Was I being harsh? Sure. But she had come over here to put me in my place. So I wasn’t actually sorry.
“You’re so sure he loves you?”
I pulled my eyes away from Damien and looked at her. “Let me save you some trouble. I know you plan to point out every reason Victoria is better for him than I am. Do you honestly think I haven’t been compared unfavorably to her for the last three years that our parents have been married? Trust me, there’s nothing you could say that hasn’t been said or that I don’t know better than you. She’s going to be a pediatrician, and I’m a struggling artist. Up until a week and a half ago, I was a hostess in a restaurant. My personality is crap, my figure more closely resembles a twelve-year-old than a Barbie doll, and I have more emotional baggage than someone like Victoria could ever comprehend.”
She frowned at me. “Then why are you with Damien when you know he won’t be happy with you?”
I smiled then, feeling pity for her for the first time. “Because I know something you obviously don’t.”
Her thin, sculpted brow lifted. “And what’s that?”
“Damien is the only one who gets to decide what makes him happy. And the sooner you give up trying to force your ideas of what that is on to him, the better your relationship with him will be.” I stood up, ready to make my next move in this second battle, one she probably thought she’d already won. “And you might want to think about what kind of relationship you want to have with the woman he chooses. And your grandchildren someday.”
There was nothing more to say. My words had struck home. I saw it in the fear and guilt in her eyes, so I left her alone in the dark at the outcast table she’d placed me at, and I went to do what I’d come to do—protect Damien.
As soon as he saw me coming, he released his awkward, half-hearted hold on Victoria’s hand and waist, stepping back from her even though the song hadn’t ended.
“What…?” she asked, startled.
“Sorry,” I said, staring up into her eyes with my best intimidating expression. “I want my boyfriend back now.”
“It’s about time,” Damien said, taking my hand and walking backwards until he’d put enough distance between us and Victoria to pull me into his arms. He slid his arms around my waist, just as if he’d done it a hundred times before.
I lifted my arms and clasped my hands behind his neck, all too aware as he pulled me close against him that I didn’t have the same alluring curves and sultry expression of his last dance partner. But maybe if I didn’t feel like my spine was made of rebar…
I forced myself to relax and focused on looking up at him as if he was the only man in my world. The fact that he was made that way too easy. And as he stared at me with a full-on gleam of pretend passion and real pride in his eyes, an all-new realization crashed through me.
All this time I’d been worried about letting him in…becoming too dependent on his friendship and pushy, nosy, constant presence in my life. What I hadn’t considered before was how much I would come to care about his life and his happiness. My words to his mother earlier had been way more powerful and effective than I’d realized they would be, simply because they’d been driven by honesty and the perspective my relationship with my own mother had scraped into the flesh of my soul.
Damien’s eyes were so focused on mine that I wondered if he felt the weight of his family’s attention on us like I did. When he bent close to whisper in my ear, however, I realized that maybe he did.
“I think now would be a good time for another fake kiss, don’t you?”
I shifted my arms to brace them against his chest in case he got carried away again. “I think it will be enough if you just keep staring at me like you want to drag me into a secluded corner.”
He chuckled. “That won’t be too hard. You were even doing a pretty good job of it yourself for a minute there.”
I shrugged. “Who knew I had such natural acting skills? Too bad I won’t be needing them after tonight.”
His thumb moved in a gentle caress at my waist. “It’s a little early to claim your Oscar since we still have two more hours of this to go.”
“Don’t you think we could sneak out early?”
He grinned. “Sure. But people might think we have the same idea as my cousin’s impatient new husband.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me.
I glared at him. “We’re staying.”
He somehow managed to pull me closer. “That’s fine with me, sourpuss.”
Chapter Eighteen
The fake wedding date was, as far as I could tell, a complete success. Damien’s mom had left us alone for the rest of the night. The rest of his family had each taken time to talk to me and get to know me a little. They all teased him as much as he teased me, so I knew where he’d gotten it from. Clearly, he and his sisters had not gotten their personalities from his mom.
