The Girl Next Door

by Emma Hart

  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what best friends were for.

  Faking engagements and hiding bodies.

  I confirmed that my sister—younger by only ten months—did not know about the baby, and Kai’s response followed only moments later.

  KAI: I should have known you weren’t joking last night when you said we might have to pretend to be married

  ME: Well, I wish I had been. You haven’t dated anyone in, oh, the last six months have you?

  KAI: No. I was too busy avoiding Amanda and trying to get you into bed.

  ME: So romantic.

  ME: So you proposed three weeks ago so it doesn’t look like a knee-jerk reaction to the pregnancy, okay

  KAI: How far are we taking this? Like if your grandmother wants us to get married, are we eloping? Staging a fake wedding?

  ME: I don’t know, I panicked, I couldn’t think straight. She was calling me a whore.

  KAI: Who? Your grandmother?

  ME: Yes. She only stopped when I pointed out Jesus wasn’t Joseph’s son. She almost beat me.

  KAI: I cannot wait for this wedding.

  ME: THERE WON’T BE A WEDDING.

  KAI: Ok, I can’t wait for our fun wedding party to celebrate our totally fake marriage. It’s gonna be a hoot.

  KAI: By the way, I told my parents.

  ME: You’ve been at work all day.

  KAI: I know. Text messaging is great.

  Oh, my God.

  He did not text his parents to tell them he was having a baby, and I replied as such.

  KAI: I did. Now they want to see you, so we better figure this fake marriage out fast.

  ME: I agree, because my parents want to talk to you tonight.

  KAI: Really?

  ME: Gotta go bye

  CHAPTER FIVE – IVY

  The bar was packed with people. Everywhere I looked, someone needed a beer or a cocktail or a glass of wine. It was hot and sticky and overwhelming on the best day, let alone right now when I had to avoid the coffee machine like the plague.

  Unfortunately, because of that, we’d had to tell all tonight’s staff that I was pregnant and couldn’t serve coffee unless any of the patrons wanted their cappuccino with a side of vomit.

  It was unanimously agreed that nobody would, in fact, like a side of vomit with their coffee.

  Thank God.

  “Rach, I need some air. Can you cover me for a few minutes?” I asked one of the servers who also tended the bar.

  “Sure, Ivy. Take as long as you need—my big tables just left.” She smiled, tucked some blonde hair behind her ear, and stepped behind the bar to immediately serve some customers.

  I slipped out the back, leaning against the wall. The cool evening air was a welcome distraction from the heat of inside, and I closed my eyes to revel in it for a long moment.

  Realizing I could no longer put it off, I pushed off the wall and headed back inside just in time to see Kai and his sister, Anna, take their seats at an empty table. They’d seated themselves in an empty table in Rachel’s section, so I motioned to her that I had it and I’d be back in a moment.

  “Hey,” I said, stepping up to their table with two menus in hand.

  Kai’s eyes sparked when they met mine. “Hey. How are you doing?”

  “I’m doing,” I replied, looking at Anna. “Hi. Sorry we couldn’t talk much last night.”

  She waved her hand dismissively. “You were shattered. I’m surprised you’re working right now. Are you not dying?”

  “I’m used to it.” I adjusted my apron. “Everyone is really understanding, and I have yet to have anyone served a side of vomit with their coffee, so it’s going well.”

  She snorted. “That’s definitely a plus.”

  Kai rolled his eyes at her. “Are you sure you’re fine?”

  “I’m fine,” I insisted. “Honestly. Can I get you anything to drink?”

  I took their orders and with a promise that I’d be right back, I headed for the bar to grab Kai’s beer and Anna’s wine. Rachel intercepted me and took the order before she said, “It’s Kai’s, isn’t it?”

  My cheers flared, answering for me. “Can I have their drinks?”

  She let out a low whistle as she set the glass of wine next to two small square paper towels. “Girrrrrl. That’s gonna be the hottest baby in Montana, never mind White Peak.”

