“What?” I mean, that was Becca’s plan, but I still hadn’t decided if I was going to ask Klaus.

He’ll have to pretend to be my boyfriend. Someone who loves me enough to prove I’ve totally moved on from Roman and Julianna. I’m not sure my mental health can handle spending a weekend with Klaus pretending we’re dating and then coming back home after and going back to being friends.

“Sure. Why wouldn’t I do it?”

“Are you sure?” I take a small sip. Too much wine will go straight to my head. My appetite still hasn’t returned since Saturday, mostly because I’ve been dreading this moment.

“Because it’s not just a date, I mean, it is, but we’d have to act in love and all that stuff.”

Klaus laughs and pushes off his stool. “I do understand the general idea of being a boyfriend and what that entails.”

A warm, calloused, and gorgeous hand covers mine, forcing both my hand and the avocado oil glass bottle to the counter.

“Look at me.”

When I do, he steals my breath. I’ve been able to hide my reaction to him for years. First I pushed it aside because I was stupidly in love with Roman, and then we were friends.

Are friends.

Right. Friends shouldn’t feel this way or have their body heat just because they’re in close, touching proximity to each other.

Someone should tell that to my vagina.

“What about Bailey?” Bailey’s his on-again, off-again cheerleader girlfriend with the local NBA team. She’s also a pre-med student and sweet as hell. It’s difficult to hate her even when I tried. And before Bailey, there was Barbie and Brianna and Bianca. Klaus has such a fascination with women whose names start with the letter B I hesitated to ever introduce him to Becca. Fortunately, Becca’s immune to his charm.

“I haven’t seen Bailey in months.”

“What?” I ask again. “I thought…”

“We weren’t serious. And she wanted something I couldn’t give her.”

“What’s that?”

“Commitment. My heart.” His steel-blue eyes are perfectly framed with long, golden-brown lashes that blink slowly. “I didn’t feel that way about her, so we ended things, firmly, months ago, and I don’t want to talk about her anymore. I’d love to take you to the wedding. In fact, I want to take you.”

A tiny little bubble of hope lifts my voice. “Really? You’ll pretend with me?”

His eyes bounce from mine, to my nose, to my lips before meeting my gaze. I swear that steely blue deepens into another emotion before he smiles. “Sure. I’ll pretend with you.”

A flutter of warmth skips across my shoulder, to my neck, down my spine.

Pretend to be in love with Klaus Newman?

I can totally pull that off.

But can I do it while hiding the fact I think I’m already halfway in love with the guy?

I guess we’ll see how good of an actress I am.