I told a judge I was engaged to my best friend.

Now we're faking it.

How hard can it be?

My life has room for exactly two women: my daughter Rusty and my best friend Charlotte - known to everyone as Charlie.

One is a feisty, tomboyish firecracker. The other is my seven-year-old. I can't imagine life without either.

So when my ex springs a custody hearing on me, I find myself telling the judge that I'm engaged to Charlie.

The only problem? I'm not.

Time to fake an engagement.

Pretending we're a couple will be no big deal.

We've been friends for years. We used to sneak cigarettes behind the bleachers. We turned cans of hairspray into flamethrowers. We got drunk on stolen malt liquor.

She's beautiful, vivacious, spontaneous, and she loves my daughter to death. It's the perfect answer: we fake it for a few months, then go back to our lives.

Until we touch, and sparks fly. Until I can't take my eyes off her. Until I can't stop thinking about what she's got on under her coveralls.

It takes one kiss.

One touch.

One shared secret and suddenly, I'm not pretending anymore. I want her, I need her in ways I didn't know I could.

But there's a lifetime of friendship between us, and falling in love with Charlie could mean risking everything.