“Nope. I have some clients who have become friends, and we went out to dinner. No mention of birthdays. No singing waiters. Can’t ask for more than that.”
She had to stop asking about Lucy, but until she got a real answer, she just couldn’t let it go. Not anymore. She had hoped for more clarity after watching Edward and Lucy together at the bonfire, and instead she understood them less. The two were a puzzle that couldn’t be solved with mere observation. Despite Elinor’s sock rebellion, Marianne was right about her. Elinor needed rules and order and clarity in her life. Anything else just caused her unnecessary stress.
“What did you mean the night we met when you said, ‘no one would be brokenhearted if I fell in love, but that doesn’t mean I’m free.’”
“Memorized it, huh?”
“It was the strangest thing anyone’s ever said to me. How could I not? And by the way, we never finished our game of twenty questions.”
“By all means, keep going.”
“This isn’t a joke to me.” It came out snippier than she’d intended, but all the subterfuge and avoidance was starting to annoy her. He either needed to act like an engaged person or not be engaged. Why was he over here right now? Why wouldn’t that magnetic feeling go away, the one she got every time they were together, the one that seemed to pull from both directions?
He shifted as if uncomfortable, and when he put his hands down at his sides he accidentally brushed against Elinor’s fingers. She pulled away out of instinct. When their eyes met, she saw regret and a little bit of hurt, but it also seemed to push him out of his silence.
“I wanted to tell you everything from the beginning, but I barely knew you. I didn’t know if I could trust you to keep it secret.”
Elinor wrapped her arms around her knees. “Keep what a secret?”
He glanced behind them to the closed front door before looking back at Elinor. “Lucy wrote a relationship book. About the two of us. She found an agent and the book sold. It’s coming out in a few weeks.”
“What kind of relationship book? And why is it a secret?”
“I’ll explain. But you can’t breathe a word of this to Marianne, your mother, anyone. Not Brandon.”
“What does Brandon have to do with this?”
“You two spend a lot of time together, don’t you?”
“Why have you noticed?”
“Because I…” He looked away. “Why don’t I explain everything else first, and if you despise me, I won’t have to answer that.”
Another cryptic response she’d be tucking away and analyzing later.
“Lucy’s afraid the book launch will fail if she’s not the picture of a happily engaged woman. I did ask her to marry me in earnest last year. But by the time I realized it was a mistake, there was more than her hurt feelings at stake. We agreed I owed it to her to let the book come out before we said anything about breaking up. She also wants it to look like she’s dumping me. You see, the book is called,Nice Guys Finish Happy: How You, Too Can Snag the Man of your Dreams.” The words tumbled out like the irony was choking him.
“Oh. Oh, dear.” The ramifications of everything he was saying rushed over her in waves. He wasn’t engaged. Not really. But everyone was supposed to think he was, and that they were happy and in love. The public face of their relationship could definitely use some work if she wanted to sell books. “So, after her book comes out, you two go your separate ways?”
“Not exactly. It has to sell for a while, or she’ll never get another book deal. Earning out her advance will take a lot of work because it was fifty thousand dollars.”
“Fifty thousand dollars!”
Edward immediately shushed her, lighting pressing his finger against her lips.
“It must be some book,” Elinor murmured against the pad of his finger. It was warm and slightly calloused, and he slid it down ever so slowly as if testing the contours of her lips before drawing his hand away with some reluctance. His eyes said how much he wanted to lean in and close the small distance between them.
Her heart picked up speed along with her hope, before panic set in.
They were sitting on her porch out in the open and he was supposed to be engaged to someone else. He seemed to come to the same conclusion as he abruptly turned away and ran both hands through his blond locks.
He hadn’t promised her anything. He had only confided in her, and while that was better than trying to solve an unsolvable mystery on her own, it still meant holding back from something she wanted more and more every day.
“You should go,” she whispered. “Thanks for helping us with the water.”
“No problem.” He got up and jogged across the street, glancing back once to wave goodbye.
She stood and watched until he was inside and his porch light turned off. What he’d told her changed everything, and yet nothing at all. He still wasn’t free, and she wasn’t interested in sneaking around behind Lucy’s back. Elinor had a feeling that would be a very bad idea.
