“I didn’t make you do anything.” She crossed her arms again, refusing to take any responsibility for her part. Maybe they had failed her. They’d taught her to blame everyone but herself.
“Yeah, because I would have pretended to be your fiancé to trick them all on my own. You’re right. I’m the asshole.” I chuckled, the sound so dark there was no humor in it.
She had nothing to say to that, and I was done. Fucking done.
“You know what? You’re right, Laney. I chose to do this all on my own, right? Well now I’m choosing not to. I’m not a fucking liar and I’m not going to try to trick your parents. Good luck finding a date to your sister’s wedding.”
Ignoring the sudden change in her stance, the way her shoulders damn near hit the ground, I stalked to my truck, got in, fired it up, and spun tires getting off the damn beach.
Leaving her looking tiny and defeated in my rearview mirror as she walked with her head down to her car.
17
Laney
I wrapped my arms around myself, staring at the spot on the beach where Cole and I had gone into the water to kayak as Amber set up a chair next to me.
“Are these rows straight?” She frowned at the chairs facing where my sister’s wedding ceremony would take place as the ocean breeze caught her lilac dress and fluttered it around her legs.
Mine tried to lift in the wind and I adjusted the flowing fabric, thinking about how badly things had ended between me and Cole. I wished I could take it back. I wished I could fix it. I wished he was here with me now. But he wasn’t, and I had work to do.
I glanced back over the rows, lifting a hand to shield my eyes from the brilliant sunshine. “I think so.”
There wasn’t going to be a big turnout for my sister’s wedding, so we were only putting out about thirty chairs. I hadn’t been to many weddings, so I hadn’t noticed how rushed things were until Amber pointed out that usually there’s a rehearsal dinner, and a wedding shower. Things like that. She was right and the realization kind of shook my confidence in the stance I’d taken with Cole. So did the fact that Dev was nowhere to be found and all morning Cadence had had a bitter look on her face.
I thought back to what Cole had said, that my sister was pregnant and this wedding was at my father’s insistence. Every time I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t true, another red flag started waving in the wind. Like Cadence’s reaction when I’d asked her how soon they were going to start a family. She’d glared daggers at me.
I shifted, feeling uneasy. Cole was wrong. He had to be wrong. Still, that little nagging sense continued to whisper what if.
“Not a bad turnout for a shotgun wedding.” Amber scanned the chairs we’d set up on the freshly raked sand.
“Shush, you.” I elbowed her, ignoring her mischievous grin.
I’d told her everything, but to my shock, she’d agreed with Cole. She wasn’t sure whether my sister was pregnant or the couple actually loved one another, but she definitely thought Cadence was a party girl who was not ready to get married. She’d expressed her opinion that the whole thing was weird and Cole’s insistence that Cadence was pregnant made a whole lot of sense.
“So what’s next?” Amber put her hands on her hips and I struggled to smile at her.
I’d been told to set up, but so far, the help I’d been promised, other than Amber, hadn’t shown up. I’d been demoted from sister of the bride to set-up crew. Not surprising, but hurtful all the same. I should be with my sister, helping her get ready on her wedding day, even if she would only find ways to degrade me.
As mad as I’d been at Cole yesterday, I wished he was here. His humor and company would have made this all easier and more fun. Truth be told, I missed him.
“The arch?” I gestured toward the spot where the arch needed to go from its position where it lay in the sand.
I stiffened as my sister’s high-pitched, whiny voice cut through me like a knife. “But Daddy, I can’t walk on sand in heels!”
“Then take them off.” My dad’s gruff voice told me he’d had enough of Cadence’s antics today and was trying to be patient.
Cadence gasped as if he’d said something unthinkable. “And get my feet dirty?” Her shriek had to have startled every sea creature in a hundred-mile radius. “I already have sand sticking to my skin and the salty air is making my hair frizzy!”
“It’s a beach, so sand is expected, and your hair looks fine.” Dad’s knife-edge tone held a warning that would have shut me up if I’d been the one talking.
