by Piper Rayne
Eventually, she shoves the small screen in my face. I steal the phone away from her, standing and pacing when I make sense of what she’s showing me. My Zia put a post on Instagram with a picture of Lauren and I congratulating us on our engagement by tagging each of us in the photo.
With St. George’s high school having been like a small town where gossip ran rampant, I know before I even ask.
“Guess where we’re going tonight? Time for you to meet your in-laws.” She smacks me on the back, takes the phone and heads upstairs. A minute later her door slams and I hear her argue with her mom.
Fuck. This engagement is like a snowball rolling down a hill and now that it has momentum, we can’t seem to stop it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lauren
“Mom, I’m sorry,” I say over the phone, pacing my room. I hear the water start in the bathroom which means Luca’s getting ready. He better after everything I’ve done for him. Shit. I can’t believe this got back to my family.
I have to roll with it though because the only thing worse than my family thinking I’m marrying Luca Bianco would be admitting to them that I agreed to a fake engagement with Luca.
“Not to mention, it’s Luca Bianco. He comes from a good family, but he’s the black sheep. Why couldn’t you be marrying Cristian?” my mom goes on.
St. George is way too small.
“Mom, we were going to come over to announce it. We were just keeping it quiet for now.”
“Quiet? He never even asked your dad for your hand. His aunt from New York posted a picture where the two of you look pretty cozy. Lauren, this is unacceptable behavior.”
I haven’t heard her this mad since my brother knocked up his high school girlfriend and surprise, instant daughter-in-law and grandchild. Although only the grandchild stuck.
“I said I was sorry, okay, but I was feeling it out to make sure it’d stick.”
Damn it. Even I know that was the wrong thing to say.
“Stick? What the hell does that mean? You have his ring on your finger. You’ve agreed to spend life together until death do you part. You kids today are so ridiculous. Marriage is serious business, Lauren.” I hear pots and pans clattering in the background.
“Mom, don’t cook for us.”
“Oh, I’m supposed to have my future son-in-law over and not cook a proper meal for him? I’m sure Maria Bianco has already cooked for you.”
“You don’t have to keep up with her.” I grip my hair in my hands.
“So she has. You know, Lauren.” I hear her voice crack and right now I’d prefer to be swallowed up into a hole. “I’m your mom. You’re my daughter. We’re supposed to go dress shopping and plan your wedding. I’ve always dreamed of that.”
And that is the exact reason I never told her.
“I’m sorry, Mom. Listen, I’m going to shower and then I’ll be over, okay?”
“Okay. Oh, and Ashton and Davis will be here, too.”
“Great,” I deadpan, thinking of my brothers.
“I’m sorry if we’re so embarrassing, but we are your family,” she huffs.
“That’s not it, it’s just the boys will be protective.”
“It’s Luca Bianco, give me a break. He can hold his own. I’ll see you in half an hour.”
The phone dies and I sit on my bed. My head falls to my hands and tears leak down my face as I weep for everything I’ve done in the last few weeks.
Who am I? This isn’t me. I’m not the girl who lies to everyone around her.
A knock sounds on my door and I really want to ignore it, but I can’t. So, I stand and swipe my eyes.
“Come in,” I say, heading to my closet to pretend I’m searching for something to wear.
“Hey. I just want to say I’m sorry,” Luca says.
I turn in his direction. “Luca! Put a shirt on.”
He crosses his arms, his biceps on display and smirks. Classic Luca. Using his good looks to get me to forgive him for what I’m doing to everyone I love.
I can’t lie. If I wasn’t so down, it would be working. The man has the body of an Adonis.
“Lauren,” he sighs, approaching me. “I’m sorry. I never meant for your family to find out.” His hands land on my shoulders and the fresh scent of his soap wraps us in a blanket.
Everything we discussed today runs through my mind and I can’t even find it within myself to make him feel better. I have to keep reminding myself that I agreed to this.