  I pursed my lips. “Rach, I really don’t want to have this conversation right now.”

  “Right, right, sure.” She put Kai’s beer next to the wine and slid the tray across the bar to me. “I’m damn sad that one’s off the market.”

  “Huh?”

  “Your mom said you’re engaged. Isn’t that true?”

  “Oh, yeah, we are.”

  She glanced at my left hand. “Never seen a ring there.”

  “I don’t wear it to work,” I lied, grabbing the tray and turning away before she could question me any further.

  Shit. I really should have hammered out a story earlier so I could at least try to make this fake relationship believable.

  Mom caught my eye from the other side of the restaurant, nodded toward Kai, and mouthed that I should take five with him.

  I nodded that I understood and set their drinks down on the table. “Mom said I could take five. Probably to warn you that they’re going to want you to hang around until this has calmed down.” I looked around for a spare chair.

  “Here.” Kai got up and pushed his chair toward me. “I’ll go and find one.”

  “It’s fine, I—”

  “Sit down, Ivy.”

  I sat.

  Anna chuckled when he disappeared in search for another chair. “So, you’re engaged.”

  “Oh, God, don’t.” I groaned, burying my face in my hands. “My grandmother is a staunch Catholic, and I panicked.”

  “For what it’s worth, he’s not bothered at all. I think he’s looking forward to pretending to be your fiancée. Or husband. Whichever one.”

  “Only because it keeps Amanda away from him.”

  “Yeah, sure, that’s the reason.” The sarcasm in her tone made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means—” She stopped the moment Kai came within earshot, carrying a chair.

  He pushed the chair between us and sat down. “What does what mean?”

  “Nothing. We were just discussing your totally real upcoming nuptials,” Anna said, leaning back with a grin.

  Kai glanced at me. “Right. How are we handling that?”

  “Very simply,” I said nonchalantly. “We’re going to elope in my living room where my graphic designer best friend will set up a green screen and edit us into the local courthouse.”

  “Seems reasonable,” he replied, taking a sip of his beer. “Wait, does it bother you that I’m drinking beer?”

  “No. Weirdly enough, I quite like the smell of beer.” I wrinkled my nose up. “Dear God. This is going to be a long several months.”

  Anna chuckled into her wine.

  “Okay, when are we getting married?” Kai asked, putting the bottle down.

  “I don’t know. Do I have to organize everything? I’m already growing a human. That’s a lot of organizing going on down there.”

  “Solid point,” Anna interjected. “All her organs have to reorganize themselves.”

  “Why don’t you go and order some food at the bar?” Kai said, shoving menus at her. “It’ll give Rachel something to do other than stare at us.”

  I peered over my shoulder just in time to see Rachel jerk her head away and pretend to wipe the bar down. I sighed.

  Anna took the hint and swiped the menus from him. “You want a burger?”

  “And a quiet life.” Kai smirked, ignoring her when she flipped him the bird and headed for the bar. “Would you believe she’s thirty?”

  “I’d give you the finger, too,” I said without hesitation. “We really have to figure this out, Kai.”

/>   He leaned forward and set my hand in his. “It’s not hard. You said this was a secret, right? We just have to figure out minor details. So I proposed three weeks ago. When was the last time you dated someone?”

  “It’s really not worth bringing up,” I mumbled.

  Laughing, he squeezed my fingers. “Well, I’ve been single well over a year, so we could have easily been dating for nine months, engaged for three weeks, and now you’re pregnant. It happens. We’re neighbors. It stands to reason our relationship would progress quickly because we see each other all the time. It’s like those dumb reality shows—how people on things like Big Brother go from strangers to being in love in two weeks.”

  “You know that’s all for ratings, right?”

  “Of course, but the point is still valid.”

  I groaned. “Okay, fine. How did you propose?”

  “Over pizza?”