“This isn’t what I wanted!” Cadence came to a halt beside him and stomped her foot, whining like an unhappy toddler who desperately needed a nap.
I tried to ignore my sister and father as Amber pressed her lips into a tight smile and met my gaze. Oh, my god, she mouthed.
I nodded, and as a team we lifted the arch and moved it into place. Once it seemed perfectly aligned with the space between the chairs, we set it down and studied it for a moment before getting started on the next step. Grateful for my friend’s help, I made a prissy face at her and she stuck her tongue out at me.
Together, we threaded the white flowers through the white lattice that my sister would stand under when she married Dev today. I could hardly believe it was really going to happen. Carefully threading the green stems while leaving the leaves as intact as possible, I winced as my sister started up again.
“Why aren’t these chairs straight?”
I peeked at the chairs out of the corner of my eye. As she stood frowning at the chair rows, I looked for a baby bump, but the dress didn’t give me any clues. My sister’s mermaid gown fit her perfectly and was bunched up a bit in the waist.
“They look straight to me.” Dad’s patience was wearing thin, I could tell.
“They’re not straight.” The sound of the chairs hitting one another pulled my attention back to Cadence, and I glanced over in time to catch her tossing the chairs to the side with all her might. I’d looked at the worst possible time, and her gaze caught mine. “As usual, you screwed that up too. Why do we even keep you around?”
Dad covered his face with one hand, and Amber stood up from where she’d been weaving flowers into the bottom of the arch. “Because she’s your sister. She’s here helping you out of the goodness of her heart, even though you’re being nasty to her.”
Cadence’s mouth dropped open. She blinked in disbelief and glanced at Dad. “You’re going to let her talk to me like that?”
“I would have said something worse.” Dad’s quiet anger sent a chill down my spine. It took a lot to actually make him mad. Gruff might be his default setting, but I’d rarely seen him truly mad. “Your sister has been out here setting up chairs for nearly a half hour and you just wrecked her hard work. I think you owe her an apology. And Amber.”
My mouth dropped open and I crushed a flower in my hand as I gaped at them.
“I’m not apologizing. She set the chairs up crooked to make me mad. She’s always trying to sabotage me.” Cadence crossed her arms, her eyes scanning the beach—for Mom, I knew—but I’d also been keeping an eye on Mom.
Mom was about three glasses of wine deep. Last time I’d seen her, she’d been at the little makeshift bar farther up the beach. Now, she waved so happily at us that I knew she had to be tipsy.
Cadence sighed, likely because she realized that Mom wouldn’t be rushing to her rescue any time soon. “And anyway, where’s your date?” She glared at me.
“He’ll be here.” I didn’t know what else to say.
“Even if he’s not, that’s fine.” Dad took my side again, and I struggled to keep the stunned look off my face. I wanted to ask who he was and what he did with my dad, but I knew the joke would miss. So I kept it to myself.
“If he can’t make it, I’ll be her date.” Amber stepped in, linking her arm with mine. She knew full well he wouldn’t be here.
Cadence’s lip curled. “Ew.”
“I think the chairs looked fine,” Dad
said to me, patting me on the shoulder. “I’ll help set them back up. Cadence, go get your mother, get her to…check on the food.” Code for see that she eats something so the mother of the bride didn’t do a drunk faceplant in the middle of the ceremony.
My sister, not used to being talked to this way, stared at him before pivoting angrily in the sand to do his bidding.
Side by side, my dad, Amber and I started to right the chairs, but I stopped and ran to Dev’s truck and grabbed the rake I’d noticed earlier. I went back and began moving chairs. With the rake I made pretty waves in the sand and placed the chairs carefully, using the rake to erase our footprints.
“Pretty!” Amber said. “Why do you try so hard? She’s going to hate it no matter what you do.”
“I want to be proud of the job I do, regardless of her reaction to it.”
