Page 58 of Their Greatest Strength

Blakely.

Blakely is in my bed.

Blakely is in my bed sleeping.

She’s got the covers up and tucked beneath her chin, her fingers gripping onto it for dear life even in sleep. Like she’s scared someone will try and take them from her.

My muscles loosen as I bring a knuckle to the curve of her ear and nudge a few strands of hair behind it. She doesn’t so much as twitch, completely shut off to the world.

I’m happy she’s fallen asleep. I know she’s been up late since she moved in. She might think that she’s quiet while pacing up and down the hallway or that I can’t sense her sitting behind her bedroom door when she thinks I’ve gone to bed.

I won’t tell her differently.

Her finding my bedroom—mybed—somewhere safe enough to fall asleep is dangerous to a guy like me.

The type who falls in love easily and without restraint. I’m the guy who banters with a woman for a few hours and asks, “What are we?” It’s easy to fuck around and keep things surface-level with someone who doesn’t tickle that special space in your chest upon first meeting. You put on a smirk and cage your heart for a few hours, reminding yourself that this isn’t the one.

The first time I met Blakely, I felt that tickle.

But the Blakely from that first night is somehow so different from this one.

There are so many pieces of her that I’m trying to fit together into one beautiful picture. Just when I think I’ve figured them all out, she goes and throws in another, like leaving me dinner on the off chance I went to the fridge when I got home.

I like to joke around, but with her, I have wondered if it could potentially lead to more than that. And that’s exactly why I need this wedding to come as soon as possible. Every single piece of her that I’ve seen has intensified that tickle.

Maybe if I’m reminded of why we’re doing this, it won’t feel so much like playing house and more like what it’s supposed to be. A business transaction that ended up budding into a friendship along the way.

It would never turn into anything other than with Blakely. Entertaining the idea of any variation of a future with her when I know she’s unavailable will only hurt me in the long run.

Without stripping further, I turn and leave the room, content to sleep just about anywhere else.

It’s barelydaybreak when I thump my fist against the door of my brother’s hotel suite. I’m still in my wrinkled suit and haven’t so much as brushed my teeth. I stink like booze and a long night ofoverthinking.

The hotel manager gave me a weird look when I passed him on my way up here, and I didn’t have it in me to try and convince him that I’m not always this weathered.

I woke this morning in the hall outside of my room and booked ass here. With my head a bit clearer, I knew I needed to warn my brother about the news breaking tomorrow. It’s not an ideal bomb to drop the day afterhiswedding, but it’s that or I keep it inside for the next few months.

Footsteps stomp behind the door before it’s whipped open. Oliver’s scowl is in its proper place when he glares at me.

“Did you miss the memo where it’s the day after my wedding? You’re not supposed to bug me today,” he grunts.

The up-and-down look he gives me is enough of a sign that I look as bad as I suspected. Oh well, he can deal with it.

“Sorry, that rule doesn’t apply to me. This is an emergency. Now, scoot and let me in,” I say, trying to weasel my body between his and the speck of a gap available for me to enter the suite.

He sets a hand on my shoulder and gives me a light shove backward. “What’s wrong with you?”

Out in the open like this, I can’t exactly confide in him. There’s too much at stake if the wrong person is too close.

“Oh, you know. Nothing much.”

“Don’t play with me today, Jamieson.”

I attempt to look past him into the suite at where Avery sits watching us, but he takes a step in front of me and scowls.

“I don’t want to talk about it in the hall, Oliver. Let me in so nobody else hears this,” I plead, dropping my voice in the hope that he can sense my desperation.

“Keep your eyes off my wife,” he warns before finally letting me in.

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