“I love the new slogan you guys came out with a few years ago,” Daisy says.
Briar almost smiles. “It’s pretty good. Graves Coffee—wake the dead.”
“That would be my mother’s idea.” Then, because I’m either committed to our sham marriage or just a prick, I sling an arm around Clover’s waist and tuck her against my side so closely that the warmth of her flushed cheeks radiates through the fabric of my T-shirt.
She lets out a quiet yip, but tries to play it off as a giggle, which she fails at. Miserably.
The top of her head doesn’t reach my chin, so I lean my cheek against her soft blond hair, inhaling the delicate scent of vanilla and amber. “How’s dorm life so far?”
With a harrumph, Briar crosses her arms. “It’s fine. Despite the fact that the building is old enough to be condemned and our narc of an RA made me get rid of my lava lamp. He said it was a fire hazard and I told him the whole goddamn building is a fire hazard.”
“I love it,” Daisy chimes in. “The building has so much character.”
“That’s generous of you,” I tell her, and she just blinks in response. “Look at the three of you! All flowers of some sort. Like a lovely little garden.”
Daisy beams, and I have a feeling she will be susceptible to the same magnetism my mother often calls on when I am her date to charity dinners. To my credit, I’m a real hit among older wealthy women who raise money from each other for fun in the name of causes like hedgehog rehabilitation and other things that don’t involve actual poor people.
Briar grinds her teeth so hard that they could chip, and beside me Clover looks like she would like to do unspeakable things to me. Sadly, not in a kinky way.
“Clover is typically considered a weed,” Briar says with a slight glower.
I might as well sign my own death certificate when I turn my head to kiss her on her forehead. “You’ll always be my flower.”
“Gross,” Briar mutters.
Daisy practically swoons. “I’m dying to know how you two met. And married so young! How romantic.”
Briar coughs “pregnant” into her fist.
Clover’s mouth opens and closes as she searches for the right answer, her cheeks and neck burning into an angry shade of red.
“It’s quite the story,” I tell them. “But one we’ll have to save for once we’ve unpacked. Right, baby?”
She pulls her head away so that my cheek loses its resting spot, and the soft line of her brow is furrowed with irritation. “Right,darling.” Without wasting any time, Clover politely steers our neighbors out the door. “Well, so good to see you both. I’m sure we will have plenty of time to get to know each other.”
Daisy spins around in the doorway. “Oh yes! At the dorm orientation tomorrow night? We’ll see both of you, right?”
“Alas, I have a family commitment and won’t be able to attend, but you’ll definitely see my sweet Clover,” I say as I lean forward conspiratorially. “In fact, she’s a bit shy. Would you mind knocking on her door when the time comes so she has friends to go with?”
Daisy nods excitedly before sighing. “You aresucha good husband.” She shakes her head at Clover wistfully. “He’s one of the good ones.”
I turn to Clover, her hard gaze narrowed on me as I sweep a strand of hair behind her ear. “She’s the one who makes me good.”
“Darling,” Clover says as she clings to my arm. “I forgot to tell you! Your mother called and said she didn’t need your help tomorrow night after all, so we can get orientedtogether!”
My bicep flexes under her touch as my fist clenches. “Wonderful.”
CHAPTER 3
Bennett
“I think the fuck not,” I tell Clover.
“We have no other choice,” she snaps back with a little stomp of her foot. Ah, there’s the know-it-all brat I once knew. “The beds must be unbolted. We are not sleeping in the same bed.”
“And you don’t think that will look suspicious to people?”
“Plenty of married couples sleep in separate beds. And who would even be in our room anyway?” With her phone in hand, she crawls under the bed. “We have to separate these beds. Don’t you have a toolbox?”
