“We’re in public!” I whispered frantically to him as he loomed over me.
“After all of that, after your little speech about keeping this between us, you told people?” Blade growled.
“They already knew,” I protested in a soft voice, praying no one overheard our argument. “Just let me explain!”
“You don’t have to explain anything; you’re a hypocrite and a liar. Oh wait,” he said, “stupid me. I should have known better than to trust someone who thinks a fake marriage is a good idea.”
I looked around as Blade stormed off. I didn’t think anyone else had heard—it was still early after all.
“I didn’t realize billionaires were so high-strung,” Edward drawled.
“Last night, we had a huge fight aboutthe secret,” I said, lowering my voice. I chewed on my lip. “What if he calls it off?”
“He’s in too deep now,” Shirley said. “Come on. You need some retail therapy.”
“You didn’t actually buy that dress, did you?” Edward admonished, looking at the bag in my hand. “What is your sister going to say when she sees you dressed like that?”
Crap.The evening just looked even worse.
28
Blade
She had lied to me and tried to deceive me. For the first time since telling my brothers about Avery, I wondered if Garrett was right. Maybe she was manipulating me. For all her talk about honesty in a fake relationship, she certainly hadn’t been truthful with me.
You weren’t exactly honest with her. She clearly doesn’t know the watch is rare and one of a kind.
I squashed that thought. Avery had said I could have the watch. I was playing her game. We were both getting what we wanted. Moving to stand at the window in my office, I stared out over the city. The glass and concrete stretched for miles. Suddenly I felt trapped, but I forced myself to relax with the reassurance that soon my company would be in Harrogate. If I felt claustrophobic there, I could go for a drive in the country or a run without having to worry about being run over by a cab.
There was a soft knock. In the reflection on the glass, Avery stood nervously outside the door. I gestured her in.
“I um—I’m sorry,” she began, twisting her scarf in her hands. “You’re right, I wasn’t being fair.”
I turned to look at her.
“My friends have been with me on my fake-relationship journey. It was Edward’s idea to ask you in the first place so…”
She shrugged and looked down at the floor. “I guess you want to call it off.”
“No,” I said. “We still have the dinner tonight. And you’re not getting out of wearing that dress that easily.”
She laughed then looked at me sadly. “You’re right,” she said. “I don’t really get being in a close family. I have my friends and my grandmother who I’m close to though.” She let out a breath. “I guess I’m lying to her too. She’d hate me if she found out. She’s the reason I’m so into weddings. Whenever I’m over at her house, we watchSay Yes to the Dressand romantic comedies.” Avery smiled slightly. “When we watched the live-actionCinderella, Granny was mad that the director completely skipped the wedding scene. She loves weddings. She loved my grandfather, and she says getting married to him was the happiest day of her life. I know the trickery with the mansion seems sociopathic, but really she just wants her granddaughters to find the kind of love she did.” She looked at me. “Guess that’s not happening.”
“Hey,” I said, tilting her chin up. “I’ll give you the best fake marriage you’ll ever have.”
She smiled. “You can tell your brothers if you want. We should try and mitigate the emotional fallout when this nuclear bomb ends up going off.”
I frowned. “The reality is that my brothers are worse gossips than all the seniors in Harrogate. There are layers of group chats. If I told any of them, my entire family would know about it by dinnertime.”
“Fair’s fair,” Avery protested. “You can at least tell two of them. I have two friends who know, so you can have two people who know. You could tell your brother Weston.”
I scowled. “I should tell Weston, but Weston is terrible about keeping secrets. He doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. He wouldn’t hold up under scrutiny if Garrett thought he was hiding something.” I shook my head. “I can’t. Really, there are only two people who could possibly handle this secret.”
* * *
After my lastmeeting of the day, I headed down to the Svensson Investment offices. Avery had already left to go back to my condo to start prepping for the dinner.
Greg and Hunter were waiting in Greg’s office.
