Page 94 of The Wedding Hoax

He looked just like he did on the first day we met. Like he was too busy for anything outside himself.

Like he was too busy for someone like me.

“What is this, Harry?” My voice was low. “Why are you doing this?”

“Why am I doing what? Having a birthday party?”

“This is torture.” I sniffled. “You have to realize that, right? If you were trying to be the winner in this breakup, then congratulations. You won.”

“Simone—” Harry took a step closer to me. “Baby.”

Baby?

Before Harry could say another word, I watched as the rest of his family appeared behind him. All of them looked so nervous, yet they also seemed cautious, like they were waiting on some kind of cue. His mom looked particularly anxious, even though she tried to hide it.

“Harry, what’s going on right now?” I pressed. “What’s happening?”

“I’m apologizing.”

“For?”

“Everything. From the very beginning, Simone, from the first moment we met, I knew that you were different. And I knew that I wanted to get to know everything I could about you,” he started. “And once I got to know you, it didn’t take me long to fall in love with you. How could I not fall for you? You’re the best person I’ve ever met, Simone Didier. Anyone would fall in love with you.”

“You’re in love with me?” Everything went completely still around me. “Harry—”

“I hate what I did to us. I hate that I decided to turn that spark between us into an opportunity to lie to my family just so I could keep the magazine. I hate that I made you go along with it. I hate that I made it impossible for us to be anything real, because I kept pushing it all away. I hate that I pushed you away, too, Simone, because I can barely go five minutes without thinking about you.”

Harry paused for a moment before he went on. “I don’t think I know how to exist without you anymore, Simone. I don’t know if I could ever go back to that.”

“Harry—”

“I want us to be together, Simone. I want every moment between us to be real,” he continued, his gaze focused on mine. “And I want to be there for our baby. I want us to be a family.”

“Simone is pregnant?” Sean said from behind Harry. “Good job, big bro!”

“Sean! Shh! You’re ruining the moment!” Ruby nudged him in the shoulder before she offered me an encouraging thumbs-up.

“Harry? Can we go somewhere more private?” I asked. “I think we really need to talk. Just us.”

“Of course.” Harry reached for my hand and began to lead the way. “Let’s go somewhere where it’s just us.”

37

SIMONE

“Hi,” I started with a whisper.

“Hi,” Harry replied. He stood facing me.

We were standing in a small storeroom, the scent of coffee surrounding us on every side. Harry’s family was still waiting for us out in the coffee shop’s main lobby, which I knew because I could hear them chatting away, the sound of their voices filling the space between us.

“What is all this, Harry?” I pressed. “You invited me to your birthday party, but you’re having it at the coffee shop? No way that’s what you had in mind.”

“Maybe I was just really craving a good cup of coffee.”

“If you wanted a good cup of coffee, you could’ve had one imported from anywhere in the world. You didn’t have to come here.” I shook my head. “But you wanted both of us to be here. Why?”

“Because I love you, Simone. Because I wanted to get your attention. Because I wanted to apologize and I wanted you to believe that I meant it.”

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