Page 44 of The Wedding Hoax

Because if Ruby was right, whatever there was between Harry and me meant even less than I had imagined. We weren’t even saving Harry’s job as CEO.

Maybe we were just playing pretend for no reason at all.

“This was for the best. Trust me.” Ruby giggled, then winked. “I don’t think Harry would’ve ever married you this fast if he didn’t think he might lose his job. Which is so stupid since he’s so clearly in love with you.”

Clearly in love with me.

Sure.

I wanted to roll my eyes but I knew better. I didn’t want Ruby to think that anything was wrong with what she’d just said.

Even if it wasn’t true.

“When do you think you two will have children?” Ruby’s question caught me completely off guard.

“Children?”

“You know, the little humans that run around all day? The ones who are super cute but will also totally drain your bank account if you take them to the toy store?”

“They still have toy stores?” I joked, as I thought about the best way to answer Ruby’s question. “And I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? As in, you don’t know if you two want children?”

“As in, we haven’t had that conversation yet.”

“Really?” Ruby hummed, her brows creasing with concern.

“Really. But it’s not like we’ve been avoiding the conversation. It just never came up.”

“Well, I guess that’s okay. As long as neither one of you is super against having kids. If it happens, it happens, right?”

“Right.”

Ruby moved closer to me, then close enough to lean her head against my shoulder.

“I’m happy you’re part of the family now, Simone.” She sighed. “You’re the best thing to happen to Harry in a long, long time.”

17

HARRY

Finally.

I was home.

Brunch with my family had gone about as well as to be expected, considering I was in a fake marriage.

It seemed like Simone and Eileen were fitting in just fine, though. Which was good news and bad news, all at once. Good because I had a feeling my family genuinely liked them.

Bad because sooner or later, Simone and I were going to announce our divorce and they were never going to see each other again.

Still, I was grateful for the cover. Or at least, the cover I thought we had.

Shit.

I thought back to my mom talking about hearing that rumor.

Was that whole thing a misdirect? Did she actually know what was going on with Simone and me?

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