“Just do me a favor, okay? Act like the doting fiancé tonight. So, when I break the news about our break up, they can’t say I told you so.”
His arms wrap around me and his chin rests on my head. It feels good—too good, too comforting, too everything.
“I’ll make sure I’m the one they hate when this over and they never question that this wasn’t real.”
I swallow the elephant-sized lump in my throat.
“Thanks.”
I pull away from him and stand waiting for him to leave. As I flip from one garment to the other, he pauses at the door. “I know it’s not much, but I would’ve done everything in my power not to hurt you. Though you’re probably right—back then it was probably inevitable.” He looks uncomfortable for a second, like there’s something more he has to say. He pushes a hand through his damp hair before he continues. “The reason I hated you in high school was because you picked him over me. And for the record, I never saw you as a boy. Ever.” He pauses and clears his throat. “I’ll meet you downstairs.”
With the click of my bedroom door, another tear runs down my cheek. I close my eyes and draw in a ragged breath.
I did not need his admission right now. What is happening to us?
This whole thing has gone too far. I need to stop the madness, but first I need to put on a happy face for my family.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Luca
I’m cleaning up the family room from our day of vegging when Lauren comes down the stairs. Her long hair is braided to the side, she’s in a pair of jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt. There’s not a ton of make-up on her which is my favorite look on her.
“Ready?” she asks, grabbing her purse from the front hook and sliding into her boots.
“Yeah.” I carry the pizza box and cans to the kitchen. Grabbing our jackets, I hold hers out to her and shrug mine on.
“I can drive,” I suggest.
“Thanks. My dad would think less of you if I drive,” she mumbles, but I catch it.
“Really?”
She puts her hand on my arm. “Don’t worry, they’ll love you. You’ll have to make amends for not asking permission but other than that my family already loves you. Well, my mom did back in school anyway.” She cringes.
I’m still reeling from admitting to her why I hated her less than twenty minutes ago. I didn’t really expect any rushing into my arms or anything, but she’s ignoring it and I’m kind of pissed. It took a lot for me to admit that.
Opening the door, she walks out, and I throw the pizza box and cans into the recycling bin before we climb into my truck.
“Sorry,” I apologize for the older truck that’s my winter vehicle.
“It’s okay. I feel safer in this anyway.”
I stare at the rust bucket with only a cassette player wondering how that could be.
“You’re definitely not the go-big girl.”
I start the truck, the engine rumbles and I back out of the garage.
“I told you I wasn’t.”
We drive for a few minutes. Lauren doesn’t need to give me directions because I’ve dropped her off myself or was in the car when Cody did enough times when we were in high school. I had to witness them kissing goodbye on numerous occasions on the front porch. Not the highlight of my high school experience for sure.
“My mom is super mad and disappointed with me. My dad doesn’t know yet and my mom said it’s our job to tell him.”
I place my hand on her knee, happy to be driving an automatic a
t the moment. “We’ll get through this. I’m sorry.”
I feel like I’m apologizing non-stop and it’s still not enough.
“You already said that. When we get in there, you can’t be all sad puppy dog eyes okay? Otherwise, they’ll know something is up.”
“I’m not all sad puppy dog eyes.”
“You are. Stop it. I knew the risks when I agreed to this.”
She’s a fucking rock star, I swear.
“Okay, I’ll get rid of the puppy dog eyes and put on my love goggles.”
She laughs, and it might be my favorite sound in the world.
I pull up to her parents’ bungalow and kill the engine. Her brother Ashton is on the porch smoking a cigarette which means there’s no pep talk in the cab of the truck for us. I know her brothers a bit from school and parties and stuff, but we’re not buddies.
“Wait for me?” I ask.
She nods, unbuckling and putting her purse over her head and onto her shoulder.
I get out of the truck and walk around the front, opening her door.
“Luca Bianco, I should kick your ass,” Ashton yells just as I open Lauren’s door.
