Page 77 of Boss's Baby: A Fake Fiance Romance

She had a point. Katie was good at that sort of thing.

Here went nothing.

“It’s about me and Josh. About this whole marriage.” I looked around to make sure that no one was in the booths around us. “And you need to keep this to yourself, obviously.”

Katie folded her arms in front of her and leaned in. “I’m listening.”

Nothing else to do but get into it. I started with the fake fiancée plan and went from there, telling her what Josh had suggested and why, and what I was getting out of it. Katie listened in total, rapt fascination, her eyes wide. The tater tot nachos were soon brought, but neither of us paid them the slightest bit of attention.

Once the fake fiancée part was handled, I went into the next portion of the fun—where Josh and I had sort of fallen for each other. Katie was obviously thrilled to hear it, thinking it might turn into a happy ending after all.

Then there was one more detail. It was the one I’d only recently learned. But I decided to give Katie a moment to process everything before dropping that bomb.

“Cass, that’s about the most insane thing I’ve ever heard in my life. You and Josh are pretend-getting-married? This whole thing is a lie? I mean, what about the wedding?”

“There’s not going to be any wedding. We’ll ‘break up’ at some point soon, and that’ll be the end of it. And I’ll probably be the one to have to do it so Josh’s dad can see that he was willing to go all the way. At least, that’ll be how the story goes, I guess.”

“But the lies, Cass. Do you have any idea how happy Mom and Dad are about this? How happy I was to see my big sister finally getting married?”

“‘Finally’?” I made sure to force a smile to let her know I was only trying to lighten the mood.

She popped a cheese-covered tot into her mouth. “You know what I mean.”

“I get it, I do. When Josh and I planned this thing, I thought—I don’t know what I thought. I guess my mind was on the firm, how successful it’d be in a year. And with Mom and Dad, maybe after it was all said and done, they’d be happy that I even came close to getting hitched.”

Katie glanced down at the giant rock on my finger. “Guess Josh figured he’d pull out all the stops for this thing.”

“Yep.” I twisted the ring around on my finger. “He’s got even more on the line than I do.”

“Do you wish you’d done differently? I can’t help but think it’s on your mind.”

“Of course it is. And I figure it’s pointless to think about it. I made my decision, and that’s it. I’m going to have to deal with the consequences, and that’s even assuming we manage to pull it all off.”

Katie glanced away, thinking the matter over. “And now you’ve brought me in on the lie. I understand that you needed to get it off your chest, but now I have to play pretend too.”

She was right. I’d passed the burden onto her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You can come clean. You can tell Josh you don’t want to do this anymore. It’d be the right thing to do, and you know it.”

I shook my head. “We’ve come too far for that. And then there’s the whole thing about us actually starting to like each other.”

“Yeah, that makes it even more complicated.”

I decided it was time. Katie had heard nearly the whole story, and she needed to know the rest.

“And there’s more. I haven’t told you the biggest part of all. Something I found out, like, an hour ago.”

“What could possibly be bigger than what you’ve already told me?”

“It’s bigger. Trust me. You know how I’ve been feeling weird and sick recently? And how I haven’t been able to handle alcohol? And…”

I trailed off, but I’d said enough. Katie’s mouth hung open in a silent scream of excitement. “You’re—”

I reached across the table and clamped my hand down over her mouth, nearly sticking my boobs in the tater tot nachos. She got the hint, as subtle as it was, and nodded.

“And I don’t know what to do. Now I’m lying to Josh on top of everything.”

“Cass, there’s nothing else to do. Tomorrow’s the big Christmas Eve party at the Taylor house—you have to let everyone know before then. This thing’s gotten totally out of hand and now you’re…p-word on top of it.”

“But—”

“No ‘but.’ You have to know in the back of your head somewhere that it’s only a matter of time before the whole mess explodes. You have to decide whether or not you want it to be a controlled explosion or…the other kind.”

The waitress approached the table and asked for our orders, ending the conversation.

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