“That’s right.” Jace spread his arms open wide. He needed to sell this. Adaline was by far the worst liar he’d ever come across. She was so bad at it that it was actually sort of cute. “It’s me, Jace. Your very human, very real boyfriend.”
“Oh, jingle balls,” Adaline muttered under her breath, proving to the world at large that she wasn’t any better at cursing than she was at telling little white lies.
“I knew it,” Uncle Gus cried, pounding a fist on the arm of his wheelchair.
Adaline finally stopped gaping at Jace long enough to narrow her gaze at Gus. “You did?” Her eyes darted back to Jace. “He did?”
Gus huffed before Jace could say a word. “I called it on the very first day. If you two have been trying to hide your relationship, you’ve been doing a terrible job of it.”
Fuzzy scampered toward Jace and danced happy circles around him as if he hadn’t just seen him less than half an hour ago, and Adaline’s grandmother was officially convinced.
“Adaline, sweetheart. Aren’t you going to introduce me to your beau?” Gram looked Jace up and down. “I’ve seen you around here, young man. But I wasn’t aware you were dating my granddaughter. This is quite a surprise.”
“A good one, I hope?” Jace raised a brow.
“Wait just a minute.” Adaline flew to her feet and marched over to Jace. “Can we have a quick word in private...” She batted her eyelashes at him. At least she was finally making an effort. “...honey?”
“Sure thing, pumpkin.” He blew her an air-kiss, and her face promptly turned as red as her Comfort Paws hoodie.
“We’ll be right back,” she said to Gram and Uncle Gus, then she grabbed Jace’s hand and squeezed it hard enough to break a finger or three as she hauled him toward the glass double doors that led to the portico at the entrance to the building. Fuzzy followed, hot on their heels.
Once outside, Adaline dropped Jace’s hand and spun to face him, eyes flashing. “What on earth was that?”
“That was me helping you in your time of need.” Jace felt himself frown. She was mad? Seriously? “You’re welcome, by the way.”
“Thank you,” she said with no small amount of reluctance. “I think.”
Jace crossed his arms. He hadn’t expected her to throw him a parade, but this was hardly the reaction he’d anticipated.
Not that he’d given the matter much thought before he’d jumped in to save her. Jace hadn’t mulled it over at all, in fact. He’d acted purely on instinct, which in retrospect might’ve been a bad idea.
“Exactly how much did you hear back there?” she asked, gnawing on the corner of her bottom lip.
Jace’s gaze snagged on her mouth. Those lips of hers...red, like ripened cherries. When he dragged his attention back to her eyes, they were impossibly wide. Wounded, almost.
She wasn’t angry. She was embarrassed.
“I heard enough,” he said simply.
She blew out a breath and started pacing back and forth. Fuzzy dutifully kept time, following her like a shadow. “So you know about the matchmaker?”
Jace arched a sardonic eyebrow. “Is there anyone who doesn’t know about the matchmaker?”
He and his uncle had been on their way back to room 212 when the commotion started. Getting Gus to venture outside the same four walls had been nearly impossible, but Jace had convinced the obstinate man to let him wheel him to the lobby to see the tree he’d delivered earlier this morning.
Then Gus had actually pet Fuzzy, and Jace knew that staying any longer would really be pushing it. He’d needed to get his uncle out of there before his mood took a turn for the worse.
But just as they’d rounded the corner of the hallway leading back to the extended care unit, Uncle Gus had realized his ever-present handkerchief was missing. Jace steered the wheelchair into a U-turn, figuring they’d dropped it somewhere along the way.
They’d reached the lobby just in time to witness Gram’s cheery shout. A MATCHMAKING SERVICE. YOU KNOW, SO ADALINE CAN FIND A BOYFRIEND.
“Your gram is rather gregarious,” Jace said. She was, in fact, the perfect opposite of Uncle Gus. “She reminds me of you, actually.”
Adaline’s pacing came to a stumbling halt.
“I meant that as a compliment,” he clarified.
“She’s my hero.” Adaline wrapped her arms around her torso, like she might be trying to hold herself together. Why wouldn’t she just let him help her? He owed her that much, didn’t he?
Jace nodded. “I remember that from elementary school.”
“She’s been struggling lately. It’s hard to see her getting older.” Adaline tucked a loose blond wave behind her ear. The rest of her hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun, magically held in place with a single, tiny, red lacquer cherry barrette. “But I’m sure you know how that is, because of your uncle.”
“Gus isn’t exactly warm and cozy, but we’re close in our own way.” Jace didn’t know how to explain his relationship with his uncle. He didn’t fully understand it himself. “You’ve always adored your grandmother. I’m guessing that’s why you lied. You’d rather protect her feelings than refuse her gift outright. There’s no boyfriend, is there?”
