The Summer Girlfriend (Heart Beach, #1)(20)

Plus, he was moving to California in just a couple months.

She cleared her throat and abruptly adjusted her posture, putting distance between them again. For a split second, Jeremiah’s face fell. He glanced down, but by the time he looked up at her again, his lips were set in an easy smile. He rapped his knuckles again the counter.

“Maybe I’ll see you around before I move,” he said.

Despite her reasons for why she shouldn’t want to run into him again, she was shocked by how much she wished it might happen.

She smiled softly. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Bye, Noelle,” he said, backing away toward the door.

She lifted her hand in a wave. “Bye.”

Jeremiah slipped out the door, and she watched him walk to his car. Once he was out of sight, she deflated against the counter. Goodness gracious. How were people like him just walking around among the rest of society, beguiling bystanders with their charm and attentive questions?

She reached to grab her phone out of her back pocket, but she stopped herself. No, she would not look him up on social media. Well…she would at least wait until she was at home and off the clock. How many Jeremiah Smiths were out there in the world anyway? It would probably take forever to find his account if he had one.

Jeremiah Smith.

Jeremiah…Smith.

Wait a minute…

The image on the back of the Smith’s Sweets box flashed in her mind just as the bell chimed above the door. Noelle glanced up and froze as Jeremiah walked back into the store and approached her, sporting a nervous, yet determined expression. Had he come back to ask her out after all? Would she say yes, despite her good sense?

Maybe.

But what Jeremiah ended up asking wasn’t something Noelle had anticipated at all.

“Noelle,” he said, releasing a deep breath. “I know that you’re used to being hired as a bridesmaid, but can I hire you to be my girlfriend instead?”





Chapter Five




“Excuse me?”

Jeremiah stared at Noelle’s slack-jawed expression and took a second to mentally repeat his words back to himself, trying to imagine how they’d sounded to her. Okay, so maybe his delivery could have been a bit better. But he was just so eager. As he’d walked to his car, the idea had struck him.

Wait. First, for the record, he hadn’t meant to start flirting with Noelle before. He just couldn’t help it. She was so pretty, it made it hard to think. He could have listened to her talk about books all day and he didn’t even read like that. Talking to her made him feel like he was floating in a hot-air balloon, exhilarated, and existing on a higher plane. He’d even blurted out that story about the word game Pop used to play with him and his siblings. He’d been the worst one at that game, and he hadn’t told that story in ages. He’d used the word uncouth because he’d wanted Noelle to think that he was clever and used words like that regularly, which couldn’t be further from the truth. He’d been driven by the desire to impress her.

But back to his idea. He needed a fake girlfriend to bring with him to Heart Beach next weekend. Noelle, with her bridesmaid side hustle, was used to playing a role, and more important, she was losing her main job and needed money for college tuition. Pop had always encouraged Jeremiah and his siblings to help others whenever they could. In this situation, Jeremiah and Noelle could help each other. In exchange for pretending to be his girlfriend, he could pay her and then she’d have money to put toward her tuition. The arrangement made perfect sense to him. And from the way he and Noelle had talked with each other so easily, he felt strongly that they’d be able to spend time in each other’s company for a weekend. However, given how Noelle was currently looking at him like he’d sprouted an extra head, maybe she wouldn’t see the same value in his proposal.

“Just for next weekend,” he added.

“What?” she asked, incredulous. “You think just because I’m a fake bridesmaid sometimes, I’d be your fake girlfriend? What kind of question is that even? We just met!”

“Please let me start over and explain,” he said, mortified at how he was fucking this up. She was right. She didn’t know anything about him other than his claims of having a sister who read horror novels and that he worked for Good Boy.

She frowned at him. “I’m waiting.”

Her long braids hung loose, and she brushed them away from her face as she blinked at him with her big, almond-shaped eyes. She wore tiny hoop earrings in each ear, which accentuated her heart-shaped face. She was short. He was six feet tall exactly, so he’d guess her height was around five three or five four at most. She had a smooth-sounding voice like an old Hollywood star or a radio talk show host. She laughed by way of a sultry chuckle. Who was this girl who’d been working in this bookstore literally a twenty-minute walk from his apartment? And why had he just become aware of her and the bookstore today? Fate, probably. The universe had most likely sensed that Noelle was too good for him, and it had been intent on keeping her hidden. And you know what, the universe was probably right. But Jeremiah didn’t see why the universe couldn’t allow him and Noelle to spend a weekend together for pretend if it benefited them both.

“Have you ever heard of Smith’s Sweets cookies?” he asked. “My grandfather Jeremiah Smith—”