Page 28 of Faking Ever After

“The moussakaisgetting cold,” Emily said.

We walked out to joyful laughter. My mother was telling Finn about the trip to Peru she and Dad had made last year. The punchline of the story was that they almost missed the tour to Machu Picchu on their last day because they were reinventing the passion in their marriage. When Finn made the grave mistake of asking how exactly they did that, Dad had the honor of introducing Finn to the art of Shibari.

“…and I believe that’s enough of that,” I said politely.

Mom scoffed. “Always so conservative, our Percy.”

“He’s just shy, darling,” Dad disagreed in a rare example of not adding fuel to Mom’s fire. In return, Mom pulled away the grape that had been hovering before Dad’s lips and ate it herself.

“How are you coping on this fine evening?” I asked Finn.

“Perfectly, my love,” Finn replied, making my heart jitter. “We’re crying tears of laughter.” He looked at me, doe-eyed and loving and with a zing of mischief. “Did you have a nice…shower?” The corners of his lips curled for a heartbeat. Thankfully, I didn’t have to endure the embarrassment for too long because I was about to explode in a ball of fire. Finn turned his attention back to my dad. “And Lawrence, I would love to know how you and Alicia got into Shibari. That’s so fascinating.”

“I’d like to die now, please,” I whimpered, but the Reaper was nowhere near me. Instead, Emily kept throwing me significant glances, Finn dialed up his curiosity in Shibari, my parents admitted to having photographs in their private collection—Nektaria confirmed this as Dad’s office required dusting three weeks ago—and Aunt Judith expressed disappointment that her Benny wasn’t arriving tomorrow.

In all this, I craved the anonymity of the city beach that Finn and I had enjoyed earlier, and I wondered if there was any chance we could do that again tomorrow, especially with the fact that he had very likely overheard my shower activities.

All in all, this vacation was going precisely as I had expected. I only wished I knew how to enjoy it before the surprises started piling up.

Finn, for his part, seemed to fit into his role as naturally as if we’d been dating for years. His hand was never far from mine on the dining table, more often than not, touching me in that soft, casual way of one who did it by instinct, seemingly unaware of the act. He threw those big glances at me that made me heat up despite releasing some of the frustration an hour earlier. And when he leaned in to plant a kiss on my cheek after Dad made a particularly stingy joke on the account of my dating history, the fire remained on my skin long after his lips were away.

“Sweet as a muffin,” Emily pointed out loudly, and everyone took it up.Muf-Finnquickly became a thing that existed in my head and I had to live with it for the rest of my days. And the more I looked at him, the more fitting the name appeared.

Whenever our gazes met, something odd and wild happened inside my chest. I had been so busy keeping Finn away from the wildest of my family’s outrageous antics that I had forgotten to notice him truly. The real Finn, the one sitting next to me and speaking loudly and bluntly and with the same openness the rest of the people around the table exhibited, was a very lovely man. He wasn’t just cute and sexy. He was wonderful.

Oh, Kim, I thought as I hid my uncertain smile in a wine glass.You really delivered on that promise to make me date again, no matter the means. You really screwed me with this one. But I couldn’t find it in me to regret it. Watching him be the dazzling guy that he was turned into a reward on its own. For better or worse, we were stuck, and he was the sweetest muffin I’d ever met.

I decided, then and there, that Finn’s dedication to the part he played deserved a reward. It was only a matter of finding the right way to deliver it.

CHAPTER 11

Finn

The numberone lesson any potential fake boyfriend accompanying Percy to a family function needed to learn, was that dinners didn’t so much begin and end as they were interrupted by the rest of life’s events in their perpetual duration.

Dinners were a way of life. Everything else was a chore.

This particular dinner—if a historian were inclined to draw its beginning line, it would be after Percy had pleasured himself a little too loudly in the shower and sent me running before a temptation to undress and wait for him won me over and when everyone else woke up from their afternoon nap—drew on for longer than I was used to.

Alicia and Lawrence shared some incredible insights on human anatomy, then some surprising ones about knots that would have made most sailors scratch their heads. Throughout it all, wisps of vapor were rising from Percy’s ears. He was so red that I was surprised when Nektaria didn’t put the leftover moussaka on his head to keep it warm.

After the initial round of eating, which was done at a much more deliberate pace, we transitioned to that lazy, leisurely activity of reaching over for another olive or a piece of cheeseor more honey-drizzledfetacrustas. It was the time when we washed every other bite down with a sip of red wine. We no longer sat around the big dining table but scattered around the beautiful terrace Percy had bought for his parents to enjoy.

For all his blushing and moaning in protest, Percy Davenport was well aware that romance was alive and thriving in his parents’ lives. He had bought them a house that was simply made to amplify everyone’s emotions, be those of love or mere lust. I was experiencing some of that phenomenon where the Greek sun kisses you and it feels like Cupid shot you right through your heart.

Percy was currently engaged in a conversation with Judith, who had excused herself to make a phone call some minutes earlier, telling a woman that her Percy had always been an eligible bachelor, but she failed to mention that Percy’s loving boyfriend was currently here with him as well. Percy, stepping up, decided to put a stop to it. If he succeeded, Aunt Judith wouldn’t try to marry him off in the next two, maybe three hours.

Alicia and Lawrence had decided to take a short break from eating in order to enjoy the infinity pool. Alicia swam away elusively from her husband, who was so elegantly suave in the water with his combed hair, pencil mustache, and hairy chest, that it was no wonder his wife swam closer and closer as he lounged at the edge. When he barked and growled and buried his head in her neck, Alicia’s arms flailing through the water and splashing it everywhere, her laughter pealing toward the darkening sky, I knew then it was time to look away.

With a huff, Emily plopped down on the soft cushion beside me, curling one leg under her butt and holding a glass of wine in her hand. Lightly curled locks of brown hair fell stylishly over her brow and the sides of her head. She had this effortless beauty I envied slightly somewhere deep in that part of my heart. Shealso had that knowing smile and humor-filled eyes. “My brother says you’re a rocket surgeon.”

I swallowed my wine a moment before I risked choking on it. “Open rocket surgeon, if you would.”

“Impressive,” Emily said.

I cocked an eyebrow playfully. “It’s an underappreciated discipline.” We shared a laugh as I looked at the darkening orange horizon. “Ah, no, I’m kind of between jobs,” I sighed.I went from a thief to a liar, I thought. “Percy’s so supportive, you know. He doesn’t want me…” Words hitched in my throat. What was I doing here? “…doesn’t want me working from dawn to dusk if it’s not something that fulfills me.” I buried my nose into my big wine glass and took a deep gulp of the crackling dry vintage.

Emily didn’t scrutinize my words or my behavior. She looked at the setting sun just like me. “And what fulfills you, Finn?”

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