I Hired My Neighbor to Be My Girlfriend, Then Fell in Love
"Not the dinners, not the way you looked at each other across my table, not any of it, from the very beginning."
"That part became real," Everly said quickly, finding her own voice even as her heart pounded against her ribs. "Mrs. Cross, I won't pretend the start of this wasn't exactly what Nathaniel just told you. It was a job. A transaction, plain and simple, born out of desperation on my end and panic on his. But somewhere in the middle of pretending, I fell for your son for real. Not because of the arrangement. Despite it, if anything."
Diane's eyes moved between them, searching for something, some proof that the words matched the truth she was seeing on their faces. "You're telling me t