Most importantly, however, Victoria had suddenly disappeared. Hopefully, that was the end of her obsessive pursuit, but I knew all too well that things were much more complicated than Damien or I had ever expected them to be. If we “broke up” too soon, not only would his family get suspicious, but Victoria would probably be hot on his tail again. Luckily, it wouldn’t be hard to avoid them in the meantime.
Most importantly, I knew I needed to give Tessa a heads-up. So, Monday morning, I took my coat off and headed straight over to knock on her door. Then I paused, realizing that her office was across the hall, since she was now the CEO. Doing a quick spin, I stepped the few feet across to the opposite door and knocked.
There was no answer, but the door behind me opened. “I’m over here,” Tessa said. “I’m still moving all my stuff over. Want to help me?”
“Of course.” I followed her into her old office and looked around. Tessa had always been on the messy side, but now her office was strewn with piles and stacks that didn’t seem to be very organized.
“I keep feeling like I need everything, but the new Human Resources Director—whoever that will be—is going to need most of this. And a lot of it just needs to be thrown away.” She looked around, seeming rather out of her depth. “What I really need is for someone to shred this stack of papers. Are you up for it?”
“Anything you need.”
“Great.” She bent and moved her coat and a desk lamp off one of the chairs. “Sit here. I’ll bring the shredder over here, and you can keep me company while I do other things.”
Her words surprised me. No one had ever wanted me to keep them company. I wasn’t exactly the most friendly or chatty person. Of course, Tessa could talk enough for the two of us. Maybe she just needed someone to listen.
While she brought the shredder over, I sat down and reached for the file on top of her pile. As I pulled out the staples on the papers inside, I tried to collect my thoughts. “Actually, I have something to tell you. About the fake boyfriend thing.”
She’d been digging around in her bottom drawer, but she looked up at that. “What is it?”
“It turns out that we have a few complications I didn’t know about.”
“That sounds ominous.”
There was no way to soft-pedal this. “It turns out that Melinda’s daughter is Damien’s ex-girlfriend, and Melinda recognized him the other day when he was here.”
Tessa sat down, her expression thoughtful. “Well, that doesn’t seem so bad.”
“Well, maybe not on its own, but…” This was where things got difficult. “To get Damien to pretend to be your boyfriend, I had to do him a favor. Melinda’s daughter has been trying to get back together with him, and his mom was helping her. So, long story short, I pretended to be his fake girlfriend at a family wedding that she was also attending, so she’d think he was unavailable. But then his ex turned out to be my stepsister…”
She held her hands up for me to stop, her eyes closed. When she opened them again a few seconds later, she said, “Okay, first of all, I’ve never heard you talk this much.”
I just blinked at her and waited.
“Second of all…Tori is your stepsister?”
My stepdad had never referred to her by this shortened version of her name, so even though that’s what Damien called her, it still sounded weird. “Yes. And she knows that your date with Damien on Thursday was fake. She said she wouldn’t tell her mom, but I have no idea what she’ll do.”
Tessa’s mouth dropped open. “Well, it’s definitely a Monday.” She leaned back in her chair, her eyes focusing on the ceiling.
I needed something to do to deal with my stress, so I fed a few pieces of paper into the shredder.
At last, Tessa spoke. “I really don’t want Melinda to find out about Logan yet. I don’t believe she’d think his recommendation was influenced by our relationship, but I don’t know for sure. I’m already stressing out about my ability to do this. Not to mention...what will happen if the rest of the office finds out? I’ve been thinking that we should schedule another lunch date with Damien soon because Angela has been asking me about him constantly, but now bringing him into the office feels like a huge risk.”
I nodded in agreement. “Yes. But it seems to me like Melinda is rarely here.”
“True, but she will be for the next couple of weeks while we work on some major changes that have to happen as we implement Logan’s recommendations.”
Dang. That wasn’t good. “Then Damien needs to stay far away from here.”
