Page 9 of Just My Fake Husband

Why couldn’t Gabriel Tate have been a little nicer?

I’m not asking for much. Just less entitled.

He’s all I can think about now, as I enjoy my backyard with my best friend, Jana, and my older sister, Skye. Typically, we can’t be outside much in August because it’s not good for Skye to overheat, but we’re enjoying the cloud cover and cool breeze.

And sidenote: Yes, my parents liked their nature names. Sometimes I wonder if we’d had a brother, would he be named Forest? Or Elm? Or Rock?

Anyway, I’m trying not to think of Gabriel. I want to soak this all in—the patio wind chimes, the weeping willow with its magical branches nearly kissing the grass, the smell of mom’s roses. They’re yellow with a blush of pink on the edges. “Strike itRich” is the variety, something that always made me laugh in its irony.

Skye and I are sonotrich that, in just a few days, our house will be officially sold and we’ll be moving out.

Someone like Gabriel Tate coming to ask me to work on a secret project for him would normally be cool. And would pay well—not a minute too soon.

In the end, I couldn’t do it. He made me all flared up and agitated, and it became a question of integrity. I can’t support something I don’t know enough about.

It doesn’t help that I opened my heart to him near the rafters of Longdale High School’s auditorium as a teen and hedidn’t even remember mewhen I got the courage to bring it up later. I’m starting to rethink this whole angelic persona he has. I mean, who even came up with that in the first place?

Finally, I give in to his omnipresence in my mind and regal his visit to Jana, swearing her to secrecy. She’s doing what any true friend would do: gasping, oohing, and aahing at all the appropriate times.

“And then I told him I had a meeting, so he needed to go.” I raise my chin.

She bumps out a shoulder like,Oooh. Burn!“And did you really have a meeting or was that just a power move?”

“Oh, I was dripping with power moves, Jana, don’t you worry about that. I did have to go to a meeting but not for work.” I pause. “That’s when I went over to Caring Souls.”

“Gotcha.” Jana’s expression clouds. “How did that go?” The thing is, Jana probably already knows how it went. Same old, same old.

I drop my head in my hands. The skin of my arms is crisscrossed with lines from where I’ve been leaning on the weathered outdoor tabletop. My gaze goes to Skye, who’s four years older than me. She tucks a lock of her short hair behindher ear as she bends towards her dog. She’s trying to teach Lunch Lady Liz, a King Charles Cavalier, a complicated trick, but then giving her treats even when she doesn’t do it correctly. Skye named her after her favorite employee from her elementary school days.

“They’re saying it’s going to be sixty grand, Jana. I told them I couldn’t right now but asked them not to take me off the list yet.”

“I can talk to Antonio to see if there’s anything he can do?” Jana’s worked as a nurse at Caring Souls, a group home for adult women with disabilities, for years. But this is something she can’t fix.

“Antonio was there, in the meeting. I know he wants to help, but his hands are tied. Caring Souls is out of reach for people like us.”

“Well, it shouldn’t be.” Jana’s cheeks grow pink. “I bet he suggested you call the government, huh? Maybe he’s still heartbroken you wouldn’t date him in college and that’s why he doesn’t have any better ideas.”

“If by government, you mean the subsidized place in Boulder, then yeah. And I’m on their wait list. But it’s too far away and there aren’t nearly as many resources.” I rotate my head to pop my neck. Skye gets all the chiropractic budget because she needs it more than I do. “And please. Antonio isn’t and hasn’t ever been heartbroken over me.”

He and I reconnected as friends when he moved to Longdale last year. Not that we hang out, since I don’t exactly have time for that kind of thing. But Skye gets to go to Caring Souls’ free programs a couple of times a week, and so I sometimes see him. He’s only ever been a friend.

“Why you don’t see it is a complete mystery, but whatever. And I know about the place in Boulder. I did clinicals there,” Jana says. “You can’t send her to Boulder.” Her lashes flutter as she rolls her eyes. “I mean, they’re fine. If it came to that, Skye wouldbe fine there. But—” she squeezes her eyes shut. “You can’t send her to Boulder.”

I know what Jana’s saying. The place in Boulder is . . . fine. But Caring Souls is in Tollark, the next town over from Longdale. It’s close, and it’s the cream of the crop.

Besides, Skye has her heart set on going to Caring Souls. She has friends there. She’s been asking for two years, and for two years I’ve said no. I’m responsible for her. Even though I’m younger, I’ve had guardianship over her ever since our parents died.

The thought of letting her go live in a group home is laughably stupid. There wasno wayI was going to allow that. She wasn’t ready, and still isn’t. But our neighbor, the one I’ve been paying to come spend several hours a day with Skye, is moving across the country. And Skye simply cannot be left alone all day while I’m at work.

My parents gave it all they had for their child with an intellectual disability, providing her with everything she needed to excel in all the ways she could. There were no limitations in their eyes. They were Skye’s biggest cheerleaders.

And they were killed in a small airplane crash three and a half years ago.

So there’s that.

The moment we were told the horrific news, I made up my mind. I couldn’t process anything until I told myself I would take care of Skye. I would be her champion, like Mom and Dad were. And even through the nightmare of having to bury both of my parents when I was twenty-four years old, that thought kept me going.

I have to be okay for Skye.

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