“We both know he can kick yours,” Lauren calls out to him and steps out of my truck like she isn’t the least bit fazed or worried when I know she is. Just like the girl I knew in high school—her walk is confident, her shoulders strong, her tongue sharp.
Ashton disposes of his cigarette into an ashtray. Last I heard he was working in the city with troubled youth. “I feel like I have to at least try for the sake of the family name.” He puts his hand out in front of me. “A Bianco. Never would have thought you’d taint our bloodline like that, Lauren.”
I shake his hand. “I’ll only be improving it.”
Ashton tilts his head back and forth. “I think your babies might be powerhouses.” All three of us laugh and as we enter their parents’ house, my mind wanders to what having kid with Lauren would be like. Would our kid take on our competitiveness or would we have a kid who hates competition? Would we raise him or her by always letting them win or teach them to work hard for their wins?
I’m so busy thinking about Lauren and me as parents that I don’t even realize that Nora Hunt is standing in front of me with her hands on her hips and anger-filled eyes.
“Mrs. Hunt,” I say, putting my hand out.
She crooks her finger to have me bend down. I do and a second later…
Smack.
I place my hand on the back of my head, used to the treatment.
“You’re trying to steal my daughter,” she accuses.
“Mom,” Lauren sighs. “I’m sorry, Luca.”
“Mrs. Hunt, it was wrong of me not to ask for your permission. And we should’ve come sooner. I apologize for you finding out the way you did.”
I see where Lauren’s vicious looks come from. Her mom appears to want to slice me open.
“You’re going to make it up to me by allowing me to plan a huge and elaborate wedding. That’s what’s going to happen Luca.”
“Done.” I put my hand out again, the lie eating away at me. Mrs. Hunt will never see a wedding with her daughter walking down the aisle toward me. That’ll be some other lucky bastard’s blessing.
“Aw.” She waves off my hand and opens her arms. “Luca Bianco, I can’t believe it.” She hugs me to her and although I’m taller, she somehow feels like the one controlling the hug. Stepping away, both her hands land on my cheeks. “You are just as handsome as you were as a kid.”
Her hands fall and she elbows Lauren. “Lucky girl.”
Lauren gives her a half smile.
“So, Fred is downstairs. Good luck, Luca.” She smacks me on the back and winds her arm through Lauren’s leading her to the kitchen.
“I was going to go with Luca.” Lauren tries to stop, looking over her shoulder at me.
“Nope. You know the way, Luca.”
Lauren sends me an apologetic look and I run my sweaty palms down my jeans. “I totally have this,” I mumble and head toward the basement stairs.
The creaky stairs announce my arrival before I hit the bottom.
Fred Hunt stares right at me, while both his sons sit on either side of him.
“Luca Bianco?” His forehead is scrunched up in confusion.
Ashton laughs.
Davis, Lauren’s other brother, raises his eyebrows.
Both of them take after their father with his six-foot stature and broad shoulders.
“Hi, Mr. Hunt.” I break the distance, hearing the Illini’s playing on the television.
I shake his hand and Ashton slides over on the couch, a shit-eating grin on his face, giving me room to be front and center to his dad.
Bastard.
We shake hands and then I put my hand in front of Davis. “Hey, Bianco.”
Sitting down, I run my hands down my jeans again.
“What brings you here?” Fred asks.
“Well…”
“Yeah, Bianco, what brings you to the Hunt household? Just visiting?” Davis razzes me. He obviously knows, too.
Fred glances at his son giving him a ‘shut the fuck up’ look, which Davis listens to.
“I brought Lauren,” I say.
Fred straightens his back. “My Lauren?”
Ashton laughs. Davis throws a pillow at him.
“Yes, Sir. We’ve been seeing one another.”
“Seeing? Like running into one another?”
Now Davis laughs and Ashton throws the pillow back.
“Seeing as in dating.”
“My Lauren?” he clarifies again, confusion still laced in all his features.
