Jade was going to kill me. She was probably ready to kill me already, but as soon as I found out we were sharing a room I knew I was in trouble. Add in the one bed, and it was worse. But that wasn’t the half of it. The itinerary laid out on the bed said it all.

“A couple’s massage?” Jade held the paper in her hands. “Did you know about this? I thought your mom said there were no plans.”

“Are you really going to ask me that?”

“Private wine tasting, I can handle that, but a couples massage?” She dropped the paper onto the bed as though it were on fire.

“My mom may be making way too big of a deal out of me bringing you. I guess she wanted to surprise us.” I stretched, still stiff from all the traveling.

“You think?” She glared down at the offending off-white paper. “At least there weren’t rose petals on the bed.”

A knock on the door made me freeze. A follow up knock snapped me out of my momentary panic, and I walked over to open it. A bellhop stood outside the door. I thought it was just the bags until I noticed a tray and ice bucket in his hands. “Hello Mr. Bradley. Here’s your champagne and strawberries. I hope you two have a wonderful, romantic week together.”

I said nothing. I couldn’t. The thought of turning around to face Jade had me ready to bolt from the room.

“Would you like me to set this up for you?” The bellhop asked.

“No thanks.” I took the tray as well as the champagne and ice bucket. “I can handle it.”

He brought in our bags and set them inside the door. “If you’re sure, sir.” He nodded before showing himself out of the room.

Forget Jade killing me, I was going to kill my mom. Unless. I opened the small white card attached to the ice bucket.

Hope you and your girlfriend enjoy yourselves- Dylan.

“Asshole.”

“Excuse me?”

I turned to find Jade sitting on the edge of the bed looking positively mortified.

“Not you, obviously. It was my brother. He did this.” I brought the strawberries and champagne over to her.

“Would you read into anything if I ate a strawberry?” She removed the cover to the dish.

“What would I be reading from it? That you secretly want me?”

She picked up a strawberry and bit into it. “I really like strawberries.”

“We might as well open the champagne too. We’ll need it before we face the rest of my family for dinner.”

“It’s funny how you’re only now admitting how bad this week is going to be.”

“It’s not going to be bad. At least we have the cover to do our own thing. It’s beautiful up here, so we might as well enjoy it.”

“Well, we’re not going to enjoy the sleeping in the same bed part.” She seemed to be setting down ground rules. I was okay with that. I owed her.

“I can sleep on the floor if you want.”

“We don’t have to go that far. You’re just staying on your own side.”

“I promise I’ll do my best to resist you.” I winked, hoping to lighten the mood.

“I’ll do the same.” She smiled slightly.

I reached around her and grabbed a strawberry. “I want to see if they’re as good as you’re making them look.”

“How am I making them look?” She paused with the strawberry halfway to her lips for another bite.

“You’d understand if you could see the face you made when you bit into it the first time.”

“I didn’t make a face.” She used her fingers to wipe away a few drops of strawberry from her lips.

“Yes you did.” I bit into the strawberry. “The face was understandable. These are good.”

“Told you.” She put a hand on her hip.

“Actually you didn’t.”

“Stop it.” She finished her strawberry and put the stem down on a napkin.

“Fine.” I smiled. “Ready for that champagne?”

“Sure. It’s five o’clock somewhere.”

“It’s a quarter till five already. Completely reasonable.”

I held the champagne bottle away from her as I opened it. The top popped off with a satisfying sound, and I poured two glasses.

Jade accepted hers before gently tapping it into mine. “To whatever it is we should be toasting.”

“To a good week.”

“A good week.” She brought the glass to her lips, and I couldn’t help but study them. I bet those lips were incredibly soft.

“Is there strawberry on my face?” She wiped nonexistent strawberry juice off her cheek with the back of her hand.

“No. Sorry. I zoned out for a minute.”

“Well stop that. I need you all here for tonight.”

“It’s not going to be that bad.” It probably would be, but there was no reason to scare her more than she already was.

“You just told me we’d need alcohol to handle it.” She held up her glass.

“Exactly. We have plenty of it now. We’ll be fine.”

She shook her head. “You’re too much.”

“I’d have thought you’d have figured that out a long time ago.”

