Not Fake for Long by Weston Parker

19

HARRISON

Keira stirred beside me when I started waking up. Wrenching my eyes open in the hopes of seeing her when she did the same, I was rewarded by the sleepy softness of her gaze when it landed on mine. She smiled lazily, stretching out before rolling on her side to face me.

“Sleep well?”

“If I can quote you, I slept like a drunken sailor after a bachelor party.” I reached for her, winding my fingers into her hair as I brought my mouth to hers.

She kissed me once, then suddenly pulled back and crinkled her nose. “We both have morning breath. You must be disgusted by me right about now.”

“Are you disgusted by me?” I asked, stroking my fingers along her scalp.

Her eyelids fluttered closed and she leaned into my touch. “Not even a little.”

“Good, then you know why I’m not either.” I leaned in for another kiss, and this time, she responded.

It went from soft and sweet to urgent and hungry in about sixty seconds flat. Less than five minutes later, I had a condom on and was buried balls-deep inside her. My orgasms with her had been fucking spectacular every time, and it wasn’t any different this morning.

For a few long minutes after, my ears rang and I had to force my limbs to move. Eventually though, it was time to get up.

“I have to pick up something for Ashton this morning, but I’ll be back in about an hour to get you,” I said as I pulled on my pants.

The truth was that I had to shower and get Dottie from my place, but since I hadn’t told her who I was, I couldn’t exactly tell her I had a house here. While I was very well aware of the fact that I was only digging my own hole deeper and deeper, I couldn’t seem to stop doing it.

The hole was probably already deep enough that if I came clean now, she’d feel like I’d been lying to her. Which I both had and hadn’t. Nothing I’d said had been an outright lie, but I doubted she’d see it that way.

I should’ve just corrected Hailey the first time when she’d assumed Ashton was the owner of the farm, and that would’ve been that. But I hadn’t done it, and since I didn’t know if Keira would have given me a chance if I had, I didn’t really regret it either.

Of course, I would have to tell her the truth sometime. Hopefully, once she knew me better and knew that I wasn’t as vile as she seemed to believe all well-off people were, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. Except for the fact that she might still kick me to the curb for not coming clean earlier.

In a way, I’d backed myself into a corner and all I was doing now was making it worse. I just wasn’t ready to place whatever this relationship was I had with her in jeopardy, though.

Keira was still sitting in bed, smiling as she watched me get dressed. “Perfect. I’ll be ready in an hour. Do you want to stop for breakfast on the way?”

“We can grab something to go,” I said. “If we want to make it worthwhile to go out there for the day, it’s better to get on the road as early as we can.”

“True.” She stood up, and I was distracted by her curves as she pulled on a robe from a hook next to her dresser. “Are you sure I can’t even make you some coffee before you leave?”

“Nah, that’s okay.” I put on my shoes and slid my phone and wallet into my pocket.

When I was satisfied that I had everything, I strode over to her and gave her a firm kiss on the mouth, my gaze locked on that deep brown one of hers when we broke apart. “I’ll be back soon.”

She slid her hand loosely into mine, then walked me to the door. After saying goodbye, I headed to my place for a shower and to pick up Dottie.

The black lab was lying in her spot in the sun when I opened the door, her head lifting to see who it was before she rested it back down on her paws. I chuckled and shed my clothes on my way to the kitchen, loading them straight into the washer.

“It doesn’t seem like you missed me too much last night,” I said, glancing over at her bowls standing near the window. “Okay. Since you’ve still got food and water, that means I can go have my shower. We’re leaving right after. We’re going out to the farm with Keira today.”

I rolled my eyes at myself when the dog didn’t respond. Once I was showered and shaved, I put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt with my boots, then grabbed Dottie’s leash when I got back downstairs.

“Okay, girl.” I clapped my hand and lifted the leash to show it to her. “Let’s go. We’ve got a busy day ahead of us.”

She rose slowly, nails clicking on the hardwood floors as she trotted over to me. I clipped on the leash, led her outside, locked the door behind us, and headed to my truck. When she was loaded in, I glanced at her in the rearview mirror while waiting for a gap in the traffic.

“We’re going to pick up Keira now. Do me a favor and don’t tell her the truth, okay? She doesn’t know we have a house here. I know I should tell her, but I’m not ready yet.” Her soulful eyes stared into mine. “Yeah. Yeah. I know. Don’t judge me.”

She tilted her head and let out a breath that sounded disapproving—although it might very well have been my guilt making me think that—and lay down on the back seat. We made it to Keira’s right on time, and she came out of her building just as we pulled up.

I quickly got out of my truck to open the passenger door for Keira. Dottie peeked up when the door opened, letting out a soft bark and wagging her tail when she saw who it was. There wasn’t a single other person she’d met that she responded to this way. It was uncanny really.

