Page 100 of Promise Not to Fall for the Rich & Famous

“Yeah, and while I think Arrow is a great nickname, I’m kind of digging Robin Hood for you now.”

His eyes lit up. “The nerd boy in me is very happy about that.”

“Good.”

The questions kept on throughout dinner, and dessert too—he’d requested a chocolate mousse among the menu items. Something they enjoyed while sitting up to the fireplace.

She’d taken a turn firing off the questions as well, once they’d started coming to her. She’d discovered that his favorite deli meat was prosciutto, his favorite music was classic rock, and his bookshelf mainly consisted of biographies about men he admired.

“I always tell my Grandma Lo she should write an autobiography,” he said while tracing lines over Kat’s palm. “She’s a fascinating woman,” he continued. “Intelligent, strong. And savvy too—that woman knows the business world, I’ll tell you that.”

“This is the one who owns the wedding boutique?” Kat asked, enjoying the feel of his touch. And the way he’d asked for herhand in the first place, only to trace circles on her palm with his fingertips, kiss it occasionally, then return to drawing lines over her skin.

“Yes,” he said, adding, “who do you admire most?”

That one was easy. “Marie Curie, for sure.”

“Ah.” He tipped his head back. “That’s a good one. Now tell me about your ex.”

Kat’s lips were poised to ask another question, but his unexpected inquiry stopped her short. Her shoulders drooped.

“I know,” he said. “It’s not a romantic topic, but it’s one of the basics, so let’s hurry and get it out of the way so we can make out the rest of the night.”

That didn’t sound too bad. But talking about Bradley, admitting how terribly deceived she’d been…

“It’s pretty awful,” she started. “He was the first man I fell in love with, and it ended so badly that I haven’t let myself fall in love since.” He held her gaze for a moment as she considered that last part. It was still true enough, she guessed, but if Kat were being honest, she’d say she was well on her way to falling in love with her groom.

“His name is Bradley. He was charming, handsome, and he told me everything I wanted to hear—he wanted to get married one day, have a family. I never suspected he was lying to me about who he was. Why would I?”

Her mind drifted back to the day she found out. Duke stopped rubbing her hand, seeming to be frozen in anticipation of her next words. Kat turned the tables, brought one of his muscular hands to her lap, and began tracing along the inside of his fingers.

“We hadn’t been to his place yet, which didn’t worry me since he lived an hour away. He worked near me, so we mainly just spent our date nights out or hung out at my place.

“He was a private contractor, ran a modest but growing business and…I don’t know, I thought I’d found Mr. Right.” She paused to look up at his face. The stage was set, and now it was time to tell him how it all went awry. Would he think she was stupid for not detecting the truth?

When she glanced up at him, Duke gave her an encouraging nod. Kat set her focus back on his hand, began tracing small circles along his wrist.

“I’d seen a few advertisements for his company, usually just a logo with his number and name, but then one day I got a text from Jeanie. She’d snapped a picture of one of those mailer advertisements. At first I didn’t even recognize him. Because he was surrounded by what looked like a wife and two small kids.”

She shook her head absently. “If I had any talent for art, I could sketch out that photo to perfection I stared at it so long. His wife was brunette, beautiful. His kids were too. Jeanie told me the ad was an old one she found while cleaning out her junk drawer. It had a coupon that expired nearly two years prior.”

Kat moved her gaze back to Duke. His brow was furrowed, his face tense, like he was waiting to hear the worst of it.

“Jeanie asked if I could believe it, but the ridiculous thing is, I didn’t even know what it was. I just couldn’t comprehend a world where he wasn’t who he said he was. So I said, ‘Believe what? He must have gotten the pictures taken for advertising purposes.’ You know, for appearances to look more…family friendly or something. But Jeanie already knew. She’d done a bit of digging and found his address. Said that if I wanted, she would drive out there with me to watch the house.”

“To see if he really was married?” he asked.

She nodded. “Jeanie even offered to drive. He wouldn’t recognize her car, for one, but she must have known that I’d be a wreck if I discovered that he was.”

“She sounds like a good sister,” he said.

“She is. Anyway, once I started to admit that it was possible the wife and kids were actually his, I’d also convinced myself that it could only be true if he were divorced and he was working his way up to telling me. But that wasn’t the case. We parked down the street—it was a Tuesday night—and watched the house from a distance. Forty-five minutes went by, and then a minivan pulled up.

“The woman from the photo popped out of the passenger side and started helping a toddler out of his seat behind her. And that’s when I saw the driver’s side fling open. One sight of his shoe hitting the driveway and I knew it was him.” The memory was like a thousand tiny knives stabbing at her insides.

“He looked like…I mean, if someone was trying to catch footage of the perfect, happy little family—a dad hoisting a small child out of the mini van, hurrying inside the home while some dog barked in the distance—that’s what it was.

“It was a total face slap, you know? I couldn’t come up with a proper excuse, but I was still trying to. Like, maybe he was terribly unhappy. Maybe they were on the verge of divorce. I didn’t think either of those were true, but even if they had been, it wouldn’t have made what he’d done alright. He pretended he was someone that he wasn’t, made me fall in love with someone who didn’t even exist.”