Lumber and Lace
I was playing with fire, and for someone who worked with timber, that was dangerous.
Layne
I dodged a bullet. Calling off my wedding was the easy part. Leaving my high-powered finance career to regroup in a quiet mountain town was the reset I desperately needed. Now I’m managing my brother Jace’s log home company and living in a small cabin he built, trying to figure out who I am without a fiancé or a five-year plan.
There’s just one loose end I can’t escape.
My ex refuses to let go, and I still need to untangle the last threads of our shared life.
Enter Elias.
My brother’s employee and friend. All flannel, sawdust, and steady calm. He offers to play the role of my new boyfriend long enough to convince my ex to finally back off. It’s supposed to be simple, temporary and, most importantly, fake.
Except my fake boyfriend is showing up for me in ways my real fiancé never did. And the more I lean on him, the harder it becomes to remember why this is only an act.
Elias
I’ve had feelings for Layne since the day I met her. I just never thought I’d get the chance to act on them.
Now she’s back in town, working alongside me, and trusting me to be her knight in shining armor, when I’m usually just some guy in steel toed boots. Pretending to be her boyfriend seems harmless. Helpful, even. A few staged encounters, a few convincing kisses, and her ex is gone for good.
But pretending gets complicated fast when every smile feels real and every touch leaves me wanting more.
She’s my boss’s sister. She’s fresh out of a broken engagement. Besides, with her protective brother signing my paychecks, falling for her could cost me everything.
The problem is, I don’t want to stop.
Is there a way to make this work… or am I digging myself a hole I can’t climb out of?
Chapter One
Layne
Iguess there’s no such thing as a clean break.
Not when we’d been together as long as Teddy and I had.
I paced back and forth in my living room. Well, my borrowed living room. I was living in a one-room cabin my brother, Jace, had built in the small town of Wildrose Bend outside of Springwood, BC, trying to get my life back together after calling off my wedding.
“The next thing we need to figure out is our car insurance. I’m on yours, you’re on mine. We’ll need to go to the insurance place together to make the change.”
He sighed. “Layne, I understood when you moved your stuff out of the house. I accepted it when you forwarded your mail, but don’t you think this is going a little far?”
I rubbed my temple. “No, it’s not. We split up. Why would you need insurance to drive my car when we aren’t a couple?”
“Babe, come on. We both know this isn’t permanent.”
“I broke up with you on our wedding day. I lost thousands of dollars; we both did. You think I’d do that if I wasn’t sure what I wanted?” I wouldn’t, not with how the guilt was eating at me now.
He laughed.
Actually, laughed.
He was such an arrogant ass. How could I not have seen it before?
I ran my hand over the smooth top of the wooden table my brother had built for this place.
