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“Lucille, open the door. I’m not leaving.”
She unlocked the dead bolt and jerked it open. “Lucille?”
“I thought it would get your attention,” he said, brushing past her.
She shut the door and turned to face him with her arms crossed against her chest. He was wearing jeans and a button down shirt. His hair was slightly disheveled and he had a slight five o’clock shadow, which she’d never seen on him before.
He looked…yummy.
He didn’t even have a bag with him. He’d probably headed out to the airport with just his wallet and keys.
“What are you doing here, Jamie?”
“I flew in to talk some sense in you. You’re not calling off this engagement, Lucy. If you lose that baby, you’ll regret it.”
“What if this causes scandal for your family? Won’t you regret that?”
“No,” Jamie said. “If you think we haven’t had scandal of our own before… Well, let’s just say we’re not strangers to it. I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks. My family doesn’t either. They will love me no matter what… They’ve proven that. You’re my friend, Lucy. This is what friends do for one another.”
“Pretend to be engaged?”
He put his hands on his hips and tried to look tough. It only made him look hotter.
“If need be,” he said. “We can do this, at least for a while.”
Lucy couldn’t help it; she laughed. “You’re crazy,” she said.
“Then you’re engaged to a crazy person,” he said with a smile. “Right?”
“For now,” she said.
“So I still have a date for the rehearsal dinner and my sister’s wedding?”
She took a deep breath to steady her nerves and said, “Yes.”
* * *
With Melina busy taking care of the twins, Lucy enlisted Grace to help her with shopping for the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. Although Lucy and Grace had completely different taste in clothing, Lucy still thought what Grace wore was pretty, and she knew anything her friend picked out would be both attractive and “socially acceptable.”
Grace was perfect as a shopping partner for this particular endeavor. She encouraged Lucy to pick an outfit she loved. “You have wonderful style, Lucy. You don’t have to change who you are to make other people like you.”
“Clearly, I do,” Lucy had responded. “Now, please, Grace, pick an outfit you would wear so I don’t have to think too much about it.” And without any more protests, Grace did as Lucy asked.
They shopped until they found an outfit that was a happy medium—that is, an outfit Grace assured her was “appropriate” for a high society rehearsal dinner and one that Lucy didn’t hate.
By the time they stopped at their favorite Chinese restaurant to meet Melina for lunch while Rhys watched the twins, Lucy was almost completely outfitted. The only thing she had left to get was the dress for the wedding itself.
“So, how are things going between you and your fiancé?” Melina asked her with a smile.
“Things are good,” Lucy told her. “It’s the best “fake” relationship I’ve ever been in.” It was the best relationship she’d been in period. She’d never forget the way Jamie had shown up at her door, determined that they go forward with their plan and forgot her worries that she’d somehow be hurting him by being associated with him.
They all laughed and then Melina said, “And how about the ‘fake’ sex?”
“Oh that’s going to continue to be very real,” Lucy said. “So real, in fact, that I think Jamie could give Rhys a run for his money when it comes to teaching a woman how to please a man in bed. And go head-to-head with Max in giving a woman the greatest sex of her life.”
Both her friends blushed and they all laughed. Melina and Rhys, after years of secretly crushing on each other, had finally gotten together only after Melina had gotten it into her head she needed sex lessons. Grace had approached Max with something equally scandalous—a request that he give her the orgasm no man had ever been able to give her. When it came to happy endings that began with crazy-ass sexual situations, her friends took the cake.
They ordered their lunch and were simply enjoying each other’s company when Lucy suddenly saw a huge flash in front of her face. She looked up in time to see a man lowering his camera to his side. “Ms. Conrad, I’m Harry Lowenstein with Gateway News and I’d like to ask you a few questions about your alleged engagement to Jamie Whitcomb.”
