“No. The slots between should be enough.”
As Trevor approached the window, I stepped off to the side and against the wall.
“It looks like it’s one guy. Blond hair. Thirties, I’m guessing.”
“What’s he doing?”
“He’s on his phone.”
“That’s not helpful.” Everyone was always on their phone.
A few seconds passed.
“He hung up. He’s writing something on a notepad. I can’t read it.”
That seemed a little suspicious. Who drove around with a notepad?
“Holy shit.” Trevor pulled the binoculars away for a second and gave me an alarmed look.
“What?”
“I think we can officially say that he’s been paid to spy on us. He has a big camera with a long-ass lens.”
“No way. Let me look.”
Trevor handed me the binoculars, and I stepped in front of him. I put them up to my eyes, and sure enough, I saw a blond guy with a huge camera.
“It looks like it’s straight out of a TV show.”
“Except this is real life.”
“Yeah. It’s weird. I’ve never been stalked before. Do you think he’s a private detective?”
“Has to be. Who else would do something like this?”
I heard Trevor move behind me as I continued to spy on our spy.
“I found him.”
I put the binoculars down and looked over my shoulder. “You did?”
“Yep. Kelly Investigations. Jonah Kelly.” He flipped his phone around, and I saw a website with a photo that resembled the man sitting outside. “My brother literally went with the first website that popped up on Google.”
I turned back to the window. “So, what do we do? Should we confront him?” I laughed. “That would really piss Kevin off.”
Trevor chuckled behind me. “It would. But I think we should pretend that we don’t know he’s out there. We can give him some great intel to send to my brother. Maybe he’ll leave us alone then.”
“I like that plan.”
Kelly, the stalker, moved his camera to the right and left as I watched, pausing every few seconds. If he was looking for juicy info, he wasn’t going to find it in my parents’ living room.
As soon as the thought left my head, the camera whipped up, and my fight-or-flight kicked in.
“Shit.” I flung myself backward to get away from his line of sight, but in my panic, I’d forgotten Trevor was behind me.
I tripped on his foot, causing me to fall into him and knocking us both to the ground. I landed half on top of him, half on the floor, and the binoculars hit me right on the mouth.
“Owww,” I hissed.
Trevor slid out from under me and leaned over. “Are you okay?”
“The binoculars hit my lip.”
My lower body tightened as he stared at my mouth.
“Which lip?”
“My bottom one,” I said in a low voice.
He brushed his thumb over it. “Does that hurt?”
“Not really.” It felt good. Way too good.
I wanted him to kiss it and make it better.
Bad idea. Especially when it looked like he was thinking the same thing.
“Can you help me sit up?” I asked before my mind could play more tricks on me.
Trevor rolled off and offered me a hand. “What happened?”
Finger-combing the back of my hair, I told him, “He lifted his camera up to the window. I didn’t want him to catch me watching him. Sorry I ran into you.”
“It’s fine. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“All good.” I smiled to show him I was serious.
“What are you two doing on the floor?”
We both spun around to see my mom standing in the doorway to the bedroom.
“Your dad said you were bird-watching?” It came out as a question, like she couldn’t believe that I would be doing that.
“Uh…” Once again, I didn’t know what to say, so out popped the first thing that came to mind. “A bird flew into the window and scared me. I fell down.”
Trevor snickered and turned his head away as his shoulders started to shake.
“You need to be more careful, honey,” my mom said, ignorant to Trevor’s laughing.
“Will do.” I lamely gave her a thumbs-up.
“Dinner’s ready anyway. Why don’t you come downstairs?”
“Be there in a second.”
She left to go back downstairs, and Trevor stopped trying to hold back his laugh.
“It’s not funny.”
He grinned. “It is. Both your parents think you’re either lying or something’s wrong with you.”
I stood. “There is something wrong with me. I married the wrong man, and now, he’s spying on me.”
Trevor got up too. “It’s not all bad. You got me out of the process.”
I had to imagine I looked stunned at that statement because we both knew I hadn’t actually “gotten” Trevor. He wasn’t really mine.
But he must have missed the expression on my face because he said, “I am the handsomer brother after all.”
He’s joking. That made more sense.
And my hopes—which I hadn’t even known I had—sank because for a second there, I’d thought that he really wanted to belong to me.
Chapter Thirteen
ALEXIS
Dinner went about as well as I’d expected it to go. My dad was polite, but I could tell he was just waiting for Trevor to do something, so he could disapprove of our quick marriage. I appreciated that I had a parent who loved me that much, but it actually made the situation more stressful, and I was glad that it was almost over.
“Would you like to stay for dessert?” my mom asked.
Trevor put his hand on my knee and squeezed. My dad’s body tensed up. It was apparent the two men wanted dinner to be over.
“They’re Alexis’s cupcakes,” she added. “I bought a couple dozen for work, and I have a few left over.”
My poor mother was the only one who wanted us to stay.
“Thanks, Mom, but we’re going to call it a night. I need to get to the bakery early tomorrow for a big order coming in.”
