Page 42 of Accidental Fiancé

I understood the kind of work that went into keeping a family together, or in our case, gluing it back together. My parents never had an easy time with money, so I understood the value of hard work, too. Life wasn’t easy for people like us.

So how in the hell did I end up sleeping in a mansion on the beach? Throughout the night, I replayed the events of the past few days, trying to figure out the point where I screwed up. This had become more than just a favor for a friend. And the scarypart was my heart wanted exactly that, it wanted things with Julian to be more.

He had saved me from Chloe and Harmony. But that was what friends do for each other. The mistake came when I blurted out that we were engaged, when I let him kiss me, when I went up to his penthouse suite…

The guys I dated couldn’t bribe their way into a penthouse suite much less afford one. That room, that night, everything that happened in it… it all felt like a dream. That was someone else’s fantasy that came true, not mine. Real-life fantasies like that didn’t happen to girls like me.

I didn’t live in a fantasy world. I didn’t even daydream about things like that. My feet were firmly planted on the ground. That was how it had to be otherwise I’d be setting myself up for disappointment. My motto was: keep your nose clean, eyes on the prize, don’t deviate from the plan, and you’ll be fine.

Dad always said stuff like that and Mom concurred. That was how they paid for their house, how they afforded a vacation every couple of years, how they lived their lives. Simple. Below their means. They firmly believed that was the way to get ahead. They taught me to stand on my own two feet and not depend on anyone but myself.

But then my bakery burned down. No amount of keeping my eyes on the prize or sticking to a plan could have prevented my dreams from going up in smoke. It was a freak accident, according to the investigators. They dragged their feet on the insurance payment, as meager as it was. It would take a long time for me to save up enough money to start over.

Maybe I was being naïve but the fire shook my worldview. I was so focused on the plan—get my bakery established and popular enough to open a second then a third, eventually branching out into a chain of them. Made-from-scratch delicious pastries bringing smiles to anyone that ate them. I’d build a lifeout of making other people happy while doing what I loved. It was as close to perfect as I could ever imagine.

And then poof. All gone.

Mom and Dad didn’t know how to help get me through it, either. They were just as shocked as I was when the fire happened; all of those years of careful planning and execution going up in smoke, pun intended. Mom simply told me, “Move in with us, and we’ll figure out a new game plan together.”

That was it. My Plan B was figuring out a new plan. I had never allowed myself to have a Plan B before or to think about failure because as Dad would say, “That’s quitter talk. You gotta believe in yourself, kiddo.” But no amount of positive thinking would rebuild my bakery.

I hadn’t told my parents I was staying with Julian. I wasn’t sure how they’d react to me living in a short-term situation, especially one so glamorous. Hell, when I was a kid, they didn’t like it when I watched shows with wealth or magic in them because they said it gave me the wrong impression, that life was easy. I grew up on documentaries and the History Channel instead.

Nothing but reality for the Bryant’s, they told me.

The reality at Julian’s was my sheets were cool and smooth, and felt delicious on my skin. The mattress was firm and comfy. The canopy danced in the ocean breeze. I listened to the sound of the waves echoing through my room as they lapped at the cliffs below, which sat approximately ten feet above a tiny private beach. A wooden stair path led down to it and I loved it.

For a few brief and wonderful moments, I could believe this was my home.

But that wasn’tmyreality. Last night I wanted to buy into the fantasy of slipping into Jules’ family,Jules’reality, and that hurt more than I realized it could. This was not my world, and I had to remember that, no matter how nice it felt to lose myself in it.

In my world, parents couldn’t hire Olympic athletes to teach their kids to swim. People didn’t pass out credit cards like candy or rent someone an SUV so they had better safety features. Buying someone an entire wardrobe as payment for a simple favor was something people in my world only saw on TV.

Being in Julian’s home was like playing make-believe with an adult-sized dollhouse. None of it was real. But itfeltreal, and that was the problem. Because last night, for just a moment, I let myself believe that it was.

I threw the covers back, got dressed, and headed for the kitchen. I needed to bake some feelings out. Today felt like a bagel day, so I pulled out my trusty stand mixer. Between letting them rise and boiling them before the bake, it took a while to get them right. But a fresh homemade bagel was well worth the effort.

Once the first batch was ready, a pair of curious noses came trudging down the hall. Julian’s hair was still rumpled, which made him all the sexier. “You made bagels?”

“Yep. There’s cream cheese in the fridge.”

“Damn, girl, my trainer is going to love you.” He swung the door open and bent at the waist, making his muscular ass stick out just a little. He did not have that ass in high school.

“That’s great because I think I love him too. There’s lox underneath the cream cheese.”

“You’re my hero.” He grabbed both, and we set up a bagel station on the kitchen island bar.

Piper devoured her breakfast without a word. Moments later, she went back to bed.

“Is she okay?”

He nodded. “She has night terrors. According to her doctor, it’s best if I let her work out her own sleep schedule. We tried a strict one before, and that only made them worse.”

“Poor thing.”

“What do you have on tap for the day?”

I wasn’t used to telling someone my plans, and even though it was an innocent question, I still bristled at it. “I think I’m going to hang out here today. Get more acquainted with my surroundings. I haven’t been to the third floor yet?—"

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