Page 134 of Slapshot Bride

The table goes silent.

“It’s not what it looks like,” I hear myself saying, fast, too fast, my voice bright and reasonable like it’ll immediately clear things up. “We’re not… It’s an arrangement, Mase. The dating. It’s not real. We made it up. It’s so Preston would back off, that’s all it is, it was my idea, so don’t… don’t be angry at him, he’s just been helping me.”

I run out of air.

Mason looks at me, then at Easton. And Easton says nothing. He doesn’t correct me. He sits there with his hands around a water glass he hasn’t drunk from, and his face has gone completely, perfectly blank, and he doesn't look at me even once.

“Fake?” Mason says.

“Yes.”

My brother looks at his best friend for a long, long moment.

“Okay, Ri,” he says softly. “That’s… good,” he offers a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “I just want what’s best for you. You’ve barely escaped Preston. You need to find your footing first, okay?”

I nod.

We don’t eat.

He hugs me on the curb. He shakes Easton’s hand. Neither of them says anything. Then his car comes, and he’s gone.

Easton opens my door for me.

“Ready?” he says.

Not sweetheart. Not baby.

My heart aches.

We’re four blocks in before it lands.

It comes all at once, and my eyes water.

I look out the window to hide it, and I force the tears down.

It’s fake.

I said that. Out loud. To my brother’s face. About a man who took me into his home. Who bought me a camera. He stood on his own driveway and made himself a target so I wouldn’t be one. The same man I sleep against every night with my hand over his heart.

I took the only real thing in my life and called it a lie because I was scared to fully admit the truth.

That I’m in love with this man.

I look at Easton.

He’s watching the road. His hands are firm on the wheel, and he hasn’t said one word since the curb.

I open my mouth.

Nothing comes.

How do I fix this?

28

EASTON

It's for the Best