My mother’s face fell.
“But how about the two of us do something together?” I offered. “We haven’t had a mother-daughter date in a while.”
She beamed. “I’d like that.”
Trevor picked up his napkin from his lap and set it on his empty plate. “Dinner was excellent, Mrs. Moore. Alexis and I will have to have you and Mr. Moore over to our place soon.”
“You can call me Angie,” she said with a smile and looked over at my dad.
He stood and took his plate to the kitchen.
“I guess you’ll be calling him Mr. Moore,” I joked to Trevor.
“He’ll come around. He just doesn’t want his little girl to get hurt again,” my mom said, trying to put a positive spin on the evening.
“I know, Mom, and I’m sure Trevor understands.”
“I do. If I had a daughter, I’d feel the same, I’m sure.” Trevor picked up his plate and got up from the table, but my mom stopped him with a hand.
“No, no, no. You are the guest tonight. You are not helping with dishes.”
“My Nana would say otherwise.”
“I won’t tell her if you don’t.” My mom winked at him.
“Come on, Trevor. She’s never going to let you do it. When she comes to our house, you can return the favor.” I dragged him toward the front door with my mom following. “Bye, Dad,” I yelled.
I thought he’d ignore me, but he came out of the kitchen and gave me a hug. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“And I know you weren’t bird-watching. I’ll let it go for now, but I’ll want to know what’s going on eventually.”
“I know.”
He let me go. I hugged my mom, and my dad shook my new husband’s hand, and then w
e left.
Jonah Kelly was still outside in his vehicle, so I immediately took Trevor’s hand.
“Thanks for coming tonight. I hope you weren’t too miserable,” I said as we walked to the car.
“I didn’t think they’d welcome me with open arms, considering the circumstances. I’ll win them over one day.”
And then break their hearts again when we get divorced. I didn’t say it out loud because the night had already been hard enough.
Trevor hit the unlock button on his key fob and opened my door for me. “I appreciate you getting us out of there, but I do regret not getting one of your cupcakes. I still haven’t had anything from your bakery. I’m not a very good husband.”
“We can stop by and pick something up,” I offered.
“Don’t you need to get to work early?”
“No, I just said that, so we had an excuse to leave.”
“Then, I would love to go.” He leaned closer. “I’m going to kiss you now.”
My eyes bugged out.
“We’ll give Kelly a picture to send to my brother.”
I laughed awkwardly. “Good idea. And thanks for the warning.”
Bracing myself for being swept off my feet, I wasn’t expecting Trevor to merely put his arm around my waist and plant a peck on my lips before letting go.
He opened the car door wider. “After you, wife.”
When Tessa and I had plotted out our ideas for The Purrfect Café, we had decided right from the beginning that we didn’t want to be open late. We had opted for a seven p.m. closing time during the week and nine p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and so far, it had worked well for us. Our busy hours were in the morning and early afternoon, and we had actually been talking about moving the time up but hadn’t yet.
Thankfully, it was after eight, and The Purrfect Café was empty when Trevor and I walked in. I turned on the main lights and pulled a couple of chairs off a table for us to sit.
“What flavor of cupcake do you want?” I asked and pointed to the chalkboard behind the counter that listed everything we had.
“What’s your favorite?”
“Tessa and her husband love lemon cupcakes. A lot of customers love the peanut butter ones. Cookies ’n’ cream is pretty popular too. And then there is the salted caramel. Very popular. And there’s red velvet.”
“I didn’t ask what everyone else’s favorites were. I asked what yours was.”
I also found my answer boring. “Chocolate. It’s no fun, I know. Which is why I suggest—”
“I want chocolate.”
“Are you sure?”
“Do they taste bad?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Of course not.”
“Then, why are you second-guessing your favorite? I want chocolate.”
I nodded and headed into the back. We cleared out the bakery case at night to store the cupcakes to keep them fresh. I pulled out two chocolate cupcakes and brought them out front.
Butterscotch, one of our café cats, was rubbing up against Trevor’s leg.
“I forgot to make sure you were okay with cats.”
He smiled. “Yes, I’m fine. I always wanted a pet, growing up, but my grandpa always said no.”
I set his plate down. “But you own your own house now.”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t seem fair to an animal when I’m at work all day and I’m the only one who lives there.” He smiled. “Or was the only one who lives there.”
“It might not be fair to a dog, but a cat? They’d probably love it.”
Picking up his cupcake and peeling the wrapper off, he said, “Good to know.”
Butterscotch sat down and meowed.
“No. You can’t have a cupcake,” I told him and turned to watch Trevor take his first bite. For some reason, I was nervous he’d hate it.
Trevor closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He lifted his lids and looked at me. “This is almost better than sex.”
“Almost?”
“Almost, but not quite.”
“Hmph.” I peeled off my own wrapper and took a bite. “I think chocolate cake is always better than sex.”
“Then, you’ve been having the wrong kind of sex.”
