Page 10 of Faking Ever After

“Got it,” Finn said and gave a light salute.

We got off the plane a short time later. To Finn’s surprise, an immigration officer waited for us by the car, and Hank handled the details. The car that had been waiting for us was a black SUV with dark windows, big seats for extra comfort, and drinks in the cooler under the armrest. The ride was short enough that I barely opened another bottle of water before we had to get out.

Along the way, I told Finn about my family. “Mom’s the one you have to watch out for. Dad is chill enough that he wouldn’t notice if you got recast midway through our stay. But Mom is going to be skeptical no matter what. You need to stay on high alert around her.”

“Got it. And Emily?” he asked.

“My sister could go either way,” I admitted. “If she suspects something, she’ll think it would be funny to tell everyone.”

Finn mouthed their names.Alicia, Lawrence, Emily. “Very well. I’ll be careful. Is there anyone else I need to know about?”

“Aunt Judith,” I said after a moment of consideration. “There’s an ever-so-delicate chance that she has someone in mind to match me with.”

Finn gasped in outrage. “Not on my watch.”

The car glided along the winding roads between the airport and the town of Mykonos until it pulled up in front of a villa with a large welcome sign that said its name wasHermes. Finn followed my lead as I got out of the car and let the hot air ruffle my hair and lift my blazer. Sunshine kissed my face in welcome and I inhaled a lungful of warm air that carried the scents of sea salt and summer adventure in equal measure.

“Let me guess,” Finn said as he stood shoulder to shoulder with me, facing the sprawling landscape of the villa’s front yard and the white plaster with blue window frames and blinds that rose three stories high. “We’re not sharing a room with seven other families.”

“You are correct,” I replied.

Finn nodded with a healthy dose of pride. “I’m getting the hang of this rich-as-Crassus thing.”

We marched across the green lawn to the front door, looking over our shoulders once to inspect the blue horizon and the strip of the town by the coast far below us. Positioned high above it all, Hermes boasted seven en-suite bedrooms.

When the staff showed us to our suite, I didn’t dare ask why there wasn’t another room prepared for Finn. If the word got out to someone connected to my family on Naxos, the entire plan was in shambles. So I thanked our guide politely, tipped, and shut the door of our large bedroom before leaning against it. “Oh God, this is already becoming too much.”

Finn was eying the bed suspiciously. “Who gets this bed, then?”

“You’re welcome to take it,” I said. The bed was on the far left side of the immense room. There was a sitting area on the right end. I was happy to crash on the sofa for one night before heading out in the morning. In between the two ends of the room, there was a desk under the window with a comfortableoffice chair and space for work. I had no plans of getting too comfortable here. Hopefully, we would get one last moment of peace before the chaos of my family descended upon us tomorrow.

“Do you mind if I shower first?” Finn asked.

I was sure I could find a few other bathrooms if I needed to shower. “Not at all.”

Finn nodded his thanks. “Showering on the plane is just weird to me. I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

I almost said he would get used to it, but then I remembered that we had a two-week expiration date. “It’s all yours,” I said, gesturing at the bathroom.

Finn bit his lip excitedly and I felt something like a wave of lightness in my chest. Just as he slipped through the open arch from the bedroom into the bathroom, I could hear his shocked “Oh. My. God!” He poked his head through the arch. “Have you seen this thing?”

I followed him to a fairly standard bathroom for this sort of place. It had a very spacious walk-in shower, a separate hot tub, and two matching sinks under a wall-to-wall mirror. A door at the far end led into the restroom. “Neat,” I said.

I couldn’t help but feel a trace of delight that was so plain on his face. It wormed its way into my heart. Though I often told myself I wasn’t a victim of lifestyle inflation beyond what was necessary, I found that, at times, I forgot what it had been like to be struggling.

“Neat?” Finn demanded in a squeaky voice. “Are you kidding me? This is more than the average room I get when I travel alone.” Finn closed his eyes gently and inhaled, forming a plan. When he looked at me, there was a fiery determination with a hint of mischief in his warm, hazel gaze. “Don’t call me out unless there’s a fire. And even then, I’ll be showering, so maybe I’ll be fine regardless.”

“Duly noted,” I said, struggling to keep laughter out of my tone. “Enjoy your shower.”

Finn let out a whimper that was so pleased it gave me unholy thoughts and made my face heat up. I retreated from the bathroom before I could turn red. There was no door separating the two rooms, so I searched my luggage as soon as I heard the water hitting the tiles. My portable speaker was in one of the suitcases and I had to dig through several neatly stacked piles of clothes before I found it. I hooked it up to my phone and put on some music to give Finn a bit of extra privacy. What I didn’t expect was to hear Finn singing Starship’sNothing’s Gonna Stop Us Nowfrom the top of his lungs. For a guy who walked the Earth as if he might pluck the stars from the sky if only someone told him he couldn’t, Finn did not have a voice that won karaoke competitions. Instead, he had absurd confidence and a total lack of care about anyone’s opinion. And frankly, it was just as good.

I busied myself running through some reports Kim had sent to me. Reviewing various pitches from last week’s meetings was as good a way to pass the time as any. But as Finn sang from the top of his lungs and as I struggled to read the paragraphs beaming from my tablet, I decided it was a futile effort. Simply listening to him was far more enjoyable than it should have been.

I’d never have the balls to do that, I thought. Despite once meeting the President and having to face CEOs at the top of their game all the time, I easily reverted to the shy person I had been in college and before. When someone walked with confidence, I stepped out of the way. This applied to every facet of my life except around the negotiating table, and the attitude I had there was something I had to fake for a long time before it came true.

My playlist went from one song to the next on shuffle mode until it returned to the very beginning. Only then did I realize that Finn had known the lyrics to every single song. Also, hehad been showering for almost an hour. When he stepped out, singing his heart and soul off, my heart quickly climbed into my throat. His black hair was wet, drops of water covered his sculpted chest and abs, his shoulders were broader than his clothes had allowed me to see before, and he only wore a towel. Holding a hairbrush in one hand, he sang into it like he owned the world.

“I love this song,” he exclaimed when the instrumental part allowed him a moment of rest.

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