Page 28 of Never Say Yes To Your Fake Husband

“She wanted the best man to win,” Lucas says, agreeing with his brothers and also working them up just a little bit more. The three of them seem to feed off each other.

“I’m sure Sterling has offered to buy out those shares at the maximum value,” I say sweetly. “You can all get millions of dollars for them, put aside whatever rivalry and bad feelings this has caused, and just be happy. Maybe try welcoming me to the family now that you’ve finally found me. This is exactly why Sterling never told anyone who I was. We wanted to keep our romance private since it would make things complicated and vicious. They were already complicated and vicious enough for you all before then, I think, although I’m not sure why. I’d really like to see you all be friends. You’re cousins, but you were raised as brothers. Brothers are supposed to love each other. They’re supposed to give up anything, even their own freedom, to save each other if that’s what’s needed. Above all, they’re supposed to be kind.”

One after the other, each of those dark frowns turns into a look of incredulity as if the concept of love and kindness is so foreign, and I’ve just spoken some kind of alien language.

Tony shakes his finger at us. “This isn’t over, and we’re not leaving town until we prove this is all a farce.”

“Great!” I try to appear genuinely thrilled on the outside, while inside, I’d like to give each of these doofuses a good punt in the bum so they smartened up. Mostly, I’m just really sad for Sterling. He must feel so alone if this is what his remainingfamily is like. Also, Greedy Gretchens is an astoundingly accurate term. “Hopefully, you’ll come over for dinner one night then. Are you sure you don’t want to come in now for tea? I have mint.”

“No, we would not like mint,” Joseph grumbles.

“Wait, I might like—”

Joseph cuts Lucas off with a sharp look. “We don’t like mint, and we don’t like you. We’ll be back. Come on, Lucas. Come on, Toe-Toe.”

They walk off, shaking their heads and mumbling. I distinctly hear Tony tell his brother to stop calling him Toe-Toe because it makes him look like an idiot.

Sterling doesn’t say anything until we’re inside and the door is shut. I almost half wonder if those three bugged the place. I wouldn’t put it past them, so I lean in very close to his ear and whisper in my lowest, softest possible tone. “Are we fucked now, do you think?”

There’s a long pause. It’s longer than I would like, but Sterling doesn’t disappoint. He responds exactly the way I hoped he would because I’m not ready to go down like this. I’m not ready to throw away the past four years, and I’m not ready for him to lose everything he’s spent his whole life working for. Mostly because I think it would kill him, and I can’t let that happen. Sterling might only really have been my husband for the past few days, at least in my mind, or however it goes, but that makes him family, and in my family, we fight for each other and protect each other. And as I said outside, we sacrifice for each other, and we stand together, even when the odds are stacked so high against us that it seems impossible.

“There’s not a chance in hell I’m going down without a fight. If they want a performance, they’ll get one. They’ll get the performance of a lifetime. If you’re in, I’m in.”

It takes me a minute to realize I’m still holding his hand. I don’t let go. “I’m in.”

Chapter fourteen

Weland

After the confrontation on the front doorstep, we stand on the inside of the front door for a long time. I’m not sure how many minutes pass before I get out my phone and do the most logical thing. I call my family and let them know about the three buttholes bearing bad news. The trifecta of buttholes. The arseholios to the power of three. They don’t like it, but at least they’ve been warned, down to a detailed description and the names of all the cousins, including Toe-Toe. You know, just in case he tries to go incognito but decides to use the name he hates the most because, why not?

“Oh no.” I sag against the door after. This is all getting so out of hand. So freaking complicated. I don’t like complicated. I thought my life had enough of that before. I can’t even imagine it now. Sterling’s brows dip down above his nose like a flock of flying geese following the lead geese, except they ate a bunch of fermented something or other and got drunk and aren’t flying in a proper formation.

“I’m scared to ask what you just thought of,” Sterling mutters.

“My friends. None of them know I’m married. We just told my parents, remember?”

“Yes, well, it makes sense. I wanted to keep the marriage a secret to keep you out of the spotlight and keep any and all attention away from us and also to keep my cousins away from you, so you didn’t tell your friends. You only told your family, and you swore them to secrecy. That’s the story we’re going with.”

My sigh could bring down the house. “And what about my students? What if your cousins go sniffing around them and their parents? Would they think I gave their names out? That’s a breach of privacy. People would be angry. Then they’d be doubly angry that I lied to them about being married to someone like you. Or at all. It just makes me look completely dishonest.” I hate that my nose is burning. I’m not going to let those three big hairy toes of cousins make me cry. I’m seriously not. I’m freaking not, and I mean it.

Beans has wandered off and is eating dog food in the kitchen. I can’t see him, but I can hear him crunching. He makes the strangest sounds when he eats, and by strange, I mean entirely adorable. It’s a mrph crunch, mrph crunch noise and then smack, smack, smack, like he’s really enjoying himself. He probably is. The poor thing. I spent a wad on that food, wanting to get something good for him. I focus on those sounds—happy sounds—to ground me instead.

“My cousins won’t mess with your students,” Sterling says.

“How do you know? What if they’re skulking around here and creeping people out? What if they make it so I don’t have any students because people can’t trust me anymore, and my neighborhood is full of buttholes?”

Sterling’s right eye twitches like he just got a fly up his nose and needs to sneeze. I understand the sentiment. I really do.

“I’ll make sure Smitty takes care of them. He’ll hire someone to keep this place secure and chase off the riffraff so they can’t scare your students or creep out their parents.”

“What if they hire someone to clear them out?”

“I’ll hire two people then. Or as many as it takes.” He raises his hand, brings it almost to my shoulder, and pauses when I make a noise in my throat. Then, he tucks it back at his side and doesn’t end up touching me, which is a tragedy. I could use a hug right now.

I’m shocked at how much I’d like a hug right now. A Sterling hug. It makes my heart jump two beats past its regular pattern, which could also be the stress. It’s probably that. My stomach has just about lost the tickly feeling it got when it came to standing next to Sterling or being alone with him. I’m not so focused on that anymore. Now I’m trying to figure out how to get the fuckedupness of this whole thing unfucked.

“Well?” I’m just giving up on trying to make it through this on my own. I have to look to Sterling for my cues now. “What do we do now?” As in, what are our next steps? We talked about a performance, but I’m not sure how to do it. I’m not good at faking anything. Then again, I’ve been selling this for years, even to my family.

---