“You’ve had us all fooled.”

“Oh yeah?”

“I told Cara what I was doing.”

“Oh?” I asked somewhat nervously. Cara was usually very vocal about what she thought of things. I’d gotten to know her really well since she started working on Jade’s radio show.

“She said it was okay because you were safe.”

“I’m safe?” I knew she’d meant it in a good way, but it felt more like an insult. Is that really how those girls viewed me? Safe?

“Yeah, I guess she figured you weren’t trying to take advantage of me.”

“I’d never do that.” If that’s what they meant by safe, I’d own up to it. I wouldn’t hurt someone intentionally. Especially not someone like Jade.

“I know.” She took another sip of her champagne. “I probably shouldn’t drink too much of this. Feeling relaxed is one thing, showing up to dinner plastered is another.”

I laughed. “Now that would be interesting.”

“If by interesting you mean awful, then sure.”

“Fine. Drink what you want and then we can go take a walk. Fresh air always helps.”

“Sounds great, but I should probably change first. Is a black sundress okay for tonight?”

“Perfect. Pretty much anything but jeans.”

“You mean I can wear my cut-off daisy dukes?”

“You don’t even own those.”

“You want to bet?” she challenged.

“If you do, I’d love to see them.” I hadn’t actually meant to say that out loud, but considering how long her legs were, the thought was a natural one.

“Maybe one day.” She smiled before setting down her half full glass.

I quickly changed into a fresh shirt and slacks while I waited for Jade to get changed in the bathroom. Now that we were actually here, I couldn’t believe we were about to put on a show for my entire family. My mom had been one thing, but my father and brother and the rest of them? Dylan especially wasn’t going to make this easy for me. Hopefully he’d be too tanked to waste his energy. Either that or maybe he’d found a girl already. Dylan never had trouble doing that. It was keeping the girl that was his problem.

The door to the bathroom opened, and my breath hitched as I took in the sight of her. “You look amazing.” I raked my eyes over her slim figure. The black dress fit her like a glove and showed off every curve.

She laughed. “Yeah, right.”

“You do. I mean you always look good, but that dress looks awesome on you.” I resisted the urge to reach out and touch her.

“Thanks.” She picked up her small black purse from the bed. “I’m ready.”

“Are those shoes comfortable?” I glanced down at black sandals.

“Comfortable enough.”

“Ok, good. Let’s do this.”

I held open the door and gestured for her to walk into the hall. She took a deep breath before taking small tentative steps.

I let the door close behind us and put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s going to be fine.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“They’re going to be harder on me than you.”

“But they’re your family. It’s different.”

“Remember that when the tables are turned and we’re with your family.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”

I laughed. “I did say I’d pay you back.”

“And I’d never subject either of us to that. My mom would figure it out in seconds.”

“She’s that intuitive?”

“Completely. I was never able to get away with anything.” Her face fell. “Well, at least most of the time I couldn’t.”

“Only most of the time?” I moved my hand to her back as we walked toward the stairs. “This I have to hear.”

“It’s nothing exciting or fun. Trust me.”

“If you say so.” I wasn’t going to push her.

We walked down the grand staircase to the main floor before heading outside to the veranda.

Jade ran her hand down the bannister as we walked down the steps. “It’s absolutely beautiful here.”

“It is. It’s always been one of my favorite vacation spots.” I shielded my eyes from the reflection of the sun on the calm water. Despite the glare, the lake was as beautiful as always.

“I can’t believe you guys vacation up here while you also have a house down at the beach.”

“What you mean is that I’m spoiled.”

“Sort of.”

“I’m not going to pretend that I was deprived of much in that department growing up.”

“In that department? Meaning you were deprived in others?” Her brown eyes locked on mine.

“Forget it. It’s not important.”

“If you say so.” We continued down to the shore of the lake. “Oh, before I forget again, what’s your mom’s name? I felt like an idiot earlier because I didn’t know.”

“She’s Grace and my dad’s Steve.”

“Grace and Steve. Got it.”

The evening was windy, and Jade’s hair blew all around her. She pulled it back and held it at the nape of her neck. “I’m glad I brought some sweatshirts with me.”

