Page 31 of The Fake Family Deal

A crackling energy passes in the air between us, a static charge that’s been building for days and is just waiting to find its way to ground. Her lips catch my attention again, their soft,pink plushness practically begging me to kiss them, almost like they’re crying out to me.

Almost like I’m about to have to stop lying to myself.

This is starting to get dangerous.

I didn’t think I really had it in me to love other people, but with Marina, somehow it’s different. It’s a magnetism. It’s unavoidable.

This is going to end badly if I’m not careful — or else the electricity is going to burn us both.

CHAPTER 16

MARINA

“Please, baby, come on. We’re going home. We’ll be okay once we get home. Hush, sweetheart, please.”

I’m bouncing her and hushing her, but Lila isn’t having it. She’s not at all in a mood to be comforted or quiet. All she seems to want to do is scream.

The crew have been gone for half an hour, and Ellis is glaring at me like he can’t wait for us to go away and leave him alone. This is such a nightmare.

Much as I love my daughter, babies can be awful when they’re like this.

“Come on, baby,” I try again, cradling her to my chest, feeling tears pricking at my own eyes. “Let’s just get home.”

“You can stay here,” says Ellis. “If you want to use the nursery, you can. Might be easier.”

I shake my head. “Oh, Ellis, thank you but we’ve already stayed too much this week. We shouldn’t take up more of your time.”

He shrugs but doesn’t move. “I have the space. Lila’s comfortable here. I mean, look how much she’s screaming to want to stay.”

Despite everything, I let out a laugh at that. Ellis can be funny when he tries.

“Honestly,” he continues, holding out his hands as if he wants to take Lila. “I insist. Stay the night.”

I sigh, unable to argue anymore. After all, he’s right. It is easier. And Lila does like her bed here. We’ve stayed nearly every night this week so far, and it’s taken such a strain off us.

I’ve even managed to get a little more sleep than I usually do.

“Okay, fine. Thank you,” I say. Lila launches into a new round of sobbing, like she doesn’t understand what’s going on at all. I hush her again, with no success.

“There’s nothing to thank me for,” scoffs Ellis, folding his arms. “If anything, I should thankyou.”

“What for? We haven’t done anything.”

“You’ve saved me a massive headache,” he says with that oh-so-familiar look of confusion squeezed between his eyebrows. “Where else was I going to find a woman and a baby at such short notice?”

I bark a bitter laugh. I know he doesn’t mean it how it sounds, but this is coming from the mouth of someone who’s spent the last two weeks trying to persuade me that I’m special. I mutter, “Nice to know that’s all I’m useful for.”

This is the kind of teasing we’ve been engaging in all week, but it does sting to think that that reallyiswhat I’m here for. WithoutLila, he never would have asked me at all. Without needing a role filled as fast as possible, I would never have crossed his mind again.

It’s stupid, but lately I’ve felt like Ellis and I have been getting to know each other properly, almost like real friends. Like this whole fake marriage thing could nearly work out. Which is ridiculous because I just would never want to marry someone like him, but there’s still part of me that almost wonders what it would be like.

More and more, I keep catching myself thinking about this. Every time I see his face and think about how handsome he is. Every time I notice him smiling at me and Lila. Every time he says something that’s accidentally too kind and he stops himself with the kind of frown you do when you’re throwing up a mask.

He’s decided he has to show everyone a façade of sternness and coldness, but I feel like I’m getting to see the real Ellis, the one underneath all the acts. And it’s felt good.

I know that’s the whole point of the reality show — to trick people into thinking he has feelings — but I can’t help but feel that he actually might. At the very least, he adores Lila. That’s something he isn’t faking.

“Will you help me?” I ask. “She always seems to settle better when you read to her.” His mouth drops open like he’s not sure what to say next. I love taking him by surprise like this. It humanizes him. “It’s okay if you don’t want to.”

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