The thought hit me so hard I almost dropped the spoon.
"Perfect," Nash said, pulling back.Cold air wrapped around me and I straightened, trying to compose myself.I didn’t want those thoughts in my head anymore, and I certainly didn’t want Nash to guess that I was feeling anything other than professional about this arrangement.
“Done,” Nash said a few moments later.He showed me the photo with the caption: "Home is wherever she is.”
Within minutes, the likes and comments started pouring in.Heart-eye emojis, comments about how cute we looked together, people asking when the wedding would be.
"That should keep Haley busy," Nash said, sliding his phone back into his pocket.
But I was still thinking about that moment—the fantasy that had felt so real I could almost taste it.I was supposed to be protecting my heart, protecting Mia's heart.Instead, I was letting myself fall into a daydream where Nash Nightingale and I were in love.
"Here it is," Mia announced proudly, her arms spilling with princess coloring books.
“Oh good.I’ll get you set up in the other room,” I said, abandoning my post at the stove.Nash nipped at the sides of my waist as I scooted past him, which sent sparks skating beneath my skin.
I clamped my mouth shut before I could react.It felt so natural and intimate.Yet we’d already taken the picture…
While I helped Mia spread out her crayon collection and pick the ideal picture to color for Nash, I focused on the bitter truth.
By the start of next year, Nash would go back to his billionaire lifestyle, and Mia and I would go back to our quiet life.
This was all pretend, even when it felt more promising than anything I'd ever experienced.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
NASH
“Sir, can I get you anything while you wait?”A demure server spoke to me in hushed tones as she refilled my ice water from a chilled carafe.
“No, thank you.My girlfriend is almost here, and we’ll order together.”I flashed her a quick smile, noting how the word rolled off my lips a little easier now.Still felt weird as hell to say, but here in Axis, the performance was on.
Axis was the restaurant I’d chosen for today’s lunch date with Clara.The place buzzed with its usual lunch crowd—city council members conducting business over spritzers, society wives planning their next charity function, the odd celebrity, too, if you looked hard enough—and it wastheplace for us to be seen as a regular couple.
I adjusted my cufflinks as I waited for Clara at the table for two, scanning the entrance for any sign of her.When she appeared at the hostess stand, I felt that familiar punch of attraction hit me square in the chest.The emerald green blouse I'd had delivered that morning fit her perfectly—sophisticated but approachable, exactly the image we needed to project.When she spotted me and smiled, something warm unfurled in my chest.
"I'm so sorry I'm late," she said as she reached the table.I stood to pull out her chair, my hand briefly touching her shoulder as she settled in."I had a phone meeting with a university admissions office, and it ran a lot longer than I planned."
"Which one?"I asked, genuinely surprised.The hostess had seated us at a corner table with a clear view of the restaurant's interior garden—living walls of greenery that I noticed Clara's eyes immediately gravitated toward.
"An online university," she said, color rising in her cheeks."When I got pregnant with Mia, I kind of postponed my plans to continue my education.Never thought I'd be able to go back, but now..."She gestured vaguely, and I knew she meant the money I was providing.
"What program are you thinking of?"
She went coy."Guess.”
“Green space planning?”I couldn’t fight the smile when I saw how excited she got.
“Of course my boyfriend knows that,” she said with a wink.“Itissomething I always wanted to pursue.I just want to have my ducks in a row for when…” she gestured at the air between us.“You know.”
“When will you start?”
“Hopefully fall semester,” she said.“But it turns out they want me to submit a portfolio with my application and I…don’t have that.”
“A portfolio of what?”
“Some existing properties in the city and what I would do to enhance or modify the green space approach,” she said before nodding.“So…I guess I have homework already.”
“That should be a piece of cake for you.”
