“I’m your girlfriend now, remember?” she said, raising an eyebrow. “There are certain privileges that come with that.”
“It’s stick shift.”
“My father begrudgingly bought me a car when I was sixteen. It was a rusted-out manual pickup truck. He thought I would never learn to drive it. Jokes on him, though; one of my grandmother’s crazy friends taught me to drive stick.” She gestured for the keys.
“Don’t scratch it or break it.”
“Yes!” she whooped as I sat in the passenger’s seat. I cringed as she moved the seat, fiddled with the mirrors, and generally made it so I would never be able to put everything back exactly how I liked it.
I winced as she put the car into gear and floored the gas pedal. The engine’s roar echoed around the concrete parking deck. Avery sped out of the garage, careening around the ramps to the exit and zipping into traffic.
“Slow down! You’re going to miss your turns,” I pleaded.
“I grew up in Harrogate. I know how to get there,” she said, careening through a yellow light as we zoomed to the expressway.
“I’m glad we left early,” she called over the roar of the engine and the blaring horns of the car we cut off. “I hate sitting in traffic.”
10
Avery
Concentrating on driving the car kept me from worrying about meeting Blade’s family. I had met a few of his brothers—Weston, obviously, because he was the cofounder of ThinkX. But this was all of the Svenssons, or at least a fairly sizable portion of them. Would they like me?
Does it matter? You’re not his real girlfriend. You just need to sell it. Think of the house.
We reached Harrogate, and I slowed to drive down Main Street. I loved Harrogate. It was a quirky town, and as close to a real-life Stars Hollow fromGilmoreGirlsas one could get with quintessential New England with a historic train station, large, ornate brick buildings, and cozy Victorian houses. Harrogate was where I wanted to spend the rest of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the excitement of Manhattan, but I was a small-town girl at heart.
We left town and went out to the outer, more rural area, where the scions of old had built grand estates. We passed the gate of the house that had started this fake relationship. I turned at the top of the drive and stopped, peering through the undergrowth to the large estate.
“I didn’t realize you were part of the Broughton family,” Blade said.
“Yup. Though my father wishes I weren’t. My mother put his last name on the birth certificate, so he didn’t have a choice.” I ground my teeth then forced my hands to relax on the steering wheel. “Cassie is not inheriting that house. It’s mine.”
I backed out of the driveway then drove up the road to the Svensson estate. The former Harrogate estate, it put the Broughton mansion to shame. The huge manor house loomed in dark stone, the tall glass windows glinting in the late evening light.
“I bet you could host a nice wedding here.”
“Do you want to have our wedding here?” Blade asked.
My stomach flip-flopped. I glanced at Blade as the large iron gate slowly swung open. In a few months, I would stand at an altar and marry this man. Yet I barely even knew him. I had always loved those Gothic romance novels in which the ingénue was married off to some crabby duke or other. I had never thought it would be happening to me.
This is your choice. It’s a business decision. No one is falling in love.I slowly drove down the drive.
“Just park behind my brother’s car,” Blade said, pointing.
The stone pavers in front of the mansion were like the showroom floor of a high-end car show, hosting an impressive display of expensive, rare, and limited-edition sports cars. They were mainly in black and silver, though there was a lime-green one.
“Black sheep of the family,” Blade explained as I turned off the engine. He grabbed our bags from the trunk as my phone buzzed. I looked at it as I stepped out of the Lotus.
Nathan:It was good to see you. We should hang out this weekend.
Ignore.My life was crazy enough. That furthered my resolve not to even remotely come close to sleeping with Blade, though I felt bad about harshly rejecting him the night before. I had to remind myself that sex with Nathan had ended in an epic disaster, and I was still dealing with the fallout.
That meant I absolutely could not admire how nice the view was as Blade climbed the wide stone staircase up to the heavy wooden front door.
At the windows, several little blond faces, smaller versions of Blade’s, pressed against the glass. The door was flung open as we reached to top of the staircase.
“Blade brought a girl home!” came the collective shrieks as a dozen young Svensson brothers swarmed me, tugging me inside.
