Fortune Found

“Mid-June Texas heat on a rooftop? I don’t think so.”

“We do a date, then?”

“I guess we could give it a try,” Jessie agreed. “When?”

“Tomorrow night?”

“Okay.”

“I’ll tell Coop and Kelsey as soon as I get inside. Hopefully they’ll figure if we’re seeing each other socially tomorrow night, they don’t need to push things in the day and Coop and I can get started on the roof.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed,” Jessie promised.

“And then we’ll have our fake date—at seven?”

“Sure.”

“Ella’s really going be mad at me after that, isn’t she?” Flint asked.

“It’s probably going to keep you blacklisted,” she confirmed.

“I’ll have to get you home early to convince everyone that the date is a flop—maybe that’ll help.”

And somehow the thought of making sure the date didn’t last too long was also a bit of a downer.

But Jessie shooed that away. Flint was right, a short date was more likely to look like a failure. And that was what they were going for.

“Okay, then,” Jessie said. “We have a pretend date tomorrow night at seven.”

“For barbecue. And we’ll just hope our plan works.”

Jessie nodded her agreement, and in the process her gaze caught on his face once more. On his smoldering eyes. On lips that were so, so supple …

And why she should suddenly wonder if pretend dates ended with good-night kisses, she had no idea. But that was exactly what she was wondering. Along with what it might be like to be kissed by Flint.

But the moment she realized that was what was going through her mind, she jolted herself out of it, telling herself that of course there wouldn’t be a good-night kiss. The whole point of the fake date was to convince their families that they didn’t click.

“Guess I’ll see you tomorrow for work first, though,” Flint said then.

Which seemed like her cue to leave, so she said she would see him the next day and headed to her back door, pondering why she was looking forward to a date that was only for show.