9. Kye

NINE

KYE

"I'm pretty sure I'm going to fuck this up." I grabbed my coat and threw it on, hoping covering my tattoos for the day would help give Holt the impression that I wasn't a complete fuckup.

I mean, along with having Daisy next to me.

"You are not," Carly said with a cocky grin as I looked in the mirror. "He's going to be surprised you have a date, though."

"Hopefully, it's a good enough surprise that he knows I'm trying."

"I think it will be plenty to show him that. Especially since you went out and got the town princess. How did you convince her to do this exactly?"

"She practically begged me to be her fake boyfriend. I didn't have to convince her. If anything, she had to convince me."

Carly rolled her eyes as she got up and headed into my small kitchen. Her dog, Riot, lounged on the couch, not even bothering to get up when he could watch her from there. My apartment was the smallest in the building, but I liked it that way. I didn't need much, and what I did need fit here or in the garages.

She grabbed her coffee off the counter before waving me over to the door with her. "Interesting that she chose you, of all people. Very interesting. Are you going to be okay with her having to hold your hand and everything?"

I cleared my throat, pushing away the thoughts of her touching me. I had started to worry that I actually was going to be okay with it, and the thought of that was already getting under my skin.

"I'll handle it."

"Just don't push yourself too far. It's not worth working for Holt if he only thinks you're trustworthy with some fancy woman on your arm."

"I know, but I want him to see I'm trying and I just need this to show that for now."

"I would also suggest stop getting arrested," she said as she waved Riot out of the apartment with us. "I don't know. It might help."

"Well," I said, smiling as I shut the door behind us. "I can't promise that, which is why I need the good girl sheriff's daughter to help my image. Lucky for me, she needs someone that her stupid ex-boyfriend is scared of."

She gave a snorting laugh as we made it to her and Jax's apartment one floor down. "The toss-up of you having to not get arrested, or deal with the girl you call prom queen because she's so perfect now having to touch you and be your girlfriend is hilarious. Who would have thought your love life drama was going to be our entertainment for the week? The crew is going to eat this up."

"They aren't because you aren't going to tell them yet."

Carly rolled her eyes but nodded. " Fine , but only because I want to see their faces when you tell them."

"What does it matter anyway? It's a fake relationship, so I get my dream job and she gets…some sort of popularity, I think? Either way, it's all fake."

"Real or fake, it's entertaining for me. Are you coming over for a movie later?"

"Unless you go running off to tell Jax all about this, yeah, I'll be there."

She waved me off and disappeared inside the apartment. I kept going, heading downstairs to the garage we had on the bottom floor of our building.

It was a fake relationship, and even if she touched me and it didn't hurt, it was fake and it would always be.

Daisy looked the part in a light blue sundress and denim jacket. A perfect prom queen coming with me to meet Holt and convince him I'm worth hiring as a driver.

I wasn't one to get nervous, but by the time I pulled into Holt Racing, I was ready to call it quits.

"I don't know what I'm going to do if he doesn't buy this, so please, sell it."

"I will," she said, her shoulders back and a bright smile on her face.

"And please tell me how the hell I can sell it more."

"I will, Kye, relax. We got this," she said, laying a hand over mine before I quickly pulled away.

"Let's go get this over with."

Twenty minutes later, we were sitting on the other side of Holt's desk, trying to explain to him how we met and how I've been acting perfect since.

Minus the getting arrested part.

We talked over the things I would be doing before Holt finally came to the things I needed to do still.

"This is pretty hard to believe, Kye," he said.

"I can imagine."

"You've expressed plenty of times around me that you don't want a relationship when I've hung around with you all. Why now? And why her?"

I looked at Daisy, who smiled at me. "I think Kye will still tell you he doesn't want a relationship," she said, laughing. "But you find someone you really like and things change."

"Things changed so drastically that he went out and is dating the town sheriff's daughter? And just like that, he's going to act right? Does your dad know about this?"

Daisy sighed and laid a hand on my arm. "Not yet. We still aren't sure how to tell him, and honestly, Holt, I just wanted to make sure this worked out before I gave my dad a heart attack with that."

Holt's face was calm before it broke into a wide smile as he tried not to laugh. "Yeah, yeah, I imagine this one might give him one."

"So, you won't go and tell him immediately?" I asked.

"No. That's on you two. I don't want to be the one to kill the man," he said, smiling still. "I have the party down at the track coming up and he will be there, though. Do you think you two will be together in three weeks to attend? Or would that be an issue?" He looked directly at me, and I met his eye. "I would like you to be there, Kye, do some driving for a few people who are attending. And obviously, seeing you two there together would be nice if you were planning on being together that long."

I was still frozen, hating every second of this. It wasn't the lying that bothered me, really, but the pretending to be a fake boyfriend part.

"Unless Kye manages to mess up completely in the next three weeks, I don't see why we couldn't be there," Daisy said. At least the girl who wanted to be my fake girlfriend was also the girl that was a pro at putting on a show for the world to make everyone think she was perfect.

After a lot of nodding along and agreeing, we were leaving. Daisy held my hand as we walked out of the building before I stepped away, forcing her to drop it.

"I'm glad that's fucking over," I said, slamming my car door shut. "That went to hell fast."

"What are you talking about? I thought it went fine."

"He barely believed me. And now we have to keep this up for three more weeks? How the fuck am I supposed to manage that?"

"Oh, come on. I'm not that bad," she said, grinning.

"No, I meant how the hell am I supposed to keep up this idea that I have a girlfriend?" I asked, already shaking my head. "Forget it. I just can't believe he was that skeptical. I know we agreed on two outings each, but what about now? Can you handle adding another one or two?"

She shrugged. "I don't see why not. It's working great for me, and being seen out again with you could really rile Dean up. Plus, the girls even invited me out for a day on the boat, which is basically an invitation back into the friend group. They want to know all your dirty secrets, or more like our dirty secrets."

I hid my eye roll. It wasn't that I didn't understand wanting friends—I couldn't think of my life without mine—but what I didn't understand was the stupid games she had to play just for them to like her.

"Am I supposed to be going on this boat with you?"

"No, you weren't invited. I think they are still scared of you."

"Thank the damn world for that because being stuck on a boat for hours with those people and having to play nice sounds like my own personal hell."

"Don't worry. It will be the entire group of friends, and I don't think you're experienced enough in that type of group to play nice for that long."

"At least you recognize that," I said, laughing. "Do you want to go out for a drive before I bring you home?"

I didn't know what made me ask. I usually liked to go out alone, but the other day she came with me was…nice.

She was already agreeing, pulling on the harness and leaning her head back to look out the window as I idled out of the parking lot.

My mind that usually raced had been quiet, and as much as I liked to go out for late night drives, I was starting to think I liked going out on a drive with her more.