Page 118 of The Fiance Dilemma

His smile was as big as it had ever gotten.

“Okay, but listen,” Bobbi said from our side. “I know this feels like the right thing to do. I know you’re honorable and want to come clean or whatever. But you’re not great liars. Just FYI. And no one seemed to care. Ah, wait. Someone does care. The whole freaking internet. So how about we—”

“The wedding is off, Shark.”

This time, the words hadn’t left Matthew.

Andrew had said that.

I turned to glance back at my father, finding his eyes already on me. For a moment, I’d thought he would say something to me. Anything.

He glanced at the PR strategist. “Do whatever is necessary to do your job without using my daughter as a prop. Either of my daughters. Did I not say that?” His face changed in a way I didn’t comprehend. “You had a task, and it wasn’t this. Yet you still lied to me? Knowing she was doing this?”

“But—” Bobbi said.

“We’ll talk about this later.” His frame whirled around, but before setting off he shook his head. “I’m so genuinely sorry, Josie. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go handle things. Just like I should have done from the beginning.”

Bobbi cursed under her breath when Andrew left and for a second she remained rooted to the pink carpet covering the shop’s floor before shooting after him.

Matthew’s arm slid around my shoulders, pulling me into his side. “You good?” he murmured against my hair. I nodded my head. “That was a lot, and you were so brave.”

My lips popped open with an answer, but it was silenced by a cry.

We both turned in time to see Cameron pulling my sister intohis chest much like Matthew had with me. She cried harder still, the occurrence so unlike her, so out of the blue, that it froze both Matthew and me.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Cameron muttered, squeezing another sob out of her. “You’re killing me, love. Just tell them already. Not saying a word is hurting you. And it’s killing me seeing you like this.”

“Tell us?” Matthew asked. “Tell us what?”

It was Adalyn’s face that made my stomach drop with a realization I had been too blind to see.

“I’m so sorry,” Adalyn said against Cameron’s chest before extricating herself out of the man’s body so she could speak. “I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know how without making everything about me. And I didn’t want to intrude or steal anyone’s thunder, so I stayed away.” Her eyes snatched mine. “But you weren’t talking to me like you used to, and I just didn’t know what to do because I was lying and keeping things from you too.”

“Love,” Cameron murmured, placing a kiss on her temple. “You’re not saying the words.”

Adalyn huffed out a strange laugh, tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m pregnant. And I—I—I’m so overwhelmed with happiness and hormones that I seem to be crying all the time.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Adalyn and Cameron stayed the night in Green Oak.

We all bunked at my place. Grandpa Moe included, only he stayed in his room, and this wasn’t anything like the girls’ sleepovers we’d done in the past. Adalyn and I shared my bed. And Cameron and Matthew spent the night camping out in my living room.

Telling the whole story to Adalyn wasn’t easy, especially not when the poor woman was so ridden by her hormones that she seemed to go from happy to sad and back in the blink of an eye. She’d also told me everything I’d missed about her pregnancy, from the moment she’d been late and suspected, to the doctor’s visit when they’d been told the pregnancy was free of risk.

We both cried, though. That strange coincidence—our misguided senses to protect each other by lying—had taken a toll on us both.

Maybe we weren’t particularly good at having a sibling. Good thing was, there was nothing in the world we couldn’t learn to do. At least not when people were as stubborn as we were.

“Are you awake?” she asked.

“Yup,” I answered, rolling on my side so I could face her. She smiled just as a ray of sunshine poured into the room between the blinds. “Pfft, you look so pretty right now it’s almost insulting. I don’t think it’s just the pregnancy, but… happiness. It looks really nice on you.”

“Both you and Cam are full of B.S.” she said, but her eyes betrayed her. “My skin is not glowing any more than it used to.”

I chuckled. “Please. I’m the worst liar in the county. Possibly all of North Carolina. And Cam’s not better. Don’t you remember when he signed both of you up for all of our fall activity brochure and pretended it was some ploy to get revenge? Obvious lie. The man had itsobad.”

Adalyn’s laughter was lighthearted and twice as happy. “I still can’t believe he did that.” A small frown took shape. “And I can’t believe I showed up to goat yoga in heels.”

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