Dad pulled me into a hug and I stiffened up, stunned by the show of affection. Dad wasn’t a hugger. “It does look good.”
“Thank you.” I didn’t know what else to say, so I awkwardly got back to work placing chairs and using the rake to make little waves in the sand.
“The arch looks good too.” He stared over his shoulder at it and I followed his gaze. The white flowers here and there were dainty, and their stems and leaves, threaded on the inside, offered a nice contrast to the white on white look.
“It needs more flowers—”
“Laney means thank you.” Amber elbowed me. “Take the dang compliment.”
I nodded. “Thank you, Dad.” Had I ever heard him compliment me before? Or had he always demanded more and better of me?
“Is your date coming?” Dad squinted in the sunlight as we unrolled the white runner that Cadence would walk down.
I didn’t know how to answer, and guilt washed through me. I’d worked so hard to trick him that I almost just came clean right then and there. But he’d been proud of me, complimenting me. That had taken twenty-four years to come by and I didn’t want to screw it up with the lies I’d told.
“Something came up, so he might not be able to make it.” My heart sank like a stone in my chest. The fact that he wasn’t coming wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was that I truly wanted him to show up. My throat squeezed tight.
Dad put an arm around me. “You must really care about this guy.”
He was right—I did care a lot about Cole. He was infuriating at times, but he was also amazing.
Dad stiffened and I followed his line of sight to Cadence and my mother. “I have to go talk to them.” Dad’s arm fell away from my shoulder and he slowly made his way through the sand.
“Well, that was weird.” I shrugged and Amber hugged me. We finished laying the runner out on the sand, working our way to the arch, staking the thin carpet in place as we carefully avoided stepping on the sand I’d so carefully patterned.
I assumed Dad’s treatment of me was a fluke, brought on by his daughter’s wedding day stress. That was probably the reason for the sudden kindness from a man who’d barely said a kind word to me all throughout my growing up years.
“So, has he texted you?” Amber’s blue eyes met mine.
I shook my head. My texts had gone unanswered as well. “Should I apologize?”
Amber looked at me like I was nuts. “You haven’t apologized yet?” Her hands went still, poised with a white flower, ready to thread it through the lattice.
I shook my head. “He was a jerk.” But was it worth this…sadness that echoed through me like a winter wind crying down the chimney of my family home?
“So were you!”
I cocked my head. Maybe she was right.
18
Cole
“I told you I’d be here.”
Laney’s mouth dropped open in shock when she saw me. She was sitting in a chair on the end of the first row with Amber at her side. Her beautiful light blue dress accentuated her sexy figure—her curving hips, her flat belly, her perfect tits.
I leaned in close, invading her space and inhaling the sweet floral scent that she exuded. I noticed how carefully the sand had been raked, guilt nagging at me when I realized I’d messed it up.
Amber instantly scooted over a seat and pulled Laney into the seat she’d vacated. I took the spot on the end as Laney kept her assessing gaze on me. I’d dressed in a charcoal button-down shirt and black slacks with a narrow tie the same navy color as my eyes. I hadn’t want to stand out any more than I already did, so I’d stuck to dark colors.
Behind the rows of chairs, Laney’s dad, Peter, was watching us with a look of pride on his face—not what I’d expected. I lifted my chin his direction and nodded.
Laney’s head whipped around. The women’s father waited patiently for his youngest daughter to take his arm when the music began. The little smirk on his face definitely looked like pride.
“Why is he looking at us like that?” Laney murmured the words while leaning in close to me.
My gaze caught on the cleavage at the V of her dress and I squeezed my eyes closed. I’d promised myself I was only here because I’d said I would be, not because of any feelings I might have for the infuriating and sexy Laney Harver.
“I have no idea.” I opened my eyes, looking out to sea, reminding myself not to ogle her as she watched her sister set foot on the sand like it was ankle-deep mud.