“Yes.”
“Didn’t she date that Cody fellow. Your friend?” he asks.
Why the fuck does everyone have to bring up Cody?
“Back in high school, yeah, but lately…” I swallow to try and coat the dryness in my throat. I could really use a water right about now.
“She was the love of his life, right?” Davis tries to throw the pillow to Ashton, but Fred intercepts it.
“You two. Upstairs.” He points to the stairs with a look I’ve seen on his daughter’s face a few times.
They must know better than to not listen since they fly up the stairs at record pace. I didn’t mind them being here. Witnesses might’ve been good.
“Sorry, they’ve yet to mature.” He leans back in his recliner. “So, you and Lauren have been dating?” There’s a small smile on his face.
“Yes. And the thing is…I proposed to her.”
The smile falls from his face.
“I’m sorry, Sir. I should have asked your permission. That was wrong on my end. We just got so caught up in the moment that I blurted it out.”
If he only knew how I deliberated for days on how to convince her.
“You’re still a paramedic?”
Not the response I was expecting. “Yes, Sir.”
“Pay good. Enough so she can stay home?”
“Well, I do side jobs so yes, I can take care of her financially.”
Maybe. Hopefully. I cringe inwardly. I hadn’t really thought about that.
“She’d want to stay home like Nora did with the kids. You have to plan that sort of thing. Nora can teach her how to shop for a family and coupon clipping always stretched a dollar.”
I have to be staring at him in shock.
“Lauren loves her job. She went to school for it,” is all I can come up with in response.
“And she’s got loans to prove it. So, make sure you factor that in the budget, too. Maybe once the kids are in school, she can work part-time. You come from an Italian family…I’m sure you want a lot of little ones running around.”
My head spins. Did I just warp back about five decades?
Lauren picks this as the time to bounce downstairs. When I say bounce, I mean it’s like she’s Princess Belle happy and skipping over to me.
“Did you hear Dad? I’m getting married?” She kisses him o
n the cheek hello and then sits next to me.
“Luca just told me. I think it’s wonderful. You can finally stay home and your mom’s been wanting to show you how to be a good wife.”
Lauren’s face falters.
“I told him you love your job.”
“I do. We’re not going to have kids for a long time.” She laughs, staring up at me.
“Well, you’re only getting older, sweetheart,” Fred says.
“Mom sent me down here because dinner is ready.” Her tone is frosty now and she stands up to leave.
“Lauren, you just always want to be like your brothers. Women were meant to stay home.”
Fred follows after his daughter and I follow him. How did I not know this about her family? And why am I so pissed that he wants to take away her independence when this whole thing between us isn’t real. It’s like what she wants doesn’t matter.
I can’t help but wonder if I know my fake fiancée better than the people who raised her.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Lauren
My dad sits at the end of the table, my mom passing him the food first. He shovels what he wants onto his plate and passes the dishes around.
“I would’ve made a cake if I had time. To celebrate,” my mom says, handing my dad the potatoes.
“We don’t want you to go to any trouble.” Luca’s hand slides under the table to my leg, squeezing it a few times.
“It’s no trouble, is it Nora?” my dad asks my mom.
I hate this and I hate that Luca is witnessing my family dynamic. Where his mom seems to run his household, my dad runs mine and though I know he loves me, it’s always been clear where my and my mom’s place is in the family.
Pictures adorn the walls of this house of my brothers in their football uniforms, track and field. My pictures are only ones of prom and homecoming. None of my soccer pictures are hung because that’d be like admitting I’m an equal to my brothers.
Some families have daddy’s princess.
Not the Hunts.
My brothers have always gotten all the glory and I’ve gotten questions like why would I want to play a sport when I could cheer on the players? I’ve fought for everything I’ve done. You’d think my dad would be proud of me becoming captain when Davis didn’t even make the cut for football senior year, but nope. That night I got lectured about overshadowing my brothers in my achievements.
