“Uh, I…”
“Macey, I won’t stop asking until you say yes! You have no idea how much I need your help. I feel like everything depends on it.”
Her tone borders on frantic, and I’ve never been good at turning away the desperate.
“Okay,” I say. “We could go shopping next Saturday. How’s eleven a.m. sound?”
“Sounds perfect, thank you!” She throws her arms around me while I stand like a stone, unable to hug her back. But it makes no difference. She’s on cloud nine.
I’m starting to understand more and more how Logan wound up in a permanent bond with this woman. She’s relentless. I wonder if she’s ever not gotten something she’s set her mind to have.
I follow her back to the booth in a daze.
41
Logan
* * *
I give Gigi a ride straight back to the ranch. The less time we’re out in Darcy the better. Small towns are naturally nosy, and I want to get this whole wedding business done without questions.
“I think that went well.” Gigi’s voice drags me out of my troubled thoughts. “Except for my stupid comment about Texan men. I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right,” I assure her. “They had no idea what you meant.”
“I don’t think Macey suspected anything. She’s sure mad, though, about you getting engaged.”
I ponder this in silence.
“I hate her thinking I’m getting in the middle of whatever you two share,” she says. “But you know we have to be all-in for our plan to work.”
“Of course I do.”
“She adores you. You know that, right?”
I do. Macey would never say those words exactly, but I do know that.
“But you better make sure you temper your feelings when you’re around her,” Gigi says firmly. “If my mom sees the way you look at Macey, she’s not going to believe our engagement is real for a second.”
Shit.
“I’ll be fine,” I promise. “Quit worrying.”
Gigi gazes up at me as we step inside the guestroom my mother set up for the two of us. I spent last night in my childhood bedroom, and I plan to do the same for as long as Gigi’s in town. I don’t want Gigi coming into my cottage, and the less she knows I’m there, the better. I want to keep the cottage just for me and my painting.
Gigi’s blond hair and big blue eyes still shock the hell out of me when I look at her straight on. She holds up her left hand proudly.
“I do love this ring, Logan,” she says with a giggle.
Gigi isn’t any more interested in me than I am in her, but she loves the idea of marriage so much she could fool anyone. And she fucking loves attention, so I fully expect her to act her part flawlessly in public. I’m far more worried about myself; I can’t normally lie for shit, and to pretend to care about any woman other than Macey feels damn near impossible. But I have to act my ass off in this role, or the whole plan is done.
“Are you going to sleep in your bedroom again tonight?” Gigi asks.
“Yep. Think of this room as yours, and make yourself at home.”
Gigi’s eyes get even bigger. “What about for appearances’ sake?”
“My parents are so preoccupied with the day-to-day that they probably won’t even notice we’re in separate rooms. And even if they do, they won’t say anything.”