“Agreed. We need to stage a breakup instead. How about on Friday?”
I smiled at how quickly she made decisions. “I’m sure he won’t mind. He makes his own schedule, so there shouldn’t be a problem. What are you thinking? An argument? A fight?”
Tessa narrowed her eyes and drummed her fingers on the desk thoughtfully. “No. That’s not quite my style. Or his either, I’d bet. Maybe instead of a breakup scene, it should be an attempted make up attempt. He can bring flowers, and I can reject him. How does that sound?”
I nodded. “Perfect.”
“And after a while, you’ll be clear to have him all to yourself without worries about breaking up your boss’s relationship.”
My mouth fell open.
Tessa tossed me a sly, curious grin. “Or am I wrong in thinking you might have a thing for him.”
“No. I mean, yes. You are wrong. The guy drives me insane, and every time we’re around each other, we seem to get ourselves into more trouble.”
“Yeah, but trouble with the right person can be a lot of fun.”
Huh. Damien had said the same thing once.
“Good morning,” a deep-toned, feminine voice said from the doorway behind me.
I recognized it immediately as Melinda’s and turned around. Then my heart crashed to a halt. Right behind her, smiling like a pleased kitten, stood Victoria.
“Good morning,” Tessa said brightly, her eyes flicking curiously past Melinda.
I said nothing at all as I fed more paper into the shredder. Busy hands would help me to keep my cool.
“Tori begged me to let her come hang out at the office this morning until she has to leave for her shift at the hospital. She’s been so busy with her residency lately that I don’t see enough of her.”
“That will be fun for you,” Tessa said, smiling—though it seemed forced to me. But maybe that was just because I knew her reason for being worried about having Victoria around.
And I couldn’t blame her, since I was positive that Victoria was only here to cause trouble, not spend time with her mother.
“Krista,” Melinda said, turning my way. But she had to wait awkwardly to continue since I’d just fed another stack of papers into the shredder, which was abnormally loud.
“Sorry,” I said politely when it was done, even though I wasn’t.
“That’s okay. So now we know why you looked familiar to me. Even though I never met you, I saw all the pictures of your mom and Martin’s wedding. It’s a small world, isn’t it?”
“Very.” Perhaps I put a bit too much emphasis on that. Oops.
“Tori told me how surprised you all were when she saw you at the wedding. So you’re friends with Damien, huh?” She looked at Tessa then, as if struck by the oddity of it. “And Tessa is dating him.”
It was too weirdly coincidental. Somehow I had to keep her from jumping to any accurate conclusions. “Yes. That’s how I met Tessa actually, through Damien.” The effort of managing double lies was making it hard to keep everything straight. “And she was so nice to suggest I come to work here. And I was happy to fill in as Damien’s date at the wedding when Tessa couldn’t go with him.”
Melinda mouth rounded in a silent Oh. “So that’s how it happened. Yes. We were in a tight spot getting someone to work with Logan who wouldn’t annoy him with a crush. I’m glad she thought of asking you. From what I’ve seen, you’ve done a great job. I don’t have my own secretary because it wouldn’t make sense when I’m rarely here these days, but I’m afraid that between Tessa and I, we’re going to run your legs off for the next few weeks.”
“That won’t be a problem. I’m happy to help.”
“She always is,” Victoria said, stepping closer to her mother. “So happy to help anybody.”
I watched her, a sense of resignation settling over me. There was just enough smirk in her smile and enough hidden meaning in her words to warn me that she’d come to a few dangerous conclusions since I last saw her.
Whether or not she’d come to the right ones didn’t really matter. Clearly, she was going to cause trouble any way she could.
Instead of answering and potentially saying something that would give Victoria a window, I just held her eyes and ran more paper through the shredder.
Melinda cleared her throat. “Well, I can see you two are busy, and I’ve just realized that bringing Tori here must make things awkward for you, Tessa.”
