Faking It With the Firefighter

Faking it was never the hard part.

BETSY
Fake-date the man who broke my heart - for two visiting mothers and a town that won't mind its business? Sure. What could go wrong.

Six weeks ago, Jake Brennan called me his "knee work" in front of his mother. Not his girlfriend. His knee work. So I left the key on his counter and got on with being fine.

Then his apartment goes up in smoke, and he lands on my couch like he never left.

Four days. One lie. A key he doesn't get to keep. We sell the happy reunion to both our mothers and the whole nosy town - and on Sunday, we go back to nothing.

Simple. Except every day I spend pretending to love him, I remember I never stopped. And I already know how this ends: with me alone, watching Jake find the door.

JAKE
Survive the centennial. Get my mother on a plane. Don't let anyone see how badly I wrecked the best thing I ever had.

Then my kitchen catches fire, and the only door in town still open to me is the one I walked out of six weeks ago.

I called Betsy my "knee work" because the only thing that scares me more than a burning building is staying. My father walked out and never looked back, and I've spent my whole life sure I'm built the same. So I left before she could count on me to stay.

Now I've got four days on her couch to prove I'm not him - four days to win her back before Sunday takes her for good.

Trouble is, I stopped pretending the first night. And she's the one person I can't fool.

Steamy, small-town, and full of heat. Fake dating, second chance, a Fourth of July centennial, and a firefighter who shows instead of tells. Pine Hollow Hearts #2, standalone, HEA.