Page 25 of Accidental Fiancé

“I’m all ears.”

Chapter 10

Julian

Maggie waited with bated breath for my next bad idea. I had practically choked to get the first one out so saying this one out loud just might end me.

I chugged the last of my coffee to buy time. No going back now. She already agreed to be my fake fiancée for the party. My chest tightened from the war going on inside. A part of me knew this was a big mistake, that lying was never the right way to do things. But the other part of me—the part that hated the disappointed looks on my family’s faces—knew this was the only way to get past their nonsense. A week ago, I had considered hiring an actress for the party to pretend to be my girlfriend. At least with Maggie, we had a shared history. I was hopeful that would make things easier and more believable.

I knew this was an absurd idea, but ever since I saw Maggie again, doing absurd things had become the norm. What was one more?

“The thing is, Piper is a very astute little girl. She notices things other people her age don’t, always watching, always thinking. She pays too much attention at times, and if I show up with someone she’s never even met, that could ruin the?—"

“What are you saying, Jules? Just spit it out.”

“Move in with us.”

She coughed on her orange juice. “What?”

“I have a few spare bedrooms, so I’m not asking anything inappropriate. I’m not asking you to sleep in my bed with me. I know we agreed to one night.”

“That’s not why I choked.”

“If you stay with us, it’ll give you and Piper time to get to know each other, so when you’re at the party, we can pass for a real couple, and Piper won’t think anything of it.”

Maggie sat back. “That’s a lot to ask, Jules.”

“I know. I told you—stupid ideas aplenty over here. But that’s why I’m good at business.”

“I don’t see the connection.”

“I have a lot of ideas, some good, some bad. Part of my success comes from saying the stupid shit out loud to get to the good stuff.”

She smirked. “I can see how that would be helpful.”

“Think of it as an all-expenses-paid vacation, only you’ll be spending time with a kid, getting to know her.”

Her smirk fell. “Truth is, I could use one of those. A vacation, that is. I’m about to lose my apartment and I am going to have to move back in with my parents.”

“Oh shit, Maggie, I didn’t know. I’m sorry.” I could not imagine moving back in with my mom at this age. The woman was a treasure, but fully grown children living with their parents was a great way to destroy families. Between her gossipy friends driving me up the wall and her utter lack of common sense, I doubted our relationship would survive such a thing.

“The only people who know are Nora and my parents. It’s not exactly my finest hour, so I don’t talk about it much. Nora was kind enough to offer me a job at her law firm but I don’t know anything about law. Besides, I don’t want to be a burden on her like that.”

“What did she plan to have you do?”

She rolled her eyes. “She wanted to hire me as a food and beverage consultant.”

I thought about that for a moment. “Pretty sure that’s not a standard job at a law firm.”

“No, it is not. It was a bullshit title so she’d have an excuse to pay me way too much money for making cupcakes and pastries for her office.”

That made me smile. “Sounds like you’ve got an excellent best friend.”

“She puts thebestin best friend. But still, I couldn’t do it. Pride may be stupid but it’s all I have left right now.”

“Then it sounds like you can come to spend the next three-ish weeks with my family.”

Maggie took a deep breath, and when she did, her cleavage threatened the integrity of her robe’s belt, tugging on it as she inhaled. “Yeah. It makes sense. I don’t want Piper to let the cat out of the bag. The week with your family will be stressful enough without that added to it.”

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