Page 128 of The Proposal Pact
“Speaking of your troublemaker twin! Where is she? No doubt this was her brilliant idea!”
“No!” Sophie shouts, getting out of her chair. “No! Grace doesn’t know. In fact”—he gives me that glare again—“no one knows. And we’d like to keep it that way.”
“Why?” Vassar looks from her to me.
“Because it will ruin everything. Please, Vassar, you can’t tell Grace or anyone else while you’re here.”
“And for how long is this supposed to go on?”
“A year.”
“A fucking year?” Vassar shrieks.
“Well, eleven months now.” She bites the inside of her cheek.
“Jesus Christ!” Her brother slumps back into his seat with a heavy sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. “But you’re sleeping with him!” Vassar accuses.
Yeah, that definitely sounded accusing.
“Careful here,” I growl.
Sophie shrugs. “Um, yeah.”
“I cannot believe this.”
“I’m an adult! I know what I’m doing, Vassar!”
There’s a long stretch of silence as his eyes volley from his sister, over to me and back again. “No.” He shakes his head. “I don’t think you do.” Sophie opens her mouth to argue but he raises his hand. “But you’re right, you are an adult. So, I’ll let you find out the hard way about how little you know here, Sophie.”
While my fake wife looks confused by what he means, I’ve knowing the meaning to his words from day one of our marriage.
“I’ll take that coffee now,” Vassar tells me.
“Where are the munchkins?” Sophie asks them after we all settled at the table.
“With their uncle Julius and auntie Kate.”
“Aw, I’d prefer it if it was the other way around. You stay with Uncle Julius and Auntie Kate, and the munchkins came to see me. I miss them way more than you.”
“Nice,” Vas deadpans, and Sophie rolls her lips.
“What? It’s the truth.”
“We didn’t want to drag them all this way for just a day,” Kira says.
“What do you mean?”
“We’re in the middle of opening a new restaurant and could only take this one day to come see you since you weren’t answering your phone. I guess now I know why.” Vassar sighs, still giving me that look that makes me nervous.
“So you’re leaving tonight?” Sophie asks with sadness in her tone.
She might not show it, but she misses her family a lot. I know she does, especially the kids.
“Yeah, we came on our own plane so we can leave pretty late, but we do have to be back in New York by the morning.”
“Oh.”
“Maybe we can come visit sometime soon?” The words leave my lips before I can think better of it, and when Sophie’s eyes light up like that, I can’t bring myself to regret them.
