Page 41 of One Vow

I’d seen no evidence to support that statement. I shrugged. “I don’t care what you are.”

But I did. I cared so much. She was Finn’s fiancée. The woman who was going to spend the rest of her life with the man of my dreams. She would carry his kids. Sleep in his bed. Be his person. And I hated her.

“Look, I know he’s here, but I also know that whatever you had with him is a decade old. It’s the past.”

That was to imply she was his future. I smiled and didn’t tell her that it didn’t feel so in the past last night when he was so deep inside me, I could feel him in my heart. But I didn’t think she would appreciate the crude poetry of my thoughts, so I remained silent.

“And this kind of dalliance is a one-off. He’s going to be my husband. And if he cheats on me with you, I’ll make sure all those videos come back to haunt his good name. I’ll make sure they get yours, too.”

Her tone dropped low. This wasn’t an idle threat.

And I wanted to choke her. Instead, I sat down in the chair across from her. “Why are you doing this? You said yourself that you can have anyone you want.”

Seriously. Wherever they lived, they’d obviously found the fountain of youth because, like him, ten years’ worth of time hadn’t affected her. Still blonde and beautiful, still with a smile as bright as the sun. Nary a wrinkle and if those were her real eyebrows, although they certainly didn’t seem painted or enhanced, I would eat my shoe. “Why Finn?”

She might have answered had Finn not picked that moment to emerge from my room. Dressed. Dripping. Guilty. And not meeting my gaze. Not smiling. Maybe not even breathing.

“Beth.” He nodded to her. “What are you doing here?”

He didn’t sit beside her even though there was an entire cushion of space. He chose the other chair across from the sofa. The chair beside me with only a small table between us.

I couldn’t figure out the dynamic between them. Friendship? But I didn’t look at my friends the way she leered at him. But I would’ve bet money they weren’t lovers. His scowl and stiff posture, his narrowed eye glare, and his clenched fists said lovers weren’t all too likely either. It didn’t really matter any more than the geography of where he sat. The only thing that mattered was the change in whatever classification they’d used to tag their relationship. The change to Mr. and Mrs., or Dr. and Mrs. because being his wife mattered. If anyone knew it, I did.

Beth smiled at him. “I came to make sure you remember your commitment to me.”

Even her matter-of-fact tone grated on my nerves. But I sat silently. Hands folded. Eyes down. She turned on me anyway. “He owes me this. I couldn’t get jobs because this followed me around. My name is linked to this guy.”

She pointed at him without looking his way because she was talking to me now. “To the Glouster Four. And yours wasn’t. You’re welcome for that, by the way.”

She had to be kidding me.

“I should thank you for putting my video on national television?” She couldn’t be serious. Thank her? No.

Neither was I in the mood for forgiving her or for true confession hour, but there she was like a wind-up doll who’d had her crank turned a little too hard. “I didn’t mean for that to happen, and I never used your name. As soon as I could do it without it looking suspicious, I offered up a different video.”

Hers. Maybe I’d misjudged her after all. When I opened my mouth to thank her for her selflessness, she waved me off. “It’s not because I’m a good person, so stop looking at me like I did it to save you.”

She rolled her eyes.

“I’m not a hero. I thought I’d be able to use the video of me and Finn as a steppingstone to jobs. But by the time I switched to my video, people moved on. Got tired of hearing about it.”

She shrugged. “I never got another story like it.”

“Did it get you better jobs?” I wasn’t pointing out the flaw in her logic. I was honestly curious.

“It did for a while, that’s how I got my talk show. But people don’t care anymore. That’s why I need him. I need my boss to know I’m no longer the silly girl he hired because I told him I had Ryder film me with Finn so I could get the story.” She chuckled and shrugged like it was no big deal. “Anyway, I need Finn because I need to be married. To be settled down. I want to keep my show, and I’m not letting whatever is going on between you two mess that up.”

She swiped her hands down her legs and then stood. “So, get your shit, and let’s go.”

Finn pulled the corner of his lower lip between his teeth and stared at me. I looked at Beth. “We aren’t divorced yet.”

“Oh, right.” She chuckled. “Turns out, not the problem you think it is. You’ll be divorced by tomorrow. It’s not a thing.” She reached into her bag and pulled out an envelope. “Just need you to sign where the little tabs are.”

“Have you two slept together?” I didn’t know why it mattered, but I wanted to know.

Beth chuckled and shook her head. “I was saving it for the wedding night, but I was also just sitting here thinking how shameful it would be to waste this trip and the suite I booked.” More of her pointed words hit their intended target, my guts.

I glanced at Finn. “Did you take money from my dad to leave me?”