Page 18 of A Chance for Us
“I’ll sell my body for sex.”
“But not for a fake wedding? Idiot.”
I scoff. “Not for a week of lies.”
Stella looks to the ceiling and then sighs heavily. “I love you, Oliver, but I’m going to have to kill you.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time you’ve threatened it.”
“Why won’t you do this?”
“Why the hell do you think I should?” Of all my siblings, she is the one I thought would be against this. Well, maybe Grayson too. He hates lying more than anyone.
“Because she needs you.” Stella takes both my hands in hers. “She needs you to help her because she loves her dad and doesn’t want him to be sad. The pain in her voice broke my freaking heart, and I know it broke yours too.”
“I don’t have a heart to break,” I say, wishing she would drop this. I don’t want to think about Maren’s eyes and the sadness in them. I don’t want to replay the words and desperation laced in every syllable.
Stella releases my hands. “You’re ridiculous. I don’t get why you won’t at least entertain it.”
“Because it’s crazy, Stella! Pretend to be her fiancé? Fool her family and put on a fake wedding? What happens after when she has to tell everyone it was a lie or that she’s getting a divorce? It’s seriously the most insane shit I’ve ever heard.”
“I mean, yeah, it’s a bit crazy, I’ll agree to that, but it’s also really sweet. You can help her. It’s not like you’re really going to be married and you need to do it so I don’t kill you.”
It just feels fucked up. I have cloaked myself in lies before. I allowed myself to believe relationships were real, convinced myself, and I don’t want to go down that road.
But that’s not this. I guess. It’s all lies, and we know it is.
Then I remember the pain in her voice.
I wanted to help her.
“I know that look,” Stella says.
“What look?”
“The one you use when you don’t want me to see into your bruised soul. You may fool everyone else, Ollie, but you suck at fooling me.”
“You suck at not being annoying.”
She grins. “There it is. The way you deflect with humor. I think something happened that scared you when you saw her and that is why you won’t do it.”
“No, I won’t do it because only an absolutely unhinged person pretends to marry someone for the sake of her dying father.”
“How about for the sake of their business?” she counters.
That’s one part of this that I can’t avoid. If they cancel, we are in some serious trouble. Losing four rooms is bad, but losing the whole wedding event will be a huge issue. It’s the money we needed to push the production schedule up.
“I—”
“Just listen to me,” Stella says with her hand up. “You may not understand her reasons, but they’re valid to a woman. She needs her friend to be her hero, Oliver. You can be that for her. It won’t be like you can’t just walk away at the end of it. You pretend for a bit, give her father the closure he needs, and at the same time, you save the resort from being crushed by financial ruin before we start.” She lifts onto her toes and kisses my cheek. “I love you and know you’ll do the right thing.”
Then she leaves, taking what is left of my self-respect with her.
Six
MAREN
“Oh, honey, stop crying, you’re going to burst a blood vessel,” Devney says as she rubs my back.