Chapter Fourteen
TREVOR
Alexis came home Saturday afternoon, carrying a bakery box.
I met her at the door and kissed her. With Kelly Investigations watching us all the time, Alexis and I tried to do things a married couple would do, like greet each other.
Her lips were always soft, and there were times I was tempted to turn our pecks into something more, but I didn’t want to cross a line and make her uncomfortable.
“What’s this?” I asked her, lifting up the cover. So far, I loved everything she baked.
Slapping my hand away, she said, “I’m bringing my new grandmother-in-law cupcakes for dessert tonight.”
I frowned. Not only was I not getting any treats, but I was also not looking forward to seeing my brother. It would have been hard enough to break the news of my marriage to my grandma without Kevin there. I had no idea how she was going to react.
“Your new but also former grandmother-in-law?”
“And that’s why I’m bringing cupcakes. I might also need some sugar in case I need to stuff my face with food rather than stuff my fist in Kevin’s face.”
I stifled a laugh. “I think that’s a wise idea. Kevin would probably charge you with assault. We can’t give him the satisfaction.”
“Very true. What time do we have to be there again?”
“Six, but I was thinking we should go early, so we can beat Kevin. That way, we can talk to Nana alone.”
“Okay, let me take a quick shower first. I have flour all over me.”
When Alexis and I pulled up to my grandmother’s house, I was grateful to see that my brother had not arrived yet.
Alexis ran her hands back and forth on her bakery box. “How are we going to do this? Do you want to talk to her alone, and I can stay out here and wait until you’re ready for me?”
I gave it careful consideration. My grandmother might take it better if I went in there alone, but what kind of husband would I be, leaving my wife in the car? And I wanted Nana to know we were a united front.
“No. I think you should come in with me.”
“Let’s do this then.”
Alexis looked nervous as I took the bakery box in one hand and her palm in my other and led her to the front door. Normally, I would enter, knowing I was always welcome, but we were early, and I wasn’t by myself.
“Ring the bell, please,” I said and squeezed her hand. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”
She tried to smile, but it came out wobbly.
A second later, my grandma swung open the door. “Trevor. You’re early,” she said with a smile. Her eyes then glanced over at Alexis, and they widened. “Alexis. What are you doing here?”
“May we come in, Nana?” I asked.
She backed away, and we entered the house.
“I brought you these,” Alexis said, and I handed over the cupcakes. “They’re from my bakery.”
Nana took the box, and her gaze went to where our hands were clasped together. She raised her eyebrows at me. “I think you have some explaining to do.”
“Alexis and I got married.”
She gasped, and her mouth fell. “You told me the last time we were together that there was no one special, and now, you’re married? How could you do this to your brother?” She looked at Alexis. “Is this why my grandson left you? Because you were cheating on him with his brother?” She turned back to me. “Is this why you lied about not dating anyone?”
“No, that’s not what happened,” I said.
Nana had already turned back to Alexis. “I thought you were better than this, young lady.”
Alexis shrank into herself.
I stepped forward, putting Alexis behind me. “Enough.”
“Oh, I have a few words for you too, young man. I can’t believe
you would—”
“I said, enough.”
Nana took a step back. If she’d had pearls on, she would have been clutching them right now. “I can’t believe you just spoke to me like that.”
“Nana, I love you, but you are a little blind to your family. Alexis did not cheat on Kevin. She and I got together after their divorce was final. Kevin left because he wanted to, and their divorce was mutual. Neither of them fought it. It was what they both wanted.” I wanted to tell her that Kevin had cheated on Alexis and that he owed her money, but I wasn’t going to break her heart. “I’m not going to say any more, but you might not want to believe everything you hear.” I reached behind me and pulled Alexis forward. “Now, if you would like to greet your new granddaughter-in-law, that would make me very happy.”
Alexis spoke first. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Nelson. I told Trevor he should come in and talk to you alone.”
Nana scoffed. “And leave his new wife outside on her own? I raised him better than that.”
I smiled down at Alexis. “See? I told you.”
Alexis smiled back, and Nana said, “Come on inside, and let’s have a look at these cupcakes. Then, you can explain to me why I didn’t get an invitation to your wedding.”
We didn’t get very far before the door swung open, and my brother walked in.
He gave me a fake smile when he saw me. “You’re early, I see.”
I looked at my watch. “So are you.”
Nana immediately looked stressed as she glanced at her three guests. “Kevin, I think you should sit down. Your brother has some news for you.”
Kevin waved Nana’s concerns away. “I already know.”
My grandmother looked like she was going to pass out from relief. “In that case, since you’re here, we might as well sit down for dinner.”
After we were all seated and our plates were full, my grandmother turned to Kevin. “I was expecting news tonight from you, not your brother. Did I get my wires crossed?”
“No, I also have an announcement.”
“Oh? And what is that? I’m assuming it’s not as big as Trevor’s.”
Not Another Fake Marriage (Not Another Romance) Page 6