“Hi, girl,” Keira cooed when she spotted her as she climbed in. “Where did you come from?”

She twisted around in her seat to rub Dottie’s neck while I shut her door and walked around the car. I dropped into the driver’s seat, trying not to pay too much attention to the love affair playing out beside me.

“It’s so good to see you. How have you been?” she was saying as Dottie rolled over onto her back for Keira to rub her tummy next. “You might think I’m weird for saying this, but I missed you. I really did. Did you miss me too?”

From the wagging tail and smiling face, it was a definite yes on that one. Keira finally turned around again to buckle up just as I was about to ease into the traffic.

“I didn’t know you’d brought her with you. Where was she all night?” She looked me over, taking in my damp hair and changed clothes. “Did you shower? I kind of thought you’d just shower when we get there.”

“Dottie stayed in a kennel last night. I don’t like leaving her on the farm alone.” That part, at least, was completely true. “I didn’t want to be presumptuous, so I got myself a room to sleep in just in case.”

Fuck.Now that one was an outright lie, and it was a slippery slope from here. I didn’t make a habit of lying. Generally speaking, I didn’t often see a reason to lie about anything. If someone didn’t like something I did or said, that was their problem.

With Keira, however, it was different. Fuck.

Sitting back and facing forward, she glanced at me and smiled. “It’s sweet that you didn’t want to be presumptuous, but I’m sorry you wasted money on a room you ended up not using.”

My grip tightened on the steering wheel and guilt so intense it made my stomach clench slammed into me. Not only was she giving me that soft, trusting smile, but she also looked genuinely concerned over me having wasted money.

Breathing through the urge to just blurt out the truth right here and now, I vowed to tell her as soon as the wedding was over. In the end, I’d offered to take her because it wasn’t necessary for her to get shit from her mother about not having a date when she could have one. And one who didn’t mind pretending to be her fiancé, at that.

Holding off on telling her might not have been honest or noble—I wouldn’t lie to myself and pretend it was—but I was helping her. Hopefully, she would also see it that way once she found out the truth.

It would be better to just tell her now. It had only been a week since we’d met. If I told her I’d simply gone along with Hailey’s assumption because it hadn’t seemed to matter much at the time and that I’d been waiting for the right time to tell her the truth, there was a chance she would understand.

Unfortunately, there was also a chance that she wouldn’t.

If anything, it could reaffirm her belief that all rich people were dicks and I would never hear from her again. In which case, she went to the wedding by herself and I lost the only person I’d felt a real connection with in a very long time.

I wasn’t a gambling man. My appetite for risk was large in some instances, but this wasn’t one of them.

Keira sighed happily when we left the city limits. “I already feel like I’m breathing easier. I might just be developing an unnatural attraction to being outside of the city.”

“Nothing unnatural about it.” I chuckled. “That concrete jungle has felt suffocating to me for years. There’s a reason why so many people get out as often as they can. Even if it is just to go hiking or whatever.”

“Fair enough. I just never would’ve thought I’d be one of those people. How did you figure it out?”

“I’ve always been a fan of being outdoors,” I said. “One day, after a particularly shit day, I got in my car and just drove. I ended up out here, stopped to grab a coffee in Red Hook, looked around, and thought about how great it would be to live on a farm near a village like that. I guess one thing led to another, and here I am.”

All of which was true. It felt good to know that not everything I said would have to be a lie until I could tell her the truth.

Dottie’s head nudged my arm, and I glanced down to find her trying to get to Keira’s arm. I laughed and shook my head. “I still can’t believe she’s like this with you. I’ve never really seen her like this with anyone, not even me most days.”

“Well, the feeling is mutual,” she said, hooking her arm back to be able to stroke Dottie. “Do you think you’ll live out here for the rest of your life? Or do you think you’ll move on again eventually?”

I shrugged. “Time will tell, but I’m happy when I’m here. I’d like to do some traveling and see more of the world, but at the end of a vacation, I’m always going to want to come home.”

“I hear what you’re saying.” A smile spread on her face when we drove onto the farm. She rolled her window down and took in a deep breath, exhaling slowly before rolling her head to the side to look at me. “Coming home to here would definitely be better than to the city. Being here is better than being in the city to me, and it’s not even my home.”

“What do you think? Would you ever consider moving out here?” I asked as the car rolled to a stop.

She glanced at me, arching a brow and flashing a coy smile just before opening her door. “I might be convinced to. Like you said, time will tell. For now, it’s enough to just be here.”

Hopping out of the cab, she pulled her sunglasses down over her eyes and planted her hands on her hips. “Are you coming? Some of us only have the day here. I don’t want to waste a minute.”

Neither did I. The clock was ticking toward the moment when I would tell her everything, and from now until then, I needed to make the best of all the time I got to spend with her. Because in all likelihood, it would be over very soon.