Page 67 of Fall Over You

“So, are we celebrating tonight?” Darcy appears in my doorway, a tentative smile on her face. She wears a pretty floral swing dress with long sleeves, perfect for a fall night.

I currently am in a sticky situation with the setting on my ring caught in my hair. “Maybe after we free my hair.”

“Oh, shoot.” Darcy rushes over. “Hold still. I’ll untangle you. It takes a while to get used to.”

I wait while Darcy picks strands out of my ring. She flinches when a strand breaks off. “Sorry, trying to save as many as I can.”

“It’s alright. Probably looks like a bubblegum ring anyway.”

Darcy gives me a silly look. “Well, you do love bubblegum.”

I’d normally laugh. I like to poke fun at myself, and I welcome Darcy’s sense of humor. But right now, I feel like a scab picked off too early. My silence must be telling.

“Sorry. I don’t think it looks like a bubblegum ring at all. Show me for real now.”

I display my hand and Darcy has a soft smile as she holds it steady. “It’s gorgeous, Becca. He did good.”

“Yeah,” I agree in the most unenthusiastic way possible. “Basically picked it out myself and he ordered it.”

“Did you want him to surprise you?” Darcy heads to sit on the edge of my bed.

“I mean, if he was in love with me, yeah. But he’s not. This is just an act.”

I see Darcy’s grimace in the mirror behind me. “I wish we could help you⁠—”

“You got your own problems, boss.” I still call her that even though she hasn’t been my boss for more than three years.

“Are you happy about it at all? Are you sure this is what you want?”

“I want the loan. I want him to have the loan. But I didn’t imagine this is how I’d get married.”

Darcy crosses the room and hugs around my shoulders from behind. “How did you picture getting married?”

“Honestly, I wasn’t sure I ever would. Seemed too crazy to settle down. But you know me. The last year or two have been different.”

“It’s okay to want something different now. What do you want from a marriage?”

I shake my head, looking down into my hairbrush while I think. “Partnership. Trust. Loyalty. Sticking around when things suck. And for them to want me so bad they’ll throw me over their shoulder and need to have me right this second.”

Darcy smiles. “Yeah. That’s the good stuff.”

There’s a quiet knock at my door, Tyler leaning against the doorjamb. “You ready, Reba?”

Darcy mouths “Reba?” to me in the mirror and I giggle.

“Thirty seconds,” I say, scrambling to fill my purse with my phone, lip gloss, gum, and wallet. I adjust my little white corset over my white shorts. My ring catches the light and even though it’s no real diamond, I take a second to admire it.

It might not be real love, but it’s about as close as real gets.

Tyler is silent and extra surly on the walk to Darcy’s truck. Jake and Darcy walk ahead of us. “I can drive,” Darcy chirps. “I’m not going to drink.”

Jake leans down and whispers something in her ear, then pecks the top of her head. She hugs his arm before he puts it around her, his hand cruising comfortably over her ass. I’ve had that kind of connection, or something close to it. But nothing as close as what those two have.

Now, who knows if I’ll ever get it? My left hand is heavier than it was an hour ago, but the man who made it that way isn’t speaking to me. I’m about to give him shit about it, but he follows me to the same side of the truck and opens the door for me. He holds out his hand to help me in, just like he did outside Ellie’s school.

“Thanks.” I buckle in and lean against the window after he closes the door.

The single outdoor light isn’t enough to show me his eyes under the brim of his ballcap, but he’s still unfairly handsome. Stubble. Sharp jaw. The hint of that dimple.