Page 52 of The Fake Dating Plan

“Oh god,” Francie rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you two about to start a fight.”

“I was only making conversation!” Dad seemed taken aback.

“Then you ask stuff like how did it start? How is going?” Mom retorted.

“The Sage Gala,” I said, “not that’s any of your business.”

“Oh come on,” Dad said, “You two being back together is great news. You should have told us.”

“What’s with all of this? Why are you all invested in my relationship with Emilia all of a sudden.”

“I’m invested in all your relationships.” Mom held her chest, looking wounded.

“Not the first time you met Emilia you weren’t. Not when I—” I swallowed back the words just in time, but it didn’t matter. Even though I hadn’t said it, it was as if they were spoken.

“I only said you should wait. You two were young.”

Emilia, the topic of the conversation, who had been swallowed by all the Reid family energy, said, “Wait for what?”

Mom answered. “Why marriage darling.”

I felt like a bomb had dropped on the table and rolled over to where I was sitting. Ax wanted to marry me. Had wanted to marry me. This was something I never knew or expected. All this time I thought he saw me as another in a string of girlfriends, but if he wanted us to get married… It would explain his anger in the aftermath of our breakup. It still didn’t explain a lot of other things, though.

“He came to me asking for my ring.”

“I knew it!” Santiago shouted. I was too busy digesting this new piece of information to notice the dinner table conversation turning awkward.

“I wanted your ring so I could resize it,” Ax said. “You said it got too small. It was Mother’s Day, remember.” And just like that, the tiny flicker was doused.

“Mother’s Day gift? Are you su—”

“Yes.” He cut the conversation so abruptly and so cold that everyone at the table went silent.

“Did anyone see the new tweet Donald Branson posted,” Hailey said after a while, “It’s trending.” Everyone immediately jumped into the conversation as if a billionaire’s tweet was a riveting topic.

My gaze kept wandering to Ax. His face was impassive and gave nothing away, but I needed to know what he was thinking. He hated me more than he hated anyone he knew, regardless of how he felt about me sexually. And as much as I knew Ax, marrying someone purely for sexual reasons was not something he would do. Whatever his mother thought, there was no way her son wanted to marry me. That was simply impossible. His gaze met mine, and I quickly looked away like a kid caught staring.

Dinner went smoothly after that. But not for me. I was constantly aware of his heated presence and drawn to it. I even tried to engage with everyone else, but doing so was difficult. Even after dinner, when we were lounging in the living room with glasses of wine in our hands, I still had a tough time trying not to think about what Ax had said earlier about me and him.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” Hailey said to me. We were seated in our own little corner, away from the others.

“I have little to contribute.”

She laughed. “That’s the last thing I expected to hear from someone as interesting as you.”

Interesting was not how I would describe myself. Truth was, I tend to draw blanks whenever I am around many people. Like now. I couldn’t think of a topic, for starters. What could I say? Cool dress? I’m sure I had complimented her on that. How’s work? Does she work? Would she be offended if she didn’t work and I asked her that? I could ask her about her family, but with all the news that came out and her literal brother attempting to kill her, even that felt off-limits. Eventually one came to me.

“How’s the baby?”

“He’s lovely. A bit of a crier, but nothing we can’t handle.” Hailey cast her gaze across the room to where Ax, Santiago, and Caiden were sitting. “He’s helped lessen the burden.” Her eyes glowed with warmth when she looked at her husband. He saw us watching, and he smiled at her in some secret code that was theirs alone. I didn’t need anyone to tell me that theirs was true love. It was apparent. It made me wish for the same thing. Would Ax and I be like this if it all hadn’t gone horribly wrong? Not with me here as his pretend girlfriend, but as his wife? I never expected him to marry me, but ever since that idea had been put in my head, it was difficult to let go.

“You two seem good together,” I said to Hailey, “you make a lovely couple.”

“Thanks. Although, if you had known us before, you wouldn’t say so.”

“Why not.”

“Let’s just say we went through alot.”

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