Page 26 of Crashing Into You

“Oh, he does his share,” she says, grabbing a colander full of steaming pasta and spooning it into the bowls. “Mostly on the barbeque.”

“I also make a mean pizza,” Matt says, picking up the saucepan from the stove and ladling sauce onto our pasta. “And bacon and eggs, of course.”

“You’re a regular chef, babe,” Kylie says, the words laced with affection, as she tears up fresh basil, sprinkling it on the pasta. “Parmesan?”

I realise she’s asking me. I blink, lost in a momentary daydream of sharing a similar moment with Claire, being in her kitchen surrounded by light and warmth and the smell of good cooking. What the hell is wrong with me? I barely know the girl and I’m already dreaming of happy families.

“Uh, yeah. Don’t hold back.”

Kylie frowns at me, handing the dishes to Matt who brings them over to the scrubbed timber table, which is set with mats, napkins and cutlery.

“Take a seat,” he says to me, gesturing to the place opposite his.

“Thanks, man. This looks gr?—”

“And then you can tell us what the fuck you’re playing at with Claire,” Kylie adds, as she comes to join us, putting a beer in front of me and another for Matt.

I groan. I should have known this was coming. I did, to be honest. I’d been rehearsing what I was going to say on the drive down, something about how we connected at the pub and that I couldn’t stop thinking about her. All true, except for the bit where this is a relationship of convenience.

I dig into my pasta, wanting some space to collect my thoughts. “This is awesome, Kylie,” I say.

“Don’t change the subject,” she says, with a grin. “And I know it is. Old family recipe.”

“Fine.” I put my fork down. “Yeah. So… she and I, we’re dating.”

“Dating?” Kylie narrows her eyes. “Not your usual style, Bryce.”

“Maybe I’m changing my style,” I say.

Matt snorts, taking a pull on his beer. Kylie just stares at me, her arms folded. Fuck. I can’t lie to them.

“Okay, so, Jeff called me. After that photo came out on socials.”

Kylie shakes her head.

“The sponsors were pissed. Particularly Ocean’s Curl. Apparently I spend too much time shagging randoms and not enough time surfing.” I grimace. Jeff’s words still sting, to be honest.

Matt glances at Kylie.

“Anyway, so you know all that shit that went down at the pub, with Claire and that asshole? And how I stepped in?”

“Yeah.” Kylie is looking wary now. “What about it?”

I shrug. “Well, apparently it went viral, me saying Claire was my girlfriend. And Jeff told me I better make it look good. So I asked her.”

“To be your girlfriend?” Matt frowns. “You barely fucking know her!”

“It’s more of an… arrangement.”

Kylie’s brows shoot up. “An arrangement? What sort of arrangement?”

“She needed to get that guy off her back. I needed a girlfriend. So I asked her if she wanted to pretend. For a month.” It sounds totally shit when I say it like that. As though Claire doesn’t mean anything. As though our time together is just a business arrangement. I don’t like it.

“And she said yes?” Kylie sounds completely scandalised.

“She did. Jeff had her sign an NDA. He wanted to pay her for her time, too, but she said no. She’s pretty cool.”

“She’s very fucking cool,” Kylie says. “And this sounds insane. So you’d better not mess her around.”