“Fine,” I relented. “We can share the bed.”
But I couldn’t shake the feeling that our ruse had gotten off to a rocky start, and that this might be an omen of things to come.
EIGHT
ALEC
I knocked firmly on Mr. and Mrs. Dufresne’s hotel room door and waited for them to answer. Tally had been anxious about seeing her parents in person for the first time since we’d decided to go ahead with this ruse, so we’d opted to drop by and visit them before dinner to get it out of the way.
Mrs. Dufresne—who tried to insist I call her Daisy every time we met—opened the door with a wide, infectious smile.
“Darling!” she exclaimed, sweeping Tally into a lavender-scented mom-hug. “How was the flight?”
“All smooth and on time,” Tally replied, briefly returning the hug and then drawing back enough to meet her gaze. “How about yours?”
The Dufresnes had flown in yesterday morning, so Mrs. Dufresne could participate in a one-day yoga retreat happening nearby.
“A few bumps, but nothing to worry about, and the retreat was divine. I had the best time, and learned a new modification for one of my favorite poses.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Sometimes these things become necessary as we age. But shh, I’m still young at heart.”
“Don’t hog them, Daisy,” Mr. Dufresne called from deeper inside the room. “Come in, kids. Are you unpacked? Do you have everything you need?”
“Yes, sir,” I said as Daisy stepped aside, allowing Tally and I to enter. I debated whether to take Tally’s hand or not. We hadn’t discussed exactly what we were telling her parents—another oversight. I started to move away from her, certain that more deception was exactly what she wouldn’t want, but to my surprise, she slipped her hand into mine.
“Oh, yes. We heard about that development from your mother,” Mr. Dufresne said, eyeing our joined hands.
“It’s still early, but we feel good about the decision to see if our friendship might turn into more,” Tally said so naturally that I had to resist the urge to turn and stare at her.
Okay. Perhaps I hadn’t given any thought as to what we were telling her parents, but apparently, she had.
“Yay.” Mrs. Dufresne clapped, but then her smile faded. “I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but that snake Thad is here with Coral.”
“I know.” Tally’s voice didn’t give away how upset she’d been to see them earlier. “We ran into them downstairs.”
“That jackass has some nerve,” Mr. Dufresne snapped, his eyes glinting dangerously. “I’m amazed Sylvia allowed Coral to invite him.”
Mrs. Dufresne’s nose crinkled. “It’s Lake’s special day, which means she gets the final word, not Sylvia, however much my sister might wish otherwise. Lake said it was okay. I suppose she didn’t want to alienate Coral.”
“But it’s okay to alienate Tally?” Mr. Dufresne demanded, his sharp expression reminding me of what a shark he was said to be in the courtroom.
Mrs. Dufresne waved her hand dismissively. “I’m not condoning it. Just explaining to Tally and Alec how it happened. If I’d known…”
“You would have complained to Aunt Sylvia, who’d have complained to Lake, who’s stressed out enough already,” Tally said, as if she’d already thought of all of this before. “It’ll be fine. Right, Alec?”
“Yeah.” I squeezed her hand. As far as I was concerned, my primary job for this weekend was to make her time here as bearable as possible and ensure that neither Thad nor Coral had the opportunity to hurt her any more than they already had.
I was her designated fake boyfriend bodyguard.
Tally sat on one end of the bed. Her parents’ room was similar to ours, except that where we had a view of the water, their window overlooked a lush area of planting and rock gardens.
“Congratulations, you two,” Mrs. Dufresne said belatedly. “We’re so thrilled that you’re together.”
“We can’t say we were waiting for it to happen, but we aren’t surprised that it did,” Mr. Dufresne added, his features relaxing again, losing their hard edges.
I glanced at Tally, wondering what was up with our parents. Both sets seemed to have half-expected us to eventually end up together.
We chatted for a while and then, once Tally had relaxed and we’d realized that we weren’t going to have any issues with her parents, we returned to our room to prepare for dinner.
Those members of the bride and grooms’ families who’d already arrived had been asked to gather at the waterfront restaurant to share a meal. I hoped Lake had the sense to keep us away from Coral and Thad.
