Page 36 of Broken Grump

“. . . Fine.” If that helps her reconcile her negative feelings with me, so be it.

“Addie? What do you say?” Steven inquires after a few moments of silence have passed.

“Um.” I haven’t seen her do it in years, but she’s biting away at her fingernails.

“Do I need to get the Bitrex?” I joke, knowing fully well that’s the bitter gel or whatever that her mother used to put on her nails to curb the habit when she was a kid.

“Shut up!” she says like a pubescent teen as she pulls her hands away from her mouth and holds them behind her back.

“In all seriousness,” I continue, changing my tone. “I need you in this with me, Addie. And I need you to commit one hundred percent. So, please don’t agree to this lightly. You simply can’t.”

I’m far enough that I can’t hear it, but I can still see her take a deep breath in and out.

“If it helps to think of it this way, you’ll be keeping your mother’s grubby little hands away from your abuelo’s fortune. I mean, if we can pull this off, she’ll have no right to it. Right?” I ask with my attention on the attorney in the room.

He bounces his head from side to side but admits, “Yeah.”

“So? What do you say?”

“I don’t know!” She looks up at the ceiling and chews on the side of her cheek.

“Addie, it’s all going to be fake.” I’d be lying if I said her apparent struggle and disinterest in being in a real relationship with me didn’t hurt. But I can’t afford to dwell on something so silly and selfish right now. “Completely fake,” I reiterate.

Steven chimes in and backs me up. “As Hayden was saying, this is the first step to securing your inheritance.”

“Yes, exactly.” I want to grab him and kiss his scruffy face in appreciation of him being her voice of reason. “And this is the perfect property. I mean, you saw it.”

“How long? How long with the charade have to last?”

“Only long enough to get the paperwork signed,” I answer.

“Fine. But my daughter is not to be involved in any way, shape, or form.”

Shit. That’s right.I haven’t thought about the adorable kid who burst into Salvador’s office the other day in a minute.

“Well? That’s a hard boundary for me, Hayden.”

I throw my hands up. “Okay, okay. That’s fair.”

Her jaw is clenched as she asks, “You promise?”

“I promise. In fact, Steven? Can you draw up a contract for each of us to sign?”

“Uh. Um, I mean—” he stutters. “There’s no real legal standing to enforce such an agreement in a court of law.”

“It doesn’t need to be. But I just want something that will ensure Addie that my intentions are pure and that I won’t go against any of herboundaries, as she said.”

He scrubs the sides of his face with his fingernails before finally agreeing to it.

Chapter twelve

Addie

I still can’t believeI agreed to any of this, but here I am back at the subsidiary company the next morning.

“Ugh,” I exclaim as I park my car and unbuckle my seatbelt.

As if being around Hayden Cohen wasn’t already going to be tough enough. Now, I have to actively pretend to be in a loving, faithful relationship with him.

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