Chapter 13

Cami

It took a lot longer to get dinner on the table than I’d expected. Cooking didn’t come naturally to Xander. Part of it was my fault. I’d never taken the time to measure some of my ingredients. I’d need to figure that out before our next lesson. When he’d asked me how much vanilla I was adding, I had no clue.

“This is fantastic,” Xander praised after finishing off an entire waffle.

“Were they worth the wait?” I asked.

“That’s a trick question.” He waved his fork at me. “If I say they weren’t worth the wait, you’ll accuse me of saying they aren’t that good. I still refuse to say I’m glad I waited to get a fresh waffle.”

“What do you mean by a fresh waffle?” I asked suspiciously. “Did you steal one of the waffles I sent for Piper? You promised you wouldn’t take one.”

After Piper was injured during a robbery, I’d sent Xander over with waffles for her. Like the rest of us, he’d been worried about Piper, so he’d been willing to keep his hands off the waffles, or so I thought.

His smile was sheepish. “Piper insisted I have one. It was good, but not as good as these.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised. Sorry, this wasn’t the best cooking lesson,” I told him. “Next time, I’ll be more prepared.”

“You were great,” he assured me. “Could you teach me to make some other stuff? I know we only agreed on waffles, but this was fun. I enjoyed working in the kitchen with you.”

“It was fun,” I agreed with a smile. “And yes, I’ll teach you to cook more than just waffles.”

He grinned at me. “That would be great. What else can you teach me to make?”

I shrugged. “I’m no cooking expert, but I have more than a few recipes I’m proud of.”

“You’re an expert compared to me,” he replied. “I can’t even make bacon.”

“You should be able to after tonight,” I reminded him. “You flipped it and pulled it from the pan. That’s the biggest part of cooking it.

“It’s a lot better than the stuff I heat up in the microwave,” he said with a grin. “Thanks, babe. I appreciate you teaching me to cook.”

“I appreciate what you’re doing for me,” was my honest reply.

We made small talk for the rest of dinner, and it wasn’t until after Xander helped me clean up the dishes that he mentioned our fake relationship.

“If we’re going to pull this off, we have to be seen together,” he told me as he followed me into my living room.

“You’re right,” I agreed. “That shouldn’t be too hard since we spend time together, anyway. I guess we’ll have to hold hands. Maybe you could even put your arm around me.”

“And kiss you,” he added.

“We don’t need to kiss,” I argued. “A lot of couples avoid public displays of affection like kissing.”

“I’m not one of those people who avoids PDAs.” He didn’t need to say more. I’d followed Reckless Release for years. Xander was single most of the time, but he’d had a few girlfriends. While some in the media had speculated that we were a couple, the diehard fans had insisted it couldn’t be true since they’d never seen pictures of Xan kissing me. As proof, fans posted photos of him kissing exes. “Is this going to be too much for you?”

“No,” I assured him. “It’s just a few quick kisses. People kiss in movies. I’ve played spin the bottle and kissed guys I didn’t even like.”

“How often do you play spin the bottle?” he asked with a laugh.

“I think I was sixteen the last time I played,” I admitted. “And it was incredibly awkward.”

“Most things are at sixteen,” he added. “You seem nervous about this kiss.”

“I’m not!” Nearly shouting my denial wasn’t making me sound very believable. “Fine, I am a little nervous. It’s crazy since you aren’t the first guy I’ve kissed. I even fantasized about kissing you.”

He looked surprised. “You did?”

“Sure,” I replied. “Remember, I was a huge Reckless Release fan before we even met.”

“But Austin was your favorite,” he muttered. “You already told me you had a crush on him.”

“That quickly changed when I met him,” I reminded Xander. “Besides, I still had fantasies about you and Gage.”

Xander’s eyes darkened, and he cleared his throat before continuing. “Maybe we should practice kissing, so it doesn’t look forced in public.”

“Practice?” My voice was a little too high, so I composed myself and started again. “Like a rehearsal? Do you really think we need to practice kissing? We’ve both done it before.”

Xander chuckled at my reaction. “Not with each other. You know as well as I do that kissing can be awkward at first. What if I go in for your mouth and you dip, leaving me with a mouth full of your nose?”

I giggled at the image he’d painted. “That doesn’t happen.”

“Just because it hasn’t happened to one of us yet doesn’t mean it never happens,” he argued. “There are also nose bumps, bashing tongues, and the rigid kiss to worry about.”

“Bashing tongues?” I asked.

“You know,” he began. “It’s when you both go in with the tongue, and they smash into each other.”

“We could just keep our tongues to ourselves,” I pointed out.

“That sounds boring,” he replied. “Are you going to be the rigid kissing type?”

“I was a rigid kisser during my spin the bottle days. How should we do this? Should we just stand up and try kissing? Maybe we should have a tongue rule in advance.”

“There’s such a thing as over-thinking a practice kiss,” he told me with a smile. “This feels a little awkward now.”

“You may be right,” I agreed. “We’ll try this another time when we haven’t talked it to death, and I will try to refrain from coming up with rules in advance.”

“Do you want to go see a movie?” he asked. “It’s what fake couples do.”

“But we haven’t practiced kissing yet,” I teased. “How can we possibly go on a fake date before practicing our kissing?”

Rather than laughing at my joke, Xander caught my hand and pulled me against his chest. When I looked up at him and gasped, he kissed me.