Page 39 of Slow Hands Cowboy

“He’s been handling it great on his end. He’s done a few interviews, and he’s so charming that people have mostly been focusing on him. And how he rescued you.”

“Yes. Well… Another chapter is about to get added to the lore.”

“The lore?”

“At this point, we have lore.” She took a deep breath. “We are going to go out as a couple. Tonight.”

“What?”

“We thought that… It would make a great story.”

“Are you… Are you sleeping with him?”

She pressed her knees together, hard, and without meaning to, she imagined Walker over her, in her, thrusting hard.

“No,” she said, her throat getting tight. “But we would like everyone to believe so.”

“Oh. Oh. Oh.” She said each oh with an entirely different inflection. Mortified, confused, and then intrigued. “I can see that. Especially with the way that he’s been using all of this. Of course, it makes a great story for the ranch, and how everything will work out the way that it’s supposed to. And it’s a great story for you. About you winning. Finding what you really needed. Being resilient.”

“Yes, he and I kind of already went through that.” Though, she felt gratified that Anna saw the point of it.

“You can’t tell people though, that it’s fake,” Anna said.

“I know. The bridesmaids and my dad. I can group text⁠—”

“We are not putting this in writing. I’ll call Lydia and Denisha. We’ll figure out code words.”

“This isn’t a casino heist, Anna. It’s fake dating to juice up my reputation in a local election.”

“It is your life, Addison, which means it’s more important than a casino heist, and if this goes to shit then what?”

Addison didn’t have an easy response to that. Because yeah. Then what? What would become of her? What would living her life – good and perfect — mean?

“I don’t know. But I still need my friends to know and I don’t need my dad worrying about me being with a Grayson.”

Anna laughed. “A Grayson? Like they’re not some of the richest people in town now? Come on, we all moved past their high school reputations, haven’t we?”

She hated to believe that her dad hadn’t moved past that, but no. He wouldn’t have. He had a very firm idea about people not being able to escape what they were. Their nature. She knew that had to do with her mom and probably had to do with trying to pressure her and Jackson into behaving, and that just hit her right then.

But even realizing that didn’t mean that she could pivot away from telling him. Because if he thought that she was sleeping with Walker…

“I have to tell my dad,” she said. “He would worry otherwise, also, I don’t need my dad thinking that I actually left my wedding and went and broke a headboard with Walker.” She had hoped that by not actually saying sex or any other direct alternative term, she would keep herself from envisioning it, but sadly, she was just imagining Walker over her again, moving with so much force, that he had to grip the headboard, that he –

Sex like that wasn’t even real. It wasn’t. It was a lie that biology dangled over you when you were ovulating in order to make you do stupid things. Made you leave your family, just as her mother had done. And then you had to dig in, and commit to that bad decision, because going back would be the only thing more humiliating than stepping out in the first place, she assumed.

“Okay. But nobody else.”

“Nobody else. I promise. Well, his family will know. But they’re all tied up in the same interest.”

“Okay,” Anna said. “Then I guess what I’ll do is just continue to refuse to answer questions about your personal life, and after you and Walker make a public appearance, you can go back on the campaign trail. And he can sort of be… on the periphery?”

“Obviously he needs to endorse me,” Addison said.

“Yes. He definitely needs to endorse you. And I think that would be helpful, because he will appeal to a whole segment of people who may not have bought into your whole thing before.”

“I’m sorry, what is that a euphemism for?”

“Well, the people in high school who liked him and not you.”