“She had a full day of festival prep, so she’s at home now.” Brady’s eyebrow rose. His following gotcha expression was the swift punch Sloane needed to restart her brain. “And I was about to head over there. To help her.”

“With what?” Brady crossed his arms over his chest. It did not help Sloane’s attention.

“With stuff. Kid stuff. You know, because she’s a kindergarten teacher. We’re going to glue things and put glitter on them. Lots of glitter.”

Brady didn’t look like he was buying what she was selling, but Sloane stood her ground. She lifted her chin up a fraction and hoped to high Heaven that she didn’t have nap breath.

“You look like I just woke you up.” He pointed to her left cheek. “You have a pillow indent on your face.”

Traitor pillows!

“Yeah. Well, I was waiting for Emma to call, and then I—”

“You’re avoiding me because you saw the picture Carol took.”

Brady didn’t wait for an invitation. He walked inside with the confidence of someone who knew he was right.

And he was.

He totally freaking was.

Sloane had just finished watching Space Jam with Callum and Justus the night before and had been riding a happy high. It had been a good day, all things considered, and even though Brady couldn’t attend the movie party, Sloane had felt oddly better after his quick kiss goodbye.

It was validation, in a way. That it wasn’t just her who might be feeling something more than what their fake arrangement actually called for.

But then Carol the Sun Hat Collector had happened.

With one simple “I had so much fun” text and a picture she’d been so thoughtful to attach. The same picture she’d then posted no more than five minutes later online.

Brady looking at Felicity, and Sloane looking like an outcast.

Every fluffy, fun feeling Sloane had had about the bartender and the time she’d spent with him had lost its collective luster. It forced Sloane to really face the facts she’d been dancing around.

Brady was a man trying to save his job while showing his ex she was wrong about him. And Sloane? She was a woman who had realized life was passing her by and had tried to course correct in a wrong, and very public, way.

He needed the fame she had accidentally gotten, and she needed a lie to hide behind for a chance to finally realize her dreams.

That was it, plain and simple. A business arrangement.

A weird one but one that made logical sense.

And their particular arrangement? It was all about being in public together. There was no reason why they needed to step out of the spotlight and into a bar with just the two of them. Especially since Sloane had realized just how much that idea had appealed to her.