A wounded look crossed Adaline’s face, and he immediately felt bad for pointing out the obvious.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” He shrugged. “I’m single too.”
“I’m not ashamed. I’m perfectly happy with my life.” She glanced down at her dog and wound his leash more tightly around her hand. “Things are just a little complicated right now.”
Tell me about it.
Jace’s mind was still reeling from the unexpected offer on Texas Tidings. He wasn’t ready to let go of the farm, but the purchase price Briarwood Properties had proposed was generous enough to give him pause—even if the thought of Texas Tidings being turned into a tourist destination made his stomach turn. He’d built a working Christmas tree farm from the ground up. Farming and ranching were honorable ways of life. It was decent and honest and made him appreciate things like sunshine, the changing seasons and living in the present moment instead of being plugged into a computer all day.
Not one of those things seemed true of a luxury resort. If he sold, that would be someone else’s problem, not his. Once he let go of Texas Tidings, it wouldn’t be his to worry about anymore. Maybe that was the root of the problem...and maybe, just maybe, he’d thrown himself into this ruse with Adaline to distract himself from making a major life decision. Or possibly from the aching reality of seeing Uncle Gus on his deathbed every day.
Take your pick, Jace thought wryly. Adaline wasn’t the only one whose life was complicated at the moment.
“How so?” He tilted his head. “What’s complicating things?”
He genuinely wanted to know. She clearly had an aversion to lying, and she’d just invented a nonexistent significant other out of thin air. That was a whopper if he’d ever heard one. There had to be more to the story than just one bad Christmas gift.
“My brother is getting married, and Gram seems to think I need someone in my life too. She’s convinced I’m lonely.” Adaline’s voice cracked on that last word, and Jace pretended not to notice. “I think maybe everyone else thinks that too.”
She looked so small all of a sudden...so vulnerable, especially for a woman who was usually so larger than life.
Jace had a feeling Gram might be right.
“Well, let’s convince her and everyone else otherwise.” Jace regarded Adaline thoughtfully and held up a hand. “Fake boyfriend, at your service.”
At last, a smile. “You make it sound so easy. I guarantee you it would be harder than you think.”
Why was she trying so hard to talk him out of this?
“Pretty sure I’m up to the challenge,” he said.
“Everyone would expect you to go with me to my brother’s wedding on Christmas Eve.” She looked at him like he might run for the hills and never come back.
“Will there be cake?” he asked.
She rolled her eyes, but the smile stayed. “Yes.”
“Will you be the one making it?” That might be a deal-breaker. But who in their right mind would get married in Bluebonnet and not have Adaline bake their wedding cake?
“Also, yes.” Her eyes sparkled, and Jace may as well have been lost in a sea of bluebonnets.
“Then, I’m in.”
Adaline took a deep breath and shivered. They’d come running out here without coats, and now the tip of her nose was pink. Shades of Rudolph.
Then she shook her head, and her smile went sad around the edges again. “Why are you doing this? If it’s because you feel sorry for me, the answer is no.”
“I don’t feel sorry for you, Adaline. I admire you,” he said, stopping short of telling her the rest—that he didn’t like knowing he’d hurt her back when they were kids. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it since that night at the gazebo. If he did one thing while he was in Bluebonnet besides caring for Gus, he wanted to make things right.
Those were the reasons swirling around in his head, anyway. Everyone knew the heart had a mind of its own.
“Good answer?” Jace cleared his throat. This arrangement had nothing to do with matters of the heart, full stop.
Her eyes flashed over him, and then she glanced at Fuzzy, as if checking to make sure her dog agreed. The Cavalier’s feathered tail whipped back and forth. “Good answer.”
“We might have a problem, though.” Jace tipped his head ever so slightly toward the senior center’s floor-to-ceiling windows. “What do you suppose are the odds that there are a dozen senior citizens with their noses pressed against the glass watching our every move right now?”
“One thousand percent,” she said without missing a beat. “We might need to give them a show. I’m sorry.”
I’m not.
Jace took a step closer and cupped her face with both hands. He reminded himself this was all an act, but anticipation flowed through his veins all the same. Warm and sweet, like wild Texas honey. “Stop apologizing. It’s a necessary evil.”
Then he ran the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip and lowered his mouth toward hers. Just before their lips met, he paused, and Adaline’s breath hitched. She felt it too, didn’t she? The tantalizing blur of fact and fiction...the deep, dark truth behind the lie.
It’s not real. It’s only a holiday fantasy, like flying reindeer and Christmas magic.
Then his mouth came down on hers, and the boom of his pulse pounded a steady beat.
Be-lieve, be-lieve, be-lieve...
Believe.