“I’m sure it will be a long engagement,” Mace said, patting him on the shoulder reassuringly.
“Actually,” I butted in, then forced myself to stand up straight as all the men turned their attention on me. “We’re getting married in a couple of months.”
His brothers shouted unintelligibly.
“Did someone say a wedding?” Penny, the editor at theVanity Rag,skipped up, resting her nails lightly on the back of Garrett’s neck. That was probably a good thing, because I thought he might actually punch Blade in the nose.
“He hasn’t proposed,” I said. The lying was getting to me, and we had only been a fake couple for a few days. Weddings were a big deal. Because I was someone who wanted to be in wedding planning, they were sort of sacred to me. Yet here I was using a wedding for my own gain.
It’s for the house. Cassie will paint all that brick sea-foam green.
“I wantVanity Ragto do a wedding special. I was going to cover Evan Harrington’s wedding, but we all know how that turned out.” She shuddered. “If you’re getting married in a few months, then it will just make the issue!”
“You think this is a good idea?” Garrett said in horror.
Penny shrugged. “I like weddings. And wedding cake. Are you going to have Weddings in the City plan it?”
“Actually, I’m a bit of an amateur wedding planner,” I explained. “My friend and I are going to organize it.”
“We are totally turning this into a reality TV show!” an excited voice called out.
“Gunnar, no!” Blade said.
“Yes! Are you kidding me? Penny, back me up here!” A man bounded into the room. Blade’s older brother Gunnar had shaggy blond hair, longer than I’d ever seen on any other Svensson brother. He was wearing some sort of fancy shirt brocaded with penguins, black pants, and velvet loafers.
“Can you please wear normal clothes?” Hunter said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Think about it,” Gunnar said, ignoring his brothers. “We’ll call itMy Big Fat Billionaire Wedding. It will be as big asThe Great Christmas Bake-Off.”
“That seems like a lot…” I said. “I was just picturing maybe a write-up in the Style section of theNew York Times.”
“Go big or go home. I’m texting Dana now. We need to start filming. We’ll be there for all the high points. Isn’t this exciting?” Gunnar bellowed to the littles, “A wedding! A first in Svensson history!”
“Mazel tov!” A large burly man with a full beard hugged me.
Blade chastised, “Remington, you can’t just hug people you haven’t met yet.”
“He gives great hugs,” I said with a giggle.
“We should celebrate. I have burritos for dinner,” Remy said, waving everyone to the long antique buffet, which was loaded with food.
“That went about as well as can be expected,” Blade murmured in my ear.
I pulled Blade down close to me. Gunnar was talking into a Bluetooth headset and held up his phone to snap our picture.
“If we’re going to have cameras following us around, we really have to keep it together,” I hissed through my teeth.
“My family’s on board,darling,” Blade said.
11
Blade
Most of my family seemed on board—well, the, shall we say, less intelligent members. Remy and Gunnar were talking about where to host the wedding. Weston was still staring at me with a hurt expression. He ate quickly then jumped up from the table. I followed him out of the dining room.
“Are you mad at me?”
We had always been close. He was my slightly older brother, though we acted more like twins. When my older brothers had been kicked out of the compound, he, Parker, and I had been left behind with our father and the sister wives who remained. Weston and I had stuck together. We were inseparable.
