared in the doorway with her arms folded.

“Hey, you two lovebirds. There’s time for that later, but right now we have dresses to try on.”

“Oh.” Will was the first to step away, color flooding his cheeks. If Riley didn’t know better she would say he was flustered. Which was strange, because she’d seen Will go through many emotions, but flustered wasn’t one of them. “Sorry, it was a sugar-donut emergency.”

“Riiight.” Fiona raised an eyebrow as she ushered them in. Once in the loft, Fiona sent Will over to a comfortable-looking seat and nodded for Riley to follow her into the bedroom, where six dresses were hanging.

“That’s all I have to try on?” Riley said in a dubious voice, glancing around in case there was a second lot that she hadn’t noticed.

“Relax. Will explained to me last night just how much you hate shopping, though judging by the size of that bag, I’m guessing books are the exception. Anyway, after meeting you it was pretty easy to figure out what would and wouldn’t suit you. Personally I like the green one the best, but I thought I’d give you some options.”

“Thank you.”

“No, thank you. Setting up my own business has been terrifying, so when Will called, I was beyond grateful.”

“He’s pretty thoughtful like that,” Riley said, not at all surprised that Will had been inspired to hire Fiona. It was one of his many amazing qualities, how he was always looking at ways for people to help each other out. He was a connector who liked to make things happen.

“You’re a lucky girl.” Fiona smiled as she unzipped the first dress and walked out of the room to give Riley some privacy.

It was some kind of heavy silk in a dull green color with tiny colored flowers embroidered around the bodice. More important, it didn’t look like she would need a surgical procedure to get into it. She scrambled out of her clothes and carefully slipped it on, making sure it didn’t snag on anything before smoothing it down over her hips. The silk was cool against her skin, and while the skirt seemed to hug her legs, when she took a tentative step forward she was pleased to discover she could move.

She turned to the mirror and let out a small gasp as her reflection stared back at her. In fact, if it weren’t for the glasses and the pink bandage on her finger from where she got a paper cut yesterday, she wouldn’t have recognized herself.

“How’s it going?” Fiona poked her head around the corner. Her eyes widened and a grin spread out across her face. “Scrap that question; I can see it’s going great. Riley, it’s perfect on you.”

“D-do you really think so?” Riley nibbled at her mouth and lifted up her arm to check that it really was her. The arm in the mirror moved in response.

“No thinking required, honey. The color makes your hair pop and the style means you’ll be able to wear it again once the wedding is over. In fact, you could wear it with your biker boots and a denim jacket and it would look amazing. Oh, and now that I’ve seen it on you, I’ve got a gorgeous necklace for you. I’d selected it for another client, but I think it will go perfectly!” Fiona hurried off, leaving Riley all alone.