Page 147 of The Ruse

Why did all my friends have to be so happy and in love right now? First, it was Carter and Ava. Then Mack and Cambrielle. Now Elyse and Asher.

Didn’t anyone want to stay single these days?

I sighed. Okay, so maybe I didn’t actually want to be single, either.

I started walking toward the stage exit so I could find my seat before the show started. Nash walked away from the hair and makeup station, wearing his Phantom mask and suit, and when he noticed Elyse and Asher join the circle, his shoulders drooped.

So maybe I wasn’t the only one of our friends who was feeling utterly single two weeks before Valentine’s Day.

Though, knowing Nash, once the show wrapped and he had time to focus on something other than being the best Phantom a high school drama program had ever seen, he’d probably find another girl to crush on.

I didn’t know if that was a good or a bad trait—to fall in and out of love so easily. But it kept him from pining after someone he was constantly around but forbidden from dating for the past nine months.

Yay for having a dad who kept too close of tabs on what might or might not be happening in my dating life.

I swore he had a spy at the school, watching and reporting my every move.

I exited the stage and went into the auditorium through the side doors. I looked around the audience for a few seconds before my eyes caught on a brown-haired boy wearing a maroon hoodie waving at me.

I waved back at Hunter, so he’d know that I saw him. Hugging my notebook to my chest, I walked down the aisle to take the seat he’d saved for me between him and Mack.

“Get some good stuff for your article?” Hunter asked in a hushed voice, holding my seat down so I could sit.

“Yeah,” I said. “New York Times, here I come.”

“You know it.” Hunter chuckled.

The lights in the auditorium dimmed and the overture the orchestra had been playing ended just as the curtains opened to reveal a scene on the stage that looked like an auction.

As the scene started and Asher’s character placed a bid on a music box, I took off the jacket I’d been wearing and settled into my seat.

And as my friends and classmates put on the show they’d spent months perfecting, I tried to keep my focus on the stage instead of looking at the way Hunter’s hand rested on the arm rest between us.

I forced myself not to think about how easy it would be to slip my hand into his and pretend like we were more than friends, and that my dad wasn’t set on arranging a marriage between me and the son of the wealthiest man in his congregation.

If I could just not think about any of that for one night and enjoy the musical, then maybe I could have at least one night where I didn’t feel like I was trapped living a life I didn’t get to choose for myself.

BONUS EPILOGUE

ELYSE

FOUR YEARS LATER

“Time to wake up, Mrs. Park,” Asher whispered after the alarm on my phone went off for the third time.

“Just a few more minutes,” I said, snuggling even closer to my husband who had curled up behind me when my alarm went off the first time. “The wedding doesn’t even start until five. We still have like seven hours until then.”

“Yes,” he said next to my ear in the low voice that I absolutely loved. “But your spa day starts in twenty minutes.”

Ugh. He was right.

I sighed and turned around to face Asher. I couldn’t help but smile whenever I looked at him because even after being married to him for two years, he was still my favorite human in the whole world. And waking up next to him was one of my favorite parts of the day. “We can just tell everyone we got in late last night and needed more sleep.”

Asher chuckled and brushed away some of the hair that had fallen over my eyes. “We’re at your dad’s house. Everyone already saw us get here last night. And they know we went to bed at nine.”

“Well, we didn’t actually go to sleep until eleven, so I’m still tired and deserve to stay in bed a little longer.”

“You gonna tell your dad and Mack about why we were up so late last night?” He arched an eyebrow. “Because I think your dad still likes believing that his little girl thinks boys have cooties.”

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