The Family You Make (Sunrise Cove #1)(37)

“I’m sorry,” Jane said as the behemoth cat jumped lithely down to wrap himself around Jane’s ankles.

“Why are you sorry if he’s not your cat?”

Jane rolled her eyes. “No one owns this cat. Sometimes he chooses to come visit me, that’s all.”

With a heavy thud, the cat jumped onto the patio table. Jane nudged him down. “No furniture.”

The cat sat on his haunches looking offended.

Charlotte snorted. “Feed your stray, then let me feed mine.”

“Are you comparing me to the cat?”

“You have to admit, there are some similarities.” Grinning at Jane’s grimace, she went into her favorite room in the house. The kitchen. Five minutes later it was already scented with the bacon and eggs she had going. She set out plates and grabbed the pitcher of iced tea from the fridge.

Yes, it was winter in Tahoe, and the outside temperature was maybe thirty-five degrees with a wind chill that made it seem half that, but Jane loved iced tea.

And Charlotte loved Jane, so iced tea it was.

Jane came into the kitchen, prepared a bowl of food for Cat, and set it down at the back door where he was waiting. She was quiet. Not a seething quiet, but a thoughtful, reflective sort of silent that meant she was thinking and thinking hard about something.

“What is it?” Charlotte asked.

Jane looked up suspiciously. “What’s what?”

“Something’s bothering you.”

Jane smiled warmly. “Have you met me? Everything bothers me.”

“Has something happened?”

Jane hesitated.

“Spill.”

“I might’ve done something potentially stupid.”

“You don’t do stupid.”

Jane laughed a little mirthlessly. “I agreed to go out on a date—a pretend date—with Levi.”

Charlotte gaped. “Hot guy from the gondola.”

“I really wish you’d stop calling him that.”

“Just calling it like it is,” Charlotte said. “And the date’s pretend . . . why?”

“I told you what he did when we thought we were going to die.”

“Yes. He told his mom he had someone in his life so she wouldn’t worry.” Charlotte smiled. “So incredibly sweet. But still not hearing the potentially stupid part.”

“Because the pretend date is to get good enough at being his pretend girlfriend for his parents’ fortieth anniversary dinner.”

Charlotte stared at her and then laughed.

Jane pointed at her. “Stop that.”

“No promises.” Charlotte loaded up two plates and handed Jane one. “You know what I love? How you go kicking and screaming into anything good in your life, like you’re afraid it’s going to turn out to be a bad thing. So hey, if you have to tell yourself this is pretend, whatever, I’m all for it.”

“I’m not telling myself it’s pretend, it IS pretend. It’s just so that it seems believable and all that.”

“Uh-huh.”

Jane rolled her eyes as she dug in. “Oh my God, this is delicious. Oh, and I bought your birthday present, so don’t go snooping.”

Charlotte was turning forty next week and would really rather not. “I told you not to get me anything.”

“I didn’t listen.”

She sighed like she was put out, but in fact, presents were both rare and a secret thrill. “Okay, so let’s see this present.”

“No way.” Jane was looking smug, which meant she was comfortable enough to be looking smug, and that was actually the gift, whether Jane knew it or not. “You don’t get it until your birthday next week.”

“Spoilsport.” Charlotte watched Jane push around the food with her fork. “What else?”

“How do you know there’s anything else?”

Charlotte just looked at her.

Jane sighed. “I went and visited my grandpa again yesterday.”

“A visit implies you had a conversation. Did you two have a conversation?”

“Okay, correction,” Jane said. “I spied on his weekly lunch with some of his old work buddies.”

Charlotte studied Jane’s face. “So far this season, you’ve stalked his weekly breakfasts with friends and now his weekly lunch with his old work buddies.”

“Yep.”

Charlotte looked at her.

Jane sighed. “Yeah, yeah, I’m ridiculous.”

Charlotte’s heart clenched tight at the unsure look on Jane’s face. “Only if you hide under a table again.”

Jane smiled. “You want to talk about hiding under tables?”

Okay, so that hadn’t exactly been one of her finer moments. “Extenuating circumstances.”

“Uh-huh. And no, I didn’t hide under the table.” Jane paused. “I stayed outside and watched through the window.”

Charlotte laughed. “We’ve made progress.”

“We? The only way we made progress is if you ran into Mateo today, didn’t hide under a table, and agreed to go out with him.”

Ignoring this and the flutter low in her belly, Charlotte went chin up. “How does he look?”

“Sexy as hell,” Jane said. “Dr. Hottie Patottie’s got that whole laid-back, easygoing charm down, and matched with that leanly muscled runner’s build and the fact that he’s brilliant—”