“Do you want to get a sweater right now?”

“No. I like it. Sometimes feeling a little cold is good.”

“I know what you mean.” I turned back to look out at the expansive lake. It was the kind of lake that made you think of the ocean because it seemed endless. “Do you like the water?”

“Usually.”

“Let’s start with when you don’t.”

“Contrary to what I just said about the wind, I hate swimming in cold water. If it’s warm, I’m all about it though.”

“In other words you wouldn’t want to do a polar plunge with me?” I teased.

She cringed. “That sounds horrid.”

“It’s actually invigorating.”

“You’ve done it?” She eyed widened in surprise. “For real?”

“I did it last New Year’s. My brother talked me into it.”

“Your brother sounds crazy.”

“He is. Very.”

“And I have to go meet said scary brother now?”

“You do. That kind of makes me a jerk, huh?”

“Not a jerk unless you ditch me.”

“You think I’m going to ditch you? Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of bringing you with me?”

She tilted her head slightly. “Technically just having me here supports your claim, so you can ditch me after I meet everyone else.”

“But then I can’t sell them on how madly in love we are.”

She put a hand on her hip. “I wasn’t aware that was part of the plan. New girlfriend is different from madly in love.”

“I want to make sure we adequately put your acting skills to work.”

“Oh, we’re putting them to work.”

“Are we?” I leaned in slightly.

“If it isn’t the love birds.” Dylan sauntered over visibly intoxicated.

Jade straightened up.

“Dylan, this is Jade. Jade, this is my brother, Dylan.”

“A pleasure to meet you.” He held out his hand.

“Nice to meet you too.” She tentatively gave her his hand.

“How did you meet my brother?” Dylan took his time shaking her hand before releasing it.

“We work together at the radio station.”

“I see.”

She smiled. “Yeah, you know the whole ‘I want to sleep with my boss’ thing.”

I choked down a laugh. Was she really going there?

“Your boss?”

“Yes. Kyle is the manager of the station now after all.”

“What year are you?” Dylan continued the interrogation.

“I’ll be a sophomore in the fall.”

“Going for a younger woman, huh Kyle?”

“Like you should talk? We’re only a year apart, and you rarely date anyone close to your age.”

“And you saw where that got me.”

“What happened with Juliet was your fault.” I still hadn’t forgiven Dylan for hurting the girl I’d crushed on my whole childhood. I wasn’t into her anymore, but he’d been an asshole to take advantage of her adoration.

“So what do you do, Dylan?” Jade stopped me from saying something I’d probably regret.

“I’m in the process of taking over our father’s business.” He looked at me. “Kyle will be working for me after graduation.”

“No I won’t.” I had no intentions of going anywhere near the family business. Even if I had any interest in business, I wouldn’t have touched ours with a ten foot pole. My relationship with my family was complicated enough without throwing in working with them.

“You make it sound like you have a choice.” Dylan shook his head. “If you don’t they’ll cut you out of the will.”

“Like I care about that?”

Jade took a long look at me before turning back to Dylan. “Would you excuse us?” She grabbed onto my arm.

“Sure, I’ll see you at dinner.” Dylan stomped away.

“What a jerk.”

“You think?” I wasn’t going to defend him. He wasn’t perfect when he was sober, but he was worse when he was drunk. “Were you expecting something different?”

“I thought he was the golden boy or something.”

“My parents don’t see him the same way I do.”

“Is your dad as bad?” She continued her walk around the lakefront.

“Yes and no. He’s never drunk, if that helps, but he can be a jerk.”

“Your mom seems nice.”

“One out of three isn’t so bad, huh?”

She smiled. “We should probably head back inside. We wouldn’t want to be late.”

“We wouldn’t?”

“We shouldn’t.”

“We should have had more champagne.”

“Alcohol doesn’t fix everything.”

“It numbs it.” I laced my fingers through hers as we headed back toward the hotel.

She looked down at our hands. “You’re getting the hang of this.”

I shrugged. “It’s not as strange as I’d have thought.” It actually felt natural. Completely natural. I filed away that thought. Jade wasn’t going to have any interest in having a real relationship with me after spending a week with my family.