My attention drifted toward the arch, to Devon standing there, a crooked smile on his face and that feverish look of someone on the verge of getting away with something. And it finally clicked, the last little bit that had been bothering me—what Dev would be getting out of this wedding.
The Harvers were a well-known, well-respected family whose ancestry line dated back to the first settlers of the Oregon Coast, and had understandably amassed almost the entire town as assets. After all, they’d stayed when others had left, and as property had gone up for sale, they’d bought it right up. They were juggernauts, but most people didn’t realize it.
And along comes Devon Wright, an unknown guy who blew into town, and suddenly, they’re in love and she’s knocked up. Who wouldn’t want to marry into an established, respected, wealthy family?
“Where’s your mom?” Amber thrust an elbow into Laney’s arm.
Laney shrugged, and I didn’t have the heart to tell either of them that I’d spotted Mrs. Harver drunk, up at the bar downing another drink. More evidence that I was right, but that was neither here nor there. This wasn’t the time or place to have that argument, and I’d told myself it was an off-limits topic.
“I don’t want to think about it.” Laney turned to me. “Isn’t it funny how we keep meeting up right here on this beach?”
It took all my self-control not to wince. I owned the beach, but rented it out with the help of a third party that specialized in venues for occasions like this. I gave them the dates that I was willing for it to be rented and they did everything else. All I had to do was stay off the beach on those days and watch the money add up in my account. Which was fine, because most of those days I’d spend cooped up in my office watching trends and deciding where to invest once the patterns became clear. But Laney didn’t know any of that.
“It’s a nice place.” Maybe it was a weak reply, but at least it wasn’t a lie or a denial that could come back to bite me in the ass later.
The music started and I wondered how I could protect Laney from the train wreck that I sensed would happen right before our eyes. I hoped everything would go smoothly, that everyone would behave.
We turned to watch Laney’s father lead Cadence down the aisle. When Cadence spotted me sitting next to Laney, her mouth dropped open., her eyes narrowed, and fury tightened up every fiber of her body. Somehow, she managed to carry on. Maybe it was because her father squeezed her arm when she tensed. Maybe it was because Devon was waiting just ahead of her. Maybe it was sheer force of will…not that I thought she possessed any willpower.
Laney’s dad delivered Cadence to her husband-to-be and took his place on a seat in the front row.
His hand rested on his wife’s thigh, who’d hightailed it to her place just as the music started, and she smiled up at him. Her watery eyes and slightly smudged makeup were the only indications she was tipsy, beyond the slight overexaggeration of her smile.
The whole damn family was a train wreck.
Devon took Cadence’s hands in his and her eyes went wide as her whole body snapped taut again. That look of panic made me wonder if I’d just witnessed the very second that what she had done became real to her.
Beside me, Laney stiffened, and I knew she was looking for anything to prove me wrong, but all she was going to see was the evidence that proved me right. I put an arm around her and she leaned into me. Her father glanced our way, but Laney was focused on the minister marrying her sister and Devon. I wasn’t even sure she noticed. I did, though, and her father’s eyes caught mine. He gave the barest hint of a nod, and I nodded back.
I had to wonder if Laney had told him. Leaning in close to her ear, I spoke softly. “Are you still glad you invited me?”
“I do…” She bolted upright, her eyes widening as she studied me. Then she lifted a single finger and placed it over her lips.
I nodded, miming zipping up my lips and tossing aside the key. She leaned into me again, but her little slipup intrigued me. Was she just following the wedding so closely that she’d anticipated every word, and spoke her thoughts instead of what she meant to say? Or was it a different kind of mistake? Was she imagining being the bride? And if so, who was she imaging as her groom? Devon? Or me?
There was still some anger in the set of her shoulders and I wanted to rub away the tension there. But with her father watching us closer than he was watching the bride and groom, I didn’t dare. No way in hell was I going to be the reason this wedding got ruined. Still, I could tell Laney was relieved to have me by her side. It was a good feeling—a disturbingly good feeling.
Faking for Her Page 11
