Page 40 of No Rings Attached
My stomach twisted just like it had every time we waited to see if a particular treatment had worked for my sister, only to learn it hadn’t. We’d created her ‘must-do’ list to keep her occupied. To encourage her to have hope. Yet, as she got better, the importance of that list never changed.
“She’s not experiencing symptoms again, is she?” My voice rasped at the implication. I might not always get along with my sister, but I also didn’t want anything bad to happen to her.
“No, but it could happen,someday.”
Relief hit me hard knowing my sister was okay. My hands were tingling like I’d been sitting on them. Then it was like a quick adrenaline crash. I leaned against the nearest wall, my legs weak from the residual fear.
And my mother, completely oblivious to the havoc she’d caused with her response, kept talking. “We’ll need you to come with us to The River House. And since we don’t have much time, we need to plan pre-wedding activities along with the wedding itself. There’s so much to do in the next two weeks!”
By the time I was able to get her off the phone, I had her flight information and was expected to pick her up. There was no way Mother would sit in a car for six hours driving here when a flight would take forty-five minutes.
“Everything okay?”
I lifted my head to see Drew had turned the corner and was now standing a few feet from me, a worried expression on his face.
“I’m sorry I missed the rest of what Theo needed to share with us,” I apologized. I didn’t want to lose this job because of my family.
He stepped closer, and I wish I could say that the frown on his face made him any less handsome, but I’d be lying. And right now, with my defenses low, I just wanted to ask him for a hug. To lean into his strength while I took a minute to regroup.
Which would be totally appropriate if he were my real boyfriend.
But he wasn’t.
“Not important,” he replied. “What can I do to help?”
I gave a half-hearted shrug. “I’ll be fine.”
“You don’t seem fine.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t like how they dismiss you.”
He must have heard most of our conversation to realize that. I didn’t like how they didn’t care what I wanted either, but they were my family. I didn’t have anyone else. And even though they weren’t acting like it now, they hadn’t always been like this. There had been more good days between us all at one point.
His grumpy harrumph on my behalf almost made me laugh.
Then he surprised me. He slid his hand behind my neck and tugged me forward until my forehead was resting against his chest. Then his other arm went around my waist.
Oh how I needed this hug! My eyes slid shut as I relaxed against his strong chest, and wrapped my arms around his waist. I drew in a deep breath, inhaling his scent into my lungs. Sandalwood, cedar, and vetiver tickled my nose, and I wanted to stand here for as long as I could. The smell was calming, it was sexy, and while it was soothing me, it was also turning me on.
“That’s better,” he said softly, his breath tickling the top of my hair. “You were too tense.”
Part of me wondered where Theo was and if he thought it was weird we were huddled together in a side corridor.
And the other part saidscrew it.
I have no idea how long we stood there, but by the time I pulled away, I was already feeling better and was mentally in a good enough place to handle the bomb my mother dropped on me.
“Our fake dating/wedding performance is happening much earlier than expected,” I finally admitted. “Looks like you’ll be off the hook sooner rather than later.” My stomach pitched and an overwhelming sadness settled in my chest weighing me down. “And I might need to take random hours off in the middle of the day leading up to it. I’m so sorry, Drew.”
“Hey,” he said in that low soothing tone that eased my mind and set off my pheromones, “No need to apologize. Please let me help you with this. Otherwise, what kind of boyfr-fakeboyfriend would I be?”
He’d almost saidboyfriend. Could there be even the tiniest chance he could think about me as more than an employee or friend?
I wasn’t ready to think about this ending between me and Drew. Which was silly, really. We’d been pretending for two days. Two days! Logically, I knew we couldn’t be more than what we were. That it only made sense to go back to being boss/employee when this charade was over.
I reminded myself that he was only being a really good guy to go along with this and even if I was swooning over him he didn’t feel the same.
The longer our fake relationship continued, there would be more of a chance we’d have a falling out or he’d get tired of pretending.
Or not,Bad Eleanor interjected.
