Page 49 of Accidental Fiancé

“I told you I didn't have feelings for him back then.”

She held up her hands like she was about to give up. But I knew Nora. That was never going to happen. “Maybe you didn'thave conscious feelings for him, but can you leave room for the possibility that you had unconscious feelings for him?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You didn't date back in high school.”

“So?”

“Why do you suppose that was? Why do you think you didn't start dating until you were in culinary school? That you never had any interest in any of the boys at our school?”

I shrugged, not sure if I liked where she was headed with this. “I don't know.”

“Maggie, he was your boyfriend in everything but the term and the physicality. There may not have been kissing or handholding or any of that kind of intimacy, but you two were tight as hell. You didn't need a boyfriend. You had him. He was your fake boyfriend years before you were ever his fake fiancée.”

Her words knocked the wind from me. “Oh. Shit.”

She sipped her drink and looked at me with those knowing eyes. “Sorry to be the one to break the news to you. I kind of thought you already knew.”

“I never thought of it that way. I just thought that we were friends.”

“And I'm pretty sure that he thought that building on that friendship would guarantee a good romantic relationship.”

It made sense when she said it but it still hurt. “So you think he was faking a friendship with me that whole time?”

She grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “You know that I am not a fan of the lesser sex, but I will say this for him—he has been a truer friend to you than most people ever have. He has always been there for you in your hour of need. I think you owe it to yourself and to him to work this out. And I cannot believe that I am saying that in favor of a male.”

I snort-laughed. “Me either. It's so unlike you.”

She shrugged. “It's this new therapist. She's got me thinking that men are humans too. Gross, I know.”

“Nora, they're not all bad.”

“After everything you've been through you can actually say that with a straight face?”

“Well, I mean, Mr. Rogers was a man.”

“How do you know that for sure?”

I opened my mouth to speak but found myself frowning instead. She had a point. “Okay, I don't know that for sure, but probably.”

Chapter 18

Julian

“Ithought Maggie was gonna read to me,” Piper said as I tucked her in.

As if I needed another dagger in the heart. “She had to go help a friend. I'm sorry, sweetie. Do you want me to read to you?”

“No.” But her dismayed tone said otherwise.

“I don't mind.”

“Being read to at bedtime is kid stuff.”

“Well, that's okay because you're a kid.”

Still, she shook her head. “I was gonna let Maggie read to me because she wanted to. Not because I needed it.”

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