Daniel placed a hand on my upper arm and planted a kiss on my cheek. If it hadn’t been for Aaron’s warm palm, which had somehow landed on the small of my back, I would have stumbled backward. That was how off guard that friendly kiss had caught me.
My gaze roamed around the group, confirming that every person present had their eyeballs turned on us.
Daniel seemed oblivious to all the gawking, smiling at me like we were old friends being reunited after years of not seeing each other. Which was the exact opposite of how I felt.
He looked me up and down. “Dios, Lina. Cuánto tiempo. Mírate. Estás—”
“Daniel,” I cut him off. “This is Aaron,” I blurted out, pulling away from him and nestling myself a step further into my fake boyfriend and personal human-sized shield.
Daniel’s furrowed eyebrows signaled his confusion. Probably because I had switched to English more than because I was introducing him to someone I was supposedly dating.
“Hi. I’m her boyfriend,” Aaron said politely, stretching his hand in front of him. “Su novio,” he clarified in Spanish for Daniel’s sake. Which was completely unnecessary and kind of cocky, and in some parallel reality, it would have pulled a snicker out of me. But my lips remained pressed into a tense line. “It’s nice to meet you, Daniel.”
My ex and sister’s fiancé’s best friend stared at Aaron for a brief moment and then broke into a wary but amiable smile. “Sí, claro. Nice to meet you, Aaron.” Daniel finally took Aaron’s hand and shook it. “I’m an old friend of Lina.”
Something pulled tight in my stomach at Daniel’s definition of what we had once been.
As soon as both men retrieved their arms, Daniel returned his attention to me, and Aaron’s palm returned to my back.
“How have you been, Lina? You look so … different.” Daniel’s smile widened. “Different, but good. You look amazing actually.”
His eyes kept assessing me, as if he couldn’t believe that it was me. And I wasn’t really sure how I felt about that, so I forced my lips to curl up.
“Thanks, Daniel. I have been fine, busy with work and … life.”
“That’s right.” My ex nodded his head. “You are living the life in New York City. I always knew you had the potential to do great things, to get very far in your career.”
He had been my professor for a whole year before we started properly dating, and during that time, I had been a highly motivated student. An overachiever. Things had changed after that.
“And you did.”
“Thanks,” I muttered. My mind filing away all kinds of complaints. “It’s not that big of a deal.”
Aaron cleared his throat lightly. “It is,” he said softly. So much that I thought he had said it just for me. But then he kept going, “Lina leads a considerably large team of people in one of the most successful engineering consulting companies in New York. That is, by all standards, a big deal.”
“Wow.” Daniel smiled tightly. “That’s amazing, Lina. It is.” His lips turned somewhat more relaxed. “Congratulations.”
I muttered my thanks, still feeling flushed over Aaron’s words.
There was a long and awkward moment of silence, and then Daniel’s eyes bounced quickly between Aaron and me. “So, this is him, huh? The American boyfriend.”
My head reared back, shocked by Daniel’s word choice. With my shoulders tensing, my mouth opened with the intention of asking what that had been, but I felt Aaron’s hand trailing up my back, stopping at the nook between my shoulder and my neck. His thumb brushed the skin there very gently. That touch—that thumb caressing the side of my neck—almost made me forget about who was in front of me and what he had said or if he had talked at all. His finger swiped right and left one more time, making a shiver run down my spine.
Closing my eyes briefly, I pulled myself back into the conversation and decided to ignore Daniel’s last comment. “Congratulations on the engagement.” I made my lips tug up. “I’m very happy for you, Daniel.”
Daniel’s eyes, which had been somewhere where Aaron’s palm was, met mine. He nodded and flashed that dimple I had been so familiar with in the past. “Thank you, Lina. I’m extremely grateful she said yes. It’s not that easy to deal with me sometimes. I get lost in my head a lot when I’m working,” he said, slipping his hands in his pockets. “Well, no need to explain that to you. You know that already.”
Yes, I did. Everybody here knew I did too. He hadn’t needed to point that out. Not after downgrading our past to old friends.
My fake boyfriend’s palm spread and shifted down my shoulder, his fingers trailing down my arm and reaching my hand. It was so very distracting, the way he touched me. And yet, he managed to keep me grounded, all at once. Every time my head had threatened to roam away, Aaron had pulled me right back before my feet could lift off the floor. Those gentle brushes against my skin had that power, I realized. And judging by the way my voice came out when I spoke next—breathy, weak—they also came at a price.
“Well, I wish you two the best.” And despite myself, I meant that. “Will she be joining us today?”
Aaron’s fingers wrapped around mine, awakening in me something that urged me to turn around to look at him. I suppressed it, keeping my gaze on Daniel.
“Unfortunately, Marta won’t be able to make it. A last-minute work thing. She’s also a professor, and she was called to a conference to cover for a colleague.” Daniel shrugged his shoulders.
And I made a note to talk to my sister later. I was under the impression the bride would know if someone had canceled.
“It’s all good though.” Daniel’s eyes jumped to Aaron’s hand one more time, his expression distracted. “Attending a wedding alone is not all that dramatic. Plus, I wouldn’t want to make it about me.” My ex pinned me with a look.
