Fake It Till You Bake It(61)

And there she was. Looking as beautiful as always. She wore a floor-length black gown shot through with gold thread. Her hair cascaded over one shoulder in waves. That fool, Dr. John, smiled at her and kissed her hand like the prick he clearly was.

Donovan growled.

“You going to make it through this?” Nicholas asked. “The fun hasn’t even started yet.”

Right. He needed to chill. He settled in to watch Jada fall in love with another man.

Two hours later, he hadn’t moved from his seat.

“Damn, this is getting good,” Nicholas said. “I mean, we already know how this ends, but I am invested. Like Candace is the villain, but is ol’ dude ever going to notice?”

August pointed at Nicholas. “Right! And who is he going to choose to kick off this episode, Angela or Destiny? I need to know. We need some more popcorn.”

“Clearly, the right choice is Angela. They have no chemistry, but it’s not going to happen if he keeps listening to Candace.”

Donovan barely paid them any attention. He only had eyes for Jada. Even in the scenes she wasn’t in, he wondered what she was doing. Was she thinking about John? About falling in love with him?

When she was on camera, she was Jada. Funny, smart, observant about the strengths and shortcomings of her fellow contestants and her place in John’s affections.

She wasn’t afraid to voice her opinion, but was encouraging of the other contestants. She kept her cool. Not afraid to crack jokes. She was herself always. And that was a sweet, well-meaning person who occasionally got herself into hot water because of her impulsive decisions.

But, if he didn’t know better, he would say there was a strain around her mouth. The twinkle in her eyes wasn’t quite as strong as he was used to seeing. Was she feeling the stress of the moment? She and Dr. John did have good chemistry. He’d taken her to play miniature golf on their first date and hadn’t been able to stop smiling. “I love your competitive spirit.” Jada had laughed and pumped her fist every time she sank a putt. It was the laugh he’d come to crave hearing, so full of life and joy. Then, he’d followed up with a picnic on the eighteenth hole. The other women hadn’t viewed her as a threat until then.

“You okay, dude?” Nicholas asked.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” He squirmed to find a better position on his couch, which he’d bought because it was the most comfortable piece of furniture he’d ever come across.

“Because your woman is kissing another man as we speak.”

Donovan glared at his friend. “She’s not my—” Breath whooshed out of him. They’d gone to the next scene. It was over. Thank God.

She wasn’t his woman, but he wanted her to be. And it wasn’t the jealousy talking. He wanted to be the one to put a smile on her face. He wanted her to defend him. He wanted to defend her and know that it was real. That they were real. That they didn’t have an expiration date.

“Nerves, right? It’s just nerves,” she said in an interview. “Everything’s moving so fast, but he’s the perfect guy. Any girl would be lucky to have him.” She never said she’d be lucky to have him.

That blind look of panic in her eyes was obvious to see as Dr. John declared his love for her during the season finale. Donovan wished he’d been there to comfort her. Tell her everything was going to be okay.

Donovan sat up straighter. He could be there for her now.

And he was going to tell her that. Fuck the fake dating. He wanted it to be real.

For so long, he’d held on so hard to a plan and who he believed he should be and being perfect for everyone else that he’d lost sight of who he was.

He wanted the lightness she brought to his life. He hadn’t had so much fun in a long time. He liked who she was. She brought chaos and he wanted more of it. The chaos came from Jada being unabashedly Jada. She wasn’t trying to be somebody she wasn’t. And he loved that.

He wanted more of her. He wanted her to be his. He wanted to be hers.

It should have been obvious to him. Why else would he spend an evening watching My One and Only with his two best friends?

Had she gone on the show looking for love? He didn’t know, but he knew he wanted to be the one to give it to her. He wanted to be the one to comfort her when she feared no one would.

Did she feel the same? Only one way to find out.





Chapter Seventeen


Jada smiled at the two women stepping up to the front counter. “Hey, nice to see you again, Gwen and Tracy. How can I help you?”

“By serving us the best cupcakes in the city, of course,” Gwen said with a wide smile.

Tracy gestured toward her outfit of yoga pants and a tank top over a sports bra. “What better way to reward ourselves for a good workout than with a cupcake from the best cupcakery in the city?”

Jada grinned. “Makes perfect sense to me.”

Tracy had attended the sexual healing bachelorette party and mentioned she worked out at the gym two blocks over, but she’d never known Sugar Blitz existed.

“How you doing, sugar?” Tracy asked.

“Good.” And she was. The appearance on Good Day, San Diego had gone better than she could have imagined. Her relationship with Donovan was in the best place it had ever been in. Not that they were in a relationship relationship. If she sometimes thought about how he made her laugh like no one had in a long time, or how he’d quietly supported her in the supply closet or on the show, or how he’d kissed her in said supply closet, well, then … nothing. They’d agreed that they were friends only, and that was that.