  “Really? The only proposal I’ve ever gotten is fake and over pizza?”

  “Nobody has ever proposed to you?”

  “Has someone proposed to you?”

  “Like three times.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Have you ever said yes?”

  “That’s a trick question.”

  “It’s really not.”

  “I’ve never said yes.” He grinned. “Besides, one doesn’t count.”

  “How does a proposal not count?”

  “It was my cousin.”

  “Your cousin proposed to you?”

  “Yeah, but she was drunk and thought I was someone else, so it was totally reasonable.”

  “What about the other two?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “As your fake future wife, it absolutely matters. I demand to know your relationship history before I push your watermelon-headed spawn out of my vagina.”

  He paused, rubbing his chin. “That’s as a good an argument as I’m gonna hear, I reckon.”

  “You reckon,” I drawled.

  “Yeah, I do.” He grinned, stroking his thumb across the back of my head.

  I hated that I liked it.

  Really, really hated it. Especially because it sent goosebumps up my forearm, and the last time I’d felt things for this man, I’d gotten pregnant.

  I suppose it was a good thing that history couldn’t repeat itself right now.

  “All right. The first proposal was when I was nineteen. We’d dated for six months and she was taking it far more seriously than I was. I broke up with her right after.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Yeah, but it was that or lead her on,” Kai mused. “It seemed kinder to be honest with her.”

  Ugh. I hated it when asshole moves had totally real reasons behind them. How could you be mad at that?

  Cruel to be kind and all that.

  “The second one?”

  “Ah, that one was a little trickier.” He paused. “We’d been going out a little over a year in my senior year of college.”

  “You went to college? And you’re a builder?”

  “I don’t like ties, offices, or business hierarchies,” he said dryly. “May I continue?”

  I waved for him to carry on.

  “We were about to graduate, and she wanted to move with me back here, but I didn’t want to commit to anything so serious. She asked me to marry her, and I said no. She…wasn’t happy about it.”

  I couldn’t imagine why.

  “Well, aren’t you just a regular modern-day Casanova.”

  “Not really. I paid her credit card bill off as an apology.”

  “Oh, my God. Is there anything wrong with you?”

  He raised his eyebrow as if to say, You’ll have to find out.

  I wasn’t going to push it. I had enough on my plate.

  “Okay, well,” I said, moving on. “Now I’m caught up and we’ve set the record straight, you just have to deal with my parents.”

  “And later your grandmother.”

  “And later my grandmother,” I confirmed. “Hopefully much, much later. Like when she’s dead.”

  “She can’t be that bad.”

  “Is your grandmother the woman being wrestled away from the bar right now?” Anna asked, shuffling back to the table. “Because a man who looks a bit like you is begging her to go to the office and nobody is batting an eyelid.”

  I turned around and sure as shit, my grandmother was being accosted out of the bar by my father, leaving my mother apologizing profusely to the customers in the immediate area. For what it was worth, none of them were bothered in the slightest. They were all regulars and therefore, they were used to my grandmother’s scenes.

  “Well, at least she didn’t come dressed in a feather boa this time,” I mused.

  “What?” Anna asked.

  “It’s a long story,” I replied, standing up. “I need to get back to work. What can I get you to eat?”

  ***

  Two hours later, Grandma Rosie was safely back at home courtesy of one of our kitchen staff who had finished his shift, and the bar was resembling something that wasn’t a mosh pit. It was the lull between the dinner rush and the evening rush, and it meant we could all breathe for the next hour.

  Thank God.

  Kai, bless him, had stayed the entire time, even when Anna had taken his keys and said she’d pick him up later because she was bored. He was sitting at the bar with a glass of Pepsi even though I’d told him a thousand times I didn’t care if he had beer.

  “I have to work tomorrow anyway,” he insisted, catching a droplet of condensation on the side of his glass with his thumb. “Besides, you’ve been staring at Sauvignon Blanc like it’s your long lost lover all night and I don’t want to make this change any harder for you.”

