Page 61 of Fake It For Love (Faux Love)
Because I knew better than to storm out and hop in my plane, I gave them each a hug. Eliza followed me out and stopped me before I could hail a cab. “You like hanging out with her, huh?” she asked.
“Yes, I do.”
“Good for you,” she said. “It’s about damn time you did something for yourself. Something fun. Don’t worry about them. They are worried someone is going to take advantage of you. You know how they are. They can be a little overbearing, but it comes from a place of love.”
“Their love comes with a lot of judgment,” I complained.
“Yes, but it’ll be fine. Have fun with Claire and tell her I said hello. It’s been a while. How is she doing?”
“She seems to be doing just fine,” I answered.
“Minus the fact she needs money bad enough to pretend to be engaged to you,” she teased.
I laughed and gave her a hug. “Yeah, besides that little detail. Give my favorite nieces a hug for me. I miss them. I’m going to bring them something really cool back from the island.”
“Don’t you dare,” she warned. “You buy them too much shit. I’m going to have to buy one of those portable sheds to store all the stuff you buy.”
I grinned and stretched out my arm to get a cab. “They deserve all of it.”
“They don’t even know how much they have because you have given them so much!”
A cab pulled to the curb. I opened the door and turned to wave.
“Have a safe flight,” she said. “And have fun. Real fun. Not Ryan fun, but the actual human kind. The kind people have when they’re single.”
“I’m going to try to do just that,” I said and got into the car. On the way back to the airport, I quickly sent Claire a text and let her know I’d be back by dinner. It took another hour to get the plane refueled and ready for my return flight. I grabbed a sandwich from a vendor and scarfed it down while I waited. I was very anxious to get back to Claire. I was hoping she’d let me take her out to a quiet dinner. I didn’t want to have dinner at the resort. I wanted to go somewhere where it could be just the two of us. I wanted to explore this thing I thought we had.
This thing I hoped we had.
