Page 13 of From Best Friend to Bride
“It’s hardly the rebuttal you’re aiming for, either,” he pointed out. “Face it, Deli. You and I spend so much time together that we’ve denied a romantic relationship hundreds of times. If we sat everyone down and told them that we’ve actually been seeing each other for a few months in secret, nobody would be shocked in the slightest.”
I really, really hated how true that was.
The only time we hadn’t had to deal with accusations of a relationship was when he was engaged to his bitch of an ex. Well, mostly—she often accused us of seeing each other behind her back, but she was a gold-digging lunatic, so I didn’t count her.
“Say you’re right,” I replied. “That’s only going to make things worse. Nana is going to march us to the registry office herself.”
Fred shrugged. “So? You have no romantic prospects, and I’m not interested in dating. It’s only been a few months since Dad died, and I’m still getting used to running everything around here.”
“That makes it worse. Have you forgotten who you are? Anyone who marries you becomes a countess. If I marry you,I’llbe the countess.”
“That did cross my mind,” he said, tilting his head to the side. “But I don’t think that’s a big deal.”
“How is that not a big deal?” My voice squeaked at the end of my sentence. “Think this through!”
“I have.”
“Hardly!”
“Deli.” He reached over and playfully tugged on my ponytail, making me pout. “It makes perfect sense. We can say we we’ve been in a secret relationship for several months because we didn’t want the pressure of our families knowing in case it didn’t work out, but now we’ve decided to come clean given Nana’s diagnosis. We’ve known each other our whole lives, so it won’t be weird if we get married quickly.”
“I hate how much sense that makes,” I mumbled. “But what happens after?”
“We get an annulment. The marriage would be void, meaning you wouldn’t have to deal with holding the title of countess after.”
“You say it like we’d be returning a pair of jeans to the shop. There’s no guarantee we could even get an annulment. Do you really want to risk being a divorcee just because of a whim?”
He smiled. “Of course, we could get an annulment. You can get one if you don’t consummate the marriage.”
Oh.
My cheeks warmed.
“But if you were so inclined…”
“Shut up!” I smacked him with a cushion. “You! Pig!”
“Ow! Ow!” He laughed and grabbed it from me, putting an end to my assault. “I was joking!”
I glared at him. “Don’t. You’ll give me nightmares.”
He tossed the cushion to the other sofa, grinning. “Think about it, Deli. If Nana decides not to get treatment, we both know she probably won’t make it another year. We’ll fake a relationship and get married, then you can move in here, and we’ll annul it when the time comes. We can just live as we do right now as friends.”
“Look, I’m not denying that what you’re saying makes sense and solves the problem, but you’re forgetting two important things.”
“Like what?”
“One, fake relationships never end as amicably as they start. I read romance, you know. What if one of us falls in love?”
Fred raised his eyebrows. “If we were going to fall in love with one another, don’t you think we’d have done it by now?”
“Are you telling me it’s a risk you’re willing to take?”
“In the romances you read, these people end up living together. This place is huge, and we have the annexedapartments. You could just live there, and we wouldn’t see each other any more than we do now.”
Damn it.
“Didn’t two of your friends enter a contract marriage and end up falling in love?” I asked. “The Welsh guy.”