  “Yes,” I said dryly. “Because missing wine is the issue. Not the swollen boobs or the constant tiredness or the severe aversion to coffee.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Your boobs are swollen? I didn’t notice.”

  “Bullshit. You’ve been staring at them for the last thirty minutes.” I hiked my t-shirt up to cover my brand new, extra as hell cleavage to make my point.

  “To be fair,” said a voice I recognized immediately. “I’d be looking at them if you weren’t my sister.”

  I turned in Holley’s direction. Like me, she was on the shorter side of life, but she was a little more disciplined in the exercise department, giving her slim body a more toned look than my own. She had my original hair color—dark brown—and the same dark brown eyes as me. We were so alike that we were often mistaken for twins and given that we were in the same school year, it was an easy mistake to make.

  She adjusted her wide-rimmed glasses. “Hey, Kai. How are you?”

  “I’m good, Holley, thanks.” He smiled. “You?”

  “Over the dewy decimal system,” she replied.

  “You have a degree in library science. How can you be over that? Isn’t it like your lifeblood?” I asked, pouring a glass of her favorite red wine.

  “Ha, ha, ha.” She pushed some hair from her face and gratefully accepted the wine. “Well? What’s new?”

  I shot her a look. “Don’t sit there and act like you don’t know. I know Mom called you.”

  “She did.” She grinned. “And she was freaking the hell out. She was demanding to know why I hadn’t told her you were in a serious relationship with Kai.”

  “Oh, shit,” I whispered.

  Holley waved her hand. “Don’t. I told her I had no idea what she was talking about, you were obviously single—”

  “Like you are, you mean.”

  “—Then she yelled at me and told me she knew it was a secret relationship. I figured out you two clearly did the dance with no pants, fucked up, and were lying to cover your ass with Grams.”

  “Sounds about right,” Kai said brightly. “Did you know we’re getting married?”

  Holley snorted. “Anyway, I covered for you.” She looked at me pointedly. “I apologized and told her you’d sworn me to secrecy, and that I had
a missed call from you this morning that I assumed was you telling me about the baby.”

  Groaning, I slumped forward onto the bar. “I’m sorry. I only found out yesterday, and Tori knew I was late, so I told her, then Kai—”

  “You didn’t tell me first?” He poked me in the arm.

  I swatted him away. “You were at work.”

  “It’s fine,” Holley interjected. “I’m not that stupid, Ives. I figured you’d call me when you’d stopped panicking.”

  It was scary how well she knew me.

  “Here. I bought you something.” She dug in her purse and pulled out two small packs with ear plugs in.

  “Ear plugs?” Kai picked up the one she’d pushed in his direction. “We have to be able to hear the baby, Holley.”

  “I know.” She grinned, her eyes sparkling. “But you’re gonna need them in three years when I buy your kid, like, ten drum sets.”

  “And you’re fired as an aunt,” I told her as our parents approached. Both Mom and Dad hugged her and kissed her cheek before turning toward Kai.

  Holley and I both froze.

  “Well,” Dad said. “At least my grandchild isn’t going to come out looking like Yoda with you as the father.”

  My jaw dropped. “Are you saying I look like Yoda?”

  “Have you seen your baby photos?”

  “Mom!”

  “Simon,” she scolded him, walking around to see Kai. She wrapped her arms around him into a huge hug and said, “Welcome to the family, Kai.”

  Holley caught my gaze. “Welcome is a strong word,” she muttered into her wine glass.

  Dad flicked her ear, and she winced, shying away and rubbing the same spot.

  I agreed with her, but I stayed quiet.

  That was the bonus of being the big sister; I knew when to shut up.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Stuart,” Kai replied, returning my mother’s hug.

  “Mrs. Stuart!” Mom laughed, pulling back and holding him at arm’s length. “I’ve been Jasmine for months, and now I’m Mrs. Stuart!”