No Love Allowed(23)

“No one ever asked me.”

Something in his chest twisted at her admission. “You didn’t go alone?” The hurt that replaced the mischief in her eyes made him instantly regret his question. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I wouldn’t have gone alone either.” Seeing that he was only digging his grave deeper with each sentence that left his lips, he said, “I love the dress.”

Her mood instantly lightened. “Natasha is apparently a size smaller than I am, so Nathan put me in shapewear. Who even owns shapewear?” She huffed, then punched him playfully on the shoulder. “Don’t laugh at me. It’s not funny!”

Stifling the rest of his chuckles with a fist, he said, “I think that’s what Natasha calls ‘suffering for fashion.’ ”

“Yeah, well, no wonder the women at the club only ate leaves. If this keeps up I’ll have to live on air and nothing else.” She pointed at the buffet table and whined, “Did you see the desserts they have out there?”

“One bite probably won’t kill you.”

She rubbed her belly. “Don’t tempt me.”

Taking her hand, he brought the back to his lips and asked, “Remind me again why you agreed to this?”

Didi’s eyes twinkled when she smiled. “Caleb, when you came to my house and said you had a proposal for me, not in a million years did I imagine this.” She gestured at the expanse of the garden party. “It was like hitting some sort of jackpot. I get to play make-believe with a super-hot guy and at the end of the summer, you leave. Like you said about the others you dated, this is no-strings-attached fun.”

“You think I’m hot?” His tone might have been teasing, but inside her words hit him like bullets from a firing squad. If he hadn’t been leaning against the tree he would surely be on his knees. But why should her honesty bother him? He wanted this. She would help him navigate this world for a little while longer, and then he would leave. That was their arrangement. If Didi happened to be enjoying herself, then why should it matter to him? It should be a good thing that she took things in stride and went with the flow.

“Correction.” She wiggled her eyebrows, pulling his attention back to her stunning face. He made a mental note to thank Nathan later. He had done a wonderful job. Maybe even too good of a job. “I think you’re super hot.”

“Oh, sorry.” He grinned, then placed a kiss on each of her cheeks after he said super and hot.

She rewarded him with the sweetest blush he had ever seen. Then a scary thought hit him. The summer had barely started and Didi was already holding more of his attention than Amber ever had.

He let go of Didi’s hand when he spotted the girl responsible for this mess swaying her hips toward them. “Are you ready to play girlfriend?”

“I thought that’s what I’ve been doing.”

“Amber’s coming this way.”

“Amber?” Didi tilted her head in confusion, then she understood who he meant. “Oh, you mean Ashley.”

He rolled his eyes, and she smiled at him before whirling around to face Amber, who had plastered the fakest smile someone could ever give during one of these events on her face—all white teeth and emotionless eyes.

“Caleb,” she said in that high-pitched voice of hers. How he had managed to tolerate it all of senior year, he had no idea. “I’m hurt that you didn’t even bother to find me and say hello when you arrived. I had to find out from Courtney that you were already here.”

Boxing up the annoyance that came with Amber’s presence, he returned her smile with one of his own. “Amber, let me introduce you to Diana Alexander.”

Didi reached out her hand. “Didi. They all call me Didi.”

He held his breath.

When Amber didn’t move to take her hand, Didi actually bent forward and took Amber’s hand in both of hers. She shook it vigorously. He swallowed down the laughter fighting to get out as Amber’s friendly expression slipped into irritation.

Then Didi slammed things home when she said, “It’s so nice to meet you, Ashley. Caleb has been telling me so much about you.”

The disgust in Amber’s face was priceless. “It’s Amber.”

“Oh, right.” Didi buried herself against his side, forcing him to wrap his arm around her shoulders to accommodate her. Then she patted his chest. “You know Caleb, always mixing up names.”

“I didn’t know that. Have we met?” Amber’s eyes narrowed. “You seem familiar.”

“I’m pretty sure we haven’t,” Didi answered smoothly, never removing her hand from the center of his chest.

Spotting murder in Amber’s eyes, he intervened. “I think I just spotted my uncle in the crowd. It’s so good to see you again, Amber. Enjoy the party.” He maneuvered Didi away from the stewing DoCo socialite. When they were several paces away he gave in to kissing her temple, then whispered, “That was f*cking fantastic.”

She leaned away so she could look up at him as they ambled through the crowd. “Not regretting this thing between us you started?”

Unsure what she had actually meant, he went with the truth. “After the minor stroke you just gave Amber slash Ashley? Not one bit. You were fantastic.”

“I think you mean f*cking fantastic.”