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The photographer spent what felt like lifetimes getting the shot just right. I suspected part of the issue was that Gran was refusing to smile when they asked her to.
“Get some shots of what ninety really looks like,” she cackled.
“Gran,” Juliet hissed.
“I’m not some complacent old toddy,” Gran complained. “Can’t I look a little bit badass? It’s my birthday.”
Once the photos were done and Alison had taken the photographers out to the tent to see if they wanted to capture any photos in there before the party, Juliet leaned in to whisper again.
“My lawyers called while you were out. Zac is saying I cheated first, and he’s found three different men who swear we were together during my marriage.”
I didn’t know Juliet well, but I had no doubt she’d been faithful in her marriage. You could just tell she wouldn’t cheat. Plus, no one who cheated repeatedly on their husband would be as upset as she’d been the past week over the marriage ending.
“If they find out this is all a farce, it’ll just make me look like a liar. People won’t know what to believe.”
My heart iced over inside my chest. If we called it quits after the weekend or let things just fade, the media would certainly speculate about the reasons. “So we have to go on pretending.”
She nodded.
“For how long, Juliet?”
A tear escaped the corner of her eye and I reached up to wipe it away without even thinking about it. “I don’t know.”
The future I’d seen before me, shining and bright with possibility after this weekend suddenly dimmed into uncertainty. Tess knew I didn’t love her sister, but maintaining an ongoing pretense would mean going back to Los Angeles, keeping up appearances and photo opps. It would mean being away from Tess. It would mean honoring my contract with Juliet, securing my own future and my dad’s. But it would also mean giving up the potential I’d only begun to discover here.
“Over here, you two!” Alison called across the lawn.
Juliet took a deep breath and my hand, and I followed her down the porch steps, wishing for once in my life I could be in control of my future.
“Just a few more sweet kisses?” Alison suggested, and I considered maybe shoving her little notepad down her throat. Instead, I pulled Juliet Manchester into my arms and kissed her as convincingly as I could manage. She pressed herself into me, met my lips with hers, opened her mouth to my tongue. The moves were right—but everything about it was wrong.
“Oooh, that was a hot one,” Alison cooed as we broke apart. And that’s when I saw Tess, standing in the door of the tent watching us. Her eyes met mine for a brief second, and then they squeezed shut for a beat too long, and she turned and disappeared inside the tent.
“Shit,” I heard myself mutter. My muscles tensed and it took everything I had not to sprint across the lawn to her.
“Are all men complete morons?” Gran asked loudly from her table at the porch. She held up her ereader as if she was just asking a rhetorical question to the book she was reading, but I had a feeling the sharp old eyes didn’t miss much. And her mind missed even less.
She was right. I was a moron. But I was contractually obligated to be one.
Eventually, the camera crew dispersed for the afternoon and we were released to go get ready for Gran’s party. By that time, Tess had disappeared and even Gran had left her spot on the back porch. Caterers were bustling about the kitchen and event staff populated the lawn and tent, moving in audio equipment and setting up odds and ends. For what it was worth, the party looked like it was going to be amazing.
“I’ll come get you when I’m ready,” Juliet said as we parted ways at the top of the stairs.
“Okay,” I agreed, uncertain whether I’d survive the party.
“Hey,” she said, pausing outside her door.
I looked over my shoulder at her.
“Thanks for all this. I know it’s a mess.”
“It’s okay,” I said, but I didn’t believe it was anymore. It wasn’t okay to lie to the world and forsake my own heart and Tess’s. It wasn’t okay to give up a chance at real happiness—the first one I’d ever found—all in the name of a lie.
The weekend had been touted as a career opportunity by my agent. It had been a job, basically. And now it felt like I was being shoved down a path that I knew led to a sheer drop off or into a deep unswimmable lake. It led somewhere I knew I didn’t want to go, and I couldn’t seem to turn around.
When Juliet’s door shut, I turned and walked down the hall toward Tess’s room. Maybe if we could just talk for a few minutes, maybe if I could tell her everything now, in the quiet privacy of her room, then I could assure myself that I wasn’t insane, and tell her the kiss she saw had been more acting. More pretense.
I’d tell her my plans, see the gleam in her light eyes and know I’d made the right choice—for both of us. And I’d have whatever reassurance my silly heart needed that the guy on the lawn had been no one to her. A friend. Or … someone. I couldn’t imagine who he could be to Tess. All I knew was that he was someone who felt it was in his right to kiss her. To hold her hand.
