Page 38 of The Wedding Hoax

“Hold on. I don’t think anyone said you needed to pretend my bed doesn’t exist—”

“Simi?” Mom called from the other room. Harry and I suddenly moved away from each other, now almost standing on opposite sides of the kitchen.

“Never mind!” she called out again. “I found what I was looking for.”

Harry and I moved closer to each other again, and he held me for a moment.

He placed a playful kiss on my forehead before he winked down at me.

“I’ll see you tonight, Mrs. O’Donnell?”

“That’s likely, Mr. O’Donnell. Very likely.”

I smiled at him as he left the kitchen, the expression on my face soon fading.

What are we doing with each other?

Whatever this was, it was starting to feel a little too real. It wasn’t like I could resist him, either, which was making things feel even more complicated.

Crap.

I needed to get a grip on whatever this was between us, or else I was going to lose myself in it.

And if I lost myself in Harry, I didn’t know if I’d ever find my way back.

15

HARRY

Things were starting to feel a little too real.

I knew it was a problem, but I didn’t know how to stop it. Simone felt too good in my arms, in my bed, in my shower. I couldn’t deny that I liked having her everywhere, even if things between us weren’t going anywhere.

Even if she was going to be my ex-wife in a matter of months.

“Harry! You still there?” Sean groaned on the other end of the line. “I’ve told you about upgrading your phone. You’re rich enough to—”

“My phone is fine, Sean.” I rolled my eyes. “Why were you calling me again?”

“I was calling on behalf of Mom.”

“On behalf of Mom? Why didn’t she just call me herself?”

“Is that Harry? Harry, honey, I’m right here!” My mother’s voice was suddenly on the phone. “Hi, honey. How have you been?”

“Mom, why are you communicating through Sean? Is there something going on that I should know about?”

“Yeah, it’s because I’m her favorite kid! Duh!” Sean piped up in the background.

“No one’s communicating through Sean, honey. I just told him to give you a call.”

“Got it. What’s up?” I folded my arms in pure frustration, waiting for someone to finally answer my question. “Why are you guys calling me?”

“We just wanted to invite you and Simone to brunch,” Mom replied. “We thought it’d be lovely to have you. Oh, and of course, we’d love for Eileen to come, too.”

“Is that even possible?”

“What do you mean?”

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