Page 42 of In this Moment

“I don’t mean to break up this little party,” Gwen said. “But like I said, I’m going to because I need to properly welcome Evie into the McCormick family.” She lunged forward and pulled Evie into a hug. “I know I’m not officially a McCormick myself. At least not yet, but it’s such a great family and we’re all such a tight unit, I’m so glad that Declan has someonetoo.”

Evie felt something twist in her stomach. She hated lying. She hated everything about it. It was bad enough lying to her son, but lying to all of these wonderful people who just wanted to welcome her into their family full of love and unconditional acceptance—it was too much. A tear slipped out of the corner of hereye.

“Oh, don’t cry,” Gwen said. “I know an engagement is always full of all kinds of emotions, but this is a good thing. This family is just so wonderful. And I know it’s overwhelming to plan a wedding—I mean, we haven’t even started,” she added with a wave of her hand, “but I can imagine it will be alot.”

Evie nodded because she didn’t know what else todo.

Thankfully, Declan slipped his arm around her again and pulled her close. “We’re not rushing anything,” he said. “We just got engaged and we want to enjoy the whole process without any pressure.”

“Oh yeah.” Gwen waved her hand. “Of course there’s no pressure.” She laughed. “I mean, you could be like Mitch and Jade and just do it and get it overwith.”

Mitch had proposed to Jade and married her in the same night earlier in the summer. It had been a whirlwind, which Evie was starting to see was a bit of a trend with the McCormick brothers. But she wouldn’t be doing that. In fact, as exciting as it was talking about weddings with Gwen and pretending she was a real part of the McCormick family, she needed to keep reminding herself that she wasn’t. And she wouldn’t be actually joining the family atall.

Even if she wantedto.

“Don’t you guys have to get out there and judge?” She changed the subject altogether and right away Jonah perkedup.

“Yes! Come on, Declan. We have to go.” He tugged on Dec’s hand. “If we’re not there, they’ll cheat.”

“They might,” Dec agreed. He turned to Evie and leaned in close. “You’ll be okay with my family?”

Before Evie could answer, Gwen jumped in. “Of course she will. We’ll take good care ofher.”

Declan looked at Evie for confirmation, but there was no way she was going to say otherwise. She nodded. “Go,” she told them. “Take care of Jonah forme.”

Declan’s smile faded and his face became a mask of seriousness. “Evie. I’ll always take care of Jonah.” She blinked hard and looked into his eyes. “And you,” hesaid.

She almost completely melted right there on thespot.

“Don’t worry.” Gwen grabbed her hand and yanked her to the side. “I’ll make sure she meets everyone and by the time you get back, she’ll be fully integrated into the family. I gotthis.”

Gwen wasn’t kidding when she said that Evie would be fully integrated into the family. By the time Declan and Jonah were done judging the triathletes, and they got back to the dock, not only had Evie been properly introduced to everyone in the family, but she was sitting at a picnic table between Jade and Gwen and was being grilled on wedding details.

Declan’s first instinct was to go to her and help her out. No doubt she would want to be saved from a situation where she had to create stories and perpetuate their lie. But when he got close and overheard the discussion, he stopped himself from intervening and just listened.

“I guess I always dreamed of a mountain wedding,” Evie said. “Something by the river. Simple, but elegant and just…us. A day to celebrate the love we have for each other. Shouldn’t that be what a wedding is about?”

“Absolutely.” Jade jumped in. “That was one of the best parts of our wedding. It was simple but that’s what made it amazing. It was all about us. I mean obviously I’m super biased, but I loved everything about our wedding.”

“That’s because you didn’t have any say in planning it,” Gwen pipedup.

“Maybe.” Jade shrugged. “But even if I had. It was just about the two of us. It wasn’t about anything else, or making anyone else happy or doing any of the crazy stuff for anyone that you think should be done. It was justus.”

“It really was,” Gwen agreed. “It was beautiful and the words you spoke to each other…” She put her hand on her chest. “So romantic. You two surely set the barhigh.”

“So who’s going to be next?” It was Evie who asked the question.

“Not you?” Milena, Cal’s girlfriend, asked.

Evie shook her head. “Not me. I think we’re going to wait and really enjoy the engagement.” Hearing her say that hurt Declan’s heart a little bit. Something had changed between them after their little camping trip. They were closer. More in tune. And it wasn’t only because she was letting him sleep in the bed with her instead of on the couch. And that he was holding her close to him, feeling her skin against his every night.

Maybe that had something to do with it. He wasn’t going to deny that it could be part of it. But they hadn’t had sex again since coming down off the mountain. Not for lack of wantingto.

Declan’s dick twitched in his pants, just thinking about what it felt like to hold her close and wrap his body around hers. He’d had some of the best sleeps of his life with her in his arms. But he knew he would sleep even better if he could turn her over, kiss every inch of her skin and sinkhis—

“Dec! You’re back,” Ian called out to him. He turned his focus from the women, to his brothers who stood by the office, huddled over a sheaf of papers. “Do we have any disqualifications?”

He shook his head, took one last look at his faux fiancée and went to join the guys. “No,” he called. “Everyone was legit. There was some stiff competition out there today. I’m very impressed with all the teams, but Jonah and I didn’t see any infractions. Did we, Jonah?”

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