“Oh, it’s fine,” Tessa said. “We’re all mature adults here.”
I scoffed but quickly turned it into a cough. “Excuse me,” I said, getting up. “I think I’m going to go get some coffee in the break room. Would you like to come with me, Victoria?”
“What a great idea, Krista,” Melinda said with a wide smile. “Yes, I’ll just leave Tori in your hands for a bit. I need to talk to Tessa about some things.”
I didn’t respond, and neither did Victoria. Her silence ended when we got to the break room, however.
“I figured something out,” she said, leaning against the counter that held the Keurig and the microwave.
“I guessed as much.” Maybe if I didn’t look too interested, it would at least kill some of her pleasure in this situation.
“You and Damien are not dating.”
I took my time looking through the selection of coffee for something strong enough for a Monday morning combined with a blackmailing stepsister. I picked one out and popped it into the machine. “Really?”
“No woman who was dating Damien would volunteer him to be someone else’s fake boyfriend.”
“You mean you wouldn’t.”
“Come on. For some reason, you guys have this weird fake relationship circle going on. I don’t know why, but I do know you’re not Damien’s type. At all.”
“Why, because I don’t look like you?”
She nodded. “Basically. I mean, I guess there are some guys out there who like small boobs and boney hips, but Damien isn’t one of them.”
Her words stung, but I refused to let her see it. Maybe I didn’t have much that was great about me, but when it came to coping with emotional bullying, I was a battle-hardened warrior. Victoria was no match for me.
“Interesting. You’ll have to explain this all to Damien—if you can get him to talk to you. If you really think you’re right, you should also ask him why he’d rather have a fake girlfriend like me than spend even one dance with you.”
I started to walk out of the room, but Victoria’s voice stopped me.
“That reminds me…I got a great picture of you and Damien dancing last night. You’re really close
together. I hope I don’t accidentally send it to my mom. Wouldn’t she wonder why Damien was all cuddled up to you when he’s supposedly dating Tessa?”
I don’t smile often or easily, but sometimes a smile can be a weapon. “I’m not sure how that would help you get what you want, but I guess I can’t stop you. Now, I’m afraid you’ll have to entertain yourself. I have more shredding to do.”
Chapter Nineteen
But no matter how I reacted to Victoria, I knew all too well the potential damage she could do with that picture. It stressed me out all day, so when I got home, I went straight to the kitchen and grabbed my jar of peanut butter. “Why did this have to get so complicated?”
I dug out half a spoonful and licked it as I looked out the window. Damien’s hot tub sure would feel good right about now.
I tossed my spoon into the sink, no longer interested in food. Instead, I picked up my phone and texted Damien to ask where he was.
It didn’t take him long to answer. At a friend’s house. Everything okay?
Yep. Are you up to staging a final scene with Tessa at the office on Friday to end things?
I can make that happen.
Perfect. Oh, and I’m heading to your hot tub now.
Satisfied that I’d both let him know so I wouldn’t be trespassing and ensured that he wouldn’t be around to see me, I rushed upstairs to put a swimsuit on. I grabbed one of the two Angela wanted me to try out, a solid white one piece with a plunging back, scalloped trim around the legs and bust, and shaped cups that gave me enough support to add a hint of cleavage, which I didn’t usually have. The only problem, which I discovered as I ran downstairs, was a tendency for it to ride up. Wedgies were not attractive, and they sure weren’t comfortable.
It was a lot warmer now than it had been the last time I came out here. In fact, at fifty degrees, it felt almost summery. I thanked my lucky stars that I lived in Texas and ran out to the hot tub with nothing but a towel to wrap up in afterward.
The cover on the hot tub was heavier than I expected so it took me a few minutes to take it off. By the time I was finally able to get in, I was covered in prickly goosebumps from head to toe. It was warmer outside, but not warm. I could practically feel the prickly hairs of my unshaven legs standing straight up in protest.
Oh, Keep Your Shirt On: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (Shaped By Love Book 2) Page 12
