Page 30 of The Wedding Hoax

“Harry? Did you want another plate?” Eileen was smiling at me underneath the fairy lights on my backyard patio. “Simi makes such good salmon. Doesn’t she?”

“She does.” I smiled back at her, even though I felt like something was off between us. Eileen seemed so grateful for letting her live with us, but I couldn’t shake how she’d responded the first time she’d learned about the arrangement between Simone and me.

“Mom, you don’t need to stuff him. He’s a busy man. He needs to stay limber,” Simone joked before she took another bite of her steamed vegetables.

“I just wanted to make sure that he had enough to eat.” Eileen innocently held up her hands. “And it’s because he’s so busy that I was checking in the first place.”

“I might have room for another serving of salmon. We’ll see.”

I looked between Eileen and Simone. They shared a knowing look between each other, the kind of thing that develops between close mother and daughter.

The kind of thing I’d never be able to decipher in a million years.

“I’m really happy you’re here, Eileen,” I started, before my nerves had a chance to get the better of me.

“I’m happy I’m here, too.” She flashed a small smile. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

“But I just—” I tapped my fingers along the table, worried that I was coming at this all wrong. “Are you okay with me now? Are you okay with this now? Because when we first talked to you about it, you seemed pretty against it.”

“Hmm.” Eileen set her fork down beside her plate. “Well, if you really want my opinion…”

“Mom. Don’t.”

“He asked me, Simi. I think he wants to know.” Eileen placed her palms flat against the table. “To be honest with you, Harry, I’m quite disappointed.”

“Disappointed?” My heart started racing behind my chest.

Fuck.

Was Eileen about to take Simone back home? Was she about to blow up this whole thing?

“Don’t get me wrong. Everything you’ve prepared for me to live here is perfect. And I can tell that Simi appreciates everything you do for her, too,” she started. “But I always imagined that when Simi got married, it’d be the way it was between me and her father.”

Eileen let out a tired sigh. “I just wanted Simone to be in love. That’s all. I wanted to see her experience the pure joy of it. And honestly, I think she should’ve waited until she felt that way before getting married to anyone. And yes, I understand that what you two have is only temporary. Still, I wanted her to have the real thing.”

“You’ve seen me have the real thing, Mom.” Simone’s voice was low. “And you saw the way it completely destroyed me, too.”

“Jace wasn’t the real thing, Simi. Which is something I tried to tell you—”

“It doesn’t matter. It was real enough to me.” Simone sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “It was real enough to break me and you know that. What’s so wrong with trying something different? What’s so wrong with not wanting to get my heart broken all over again?”

“Right. That’s exactly right,” I agreed with Simone. “What’s wrong with not wanting to get hurt?”

“Ah. So, you’ve been hurt before, too?” Eileen asked.

“Uh, no. Not exactly.” I shook my head. “More like, I never saw the point of getting too invested in a romantic relationship since I know how many of them end in flames. I’m not even sure if I believe in love, at this point, or if I ever did.”

After I spoke, I realized my mistake, as images of my parents flashed through my mind, how happy they seemed throughout the years. I also thought about Sean and Ruby, how impossibly happy they were with their marriage, how they were still so in love even after all these years.

Maybe I did believe in love.

I just didn’t believe that it could ever happen to me.

“A woman who’s afraid of having her heart broken again and a man who doesn’t even think he has a heart?” Eileen turned toward me, concern written all over her face. “Please, Harry. Just don’t break my daughter’s heart.”

“You don’t need to worry about that, Mom.” Simone smiled. “Don’t forget, there’s nothing real between us. Harry could never break my heart because he’s never going to have my heart.”

It felt like someone had stabbed me right in the chest.

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