And was that … accusation that I saw in his eyes?
“I …” I trailed off, second-guessing myself. My cheeks burned, and I couldn’t do much else but gape.
“Then, why waste more time talking about it?” Aaron managed to flatten his voice, about enough to sound bored. But I knew better. “I’m excited to see what comes next,” he surprised me by saying. Then, his fingers squeezed mine. “Lina was telling me that Gabi saved the best for last. Right, baby?”
He leaned and brushed his lips over my shoulder. Very softly. Impossibly lightly. But it made my body come alive.
“Right,” I breathed out. Urging the shock out of my expression.
God, I could still feel the imprint of his lips on my shoulder. The touch somehow spreading out across my skin.
“Oh, and what’s that?” Daniel asked. Or at least, I guessed he had because my mind was somewhere else.
Aaron kissed me. On my shoulder.
The temperature of my whole body had probably risen a couple—or ten—degrees.
It’s good. This is what couples do. They kiss each other. On multiple body parts. Like shoulders.
“The soccer match. We’ll be starting in a few minutes, I think,” I heard Aaron explain. “Lina has promised me to show me all her moves. I won’t lie; I’m equal parts intrigued and terrified.”
Trying to look the part, I leaned my head on Aaron’s chest. And I almost slipped to the floor when I felt him brush another kiss on my hair.
“Yeah.” I said, my breath getting stuck somewhere in my throat. “Ruthless Lina is about to make an appearance.”
Aaron chuckled, and I felt his chest vibrating under my temple. The hand that wasn’t holding mine came to rest on my hip, sending electrical shocks through all nerve endings in my body.
Breathe, Lina. He’s supposed to act like this.
I forced myself to remain still when, in reality, I wanted to do everything else but that. Like forgetting about Daniel and asking Aaron what in the world he was doing. Why had he kissed my shoulder? Or the top of my head? Could he please do that again just so I could check if my reaction had been a one-time occurrence or if that was the way my body reacted to his touch?
Daniel’s mouth opened and closed, as he was probably feeling uncomfortable at our display of affection.
Of fake affection, I reminded myself.
My ex and former professor looked up, someplace where Aaron’s head towered over mine. Something flashed across his face, too quickly for me to grasp its meaning. Then, he nodded and directed a small smile at me.
Not really understanding what had just gone down before the two men, I finally allowed myself to look up at Aaron.
And … nothing. Just one of his blank expressions in place.
Someone called Daniel’s name in the distance. My head fell just in time to watch my ex walk away, all the way to where Gonzalo was standing. He took his place beside his brother.
Still feeling the weird tension in the air, I drew a shallow breath.
Ugh, that had been really awkward. I felt like I wanted to shake myself, so I could get rid of the yucky sensation that stuck to my skin. But that would have ridden me of all the tingles I was still feeling too. That would also mean that I had to disentangle myself from Aaron’s arm and chest and body, and … I didn’t know if I wanted to do that.
You do, dumbass. This is not real.
And I needed to remember that before I did something really stupid.
* * *
If the chaosaround me was anything to go by, I’d say we had a little situation in our hands.
“No me lo puedo creer,” my cousin cried in the middle of a less than perfect circle of people, throwing her arms in the air like the world was coming to an end. “No podemos jugar así. Se cancela todo. Esto un desastre. No, no, no, no.”
She grabbed a few of the T-shirts from the open box at her feet and hurled them at the floor.
Whoa.
“Esos malnacidos—”
“Cálmate, prima,” Isabel interrupted, telling her to calm down. “Qué importa. Son solo unas camisetas.”
Our cousin gasped and then hissed something really nasty at my sister, who barked right back at her.
Aaron leaned to his side and then lowered his voice. “What is going on? Should we run?”
I stifled a snicker. I didn’t want to anger Gabi any more. She was either about to cry or turn full-on She-Hulk, and no matter what, we’d have to deal with the fallout.
“There’s been a mix-up with the T-shirts for the soccer match.” I sighed. “Apparently, they sent the ones for the Team Groom in the smallest size instead of the largest.”
“Can’t we play with what we are wearing?” the poor soul that was my fake boyfriend asked.
Gabi’s head spun toward us. “Qué ha dicho?” she screeched.
“Nada.” I held my hands in the air. Then, I turned to Aaron. “Keep your voice down. Didn’t you see how she got when my cousin Matías asked why she hadn’t thought of handing out the shirts earlier today? Or when Adrián said it would have been smart to double check the sizes before today?”
Aaron’s lips pursed.
“Exactly. Good thing my sister intercepted her before she got to them. They are tough guys but it would have been a carnage either way.” I shook my head. “You are tough too, but I need you in one piece, okay?” I stopped myself, realizing what I had said. “We are expected to dance at the wedding.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Aaron said from my side. “I can survive your cousin. I could put us both into safety too. Just say the word.”
I averted my eyes and glanced in Gabi’s direction. A red-faced Isabel was trying to jerk the box out of Gabi’s grip. And my cousin was tugging at it quite … violently, if I had to pick a word.