AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay, well,” he says, clearly hesitating. “I’m not really in the habit of giving out my phone number to people. I’ve had to change it so many times—I don’t really want to have to do that again. It’s super annoying.”
I burst into laughter, unable to even imagine having such a problem. “So, how will you explain to your family that your fiancée doesn’t have your phone number? That seems more suspicious than anything.”
“But you could be tempted to give it out after this is over,” he points out, shifting his weight back and forth. He’s got a point. I’m pretty sure people have sold celebrities’ personal information on Craigslist before. “And like I said, I just don’t want to have to change my number for the thousandth time. It’s nothing personal.”
“I’ll just delete it,” I offer, holding out my hand for his phone. “Wade, I have absolutely no desire to keep your number when this is over—nor give it out to anyone. I have a lot more integrity than that.”
He stands there, his eyes on my outstretched hand. “I guess I’ll choose to trust you.” Wade pulls out his phone and sets it in my hand. “Now, give me yours.”
“Here,” I say, handing my phone over to him. I pause as his phone lights up when I go to unlock it. “Why do you have a picture of me as your phone background?” It’s my most recent picture—one I posted a few days ago on my social media.
“You’re my fiancée,” Wade says with a shrug, not being weird about it in the slightest. “I saw it last night while I was Facebook stalking you—I don’t really use the social media profiles made for me, but I did use it to look at your stuff. I thought having your picture as my phone background might distract from the fact that I don’t have any pictures of us. I also followed you on Instagram, so be prepared to gain some new followers. In fact, you might want to update your privacy settings, some of my fans get weird.”
“Thanks for that info,” I say, making a mental note to do that as soon as I can. “You probably should do the same. I’ve got a huge Bookstagram following,” I joke, inwardly cringing at the fact he probably saw I only have like four-thousand followers, which pales in comparison to his six-million followers.
But I cherish the following I’ve built.
“What’s Bookstagram?”
“It’s a community of avid readers on Instagram. They share their love of reading, post book recommendations, and make friends. Bookstagram is a pretty amazing side of social media—I try to connect with my readers there.”
“Wow. So, it’s like a ... virtual book club? That’s really neat.”
“Yeah, you could say that.” My phone lights up in his hand, as a text notification appears on the screen.
“So, should I worry about, uh...” He squints down at the phone. “Nick?”
My stomach flips at the mention of his name. Nick is the last person I want to be talking about right now, and considering I’m terrible at concealing my emotions, Wade obviously sees the agony written all over my face.
His eyebrow raises. “If you’ve got a boyfriend or something, this probably isn’t going to work out. I can’t risk getting caught up in that kind of drama. The media would have an absolute heyday, and that really won’t do me any good.”
I sigh. “He’s my ex-husband. We split up almost three years ago now.”
Wade’s face scrunches up in confusion. “Oh. Are you friends or something?”
I snort, grabbing my phone from his hands and handing his back. “Nick is not my friend,” I say as I head toward the door.
Wade swipes my bag from the floor and falls in step beside me, Bear leading the both of us. “Why is he messaging you then?”
“Why are you so curious?” I ask, turning to look up at him for a moment.
“He asked where you are and what you’re doing—that’s like ... the things fiancés do, right? According to you, anyway,” he adds with a chuckle, opening the door for us.
I roll my eyes. “You’re insufferable,” I say, slipping out the door.
“Thank you,” he says, trotting to catch up and fall in step with me. He then grabs my hand, and I jump sideways, jerking it away from him. His touch was electric, and also startling.
“What the heck are you doing?” I whisper, my eyes going wide.
He bursts into laughter. “You said we had to practice being real fiancés, and if you were really my fiancée, I would definitely be holding your hand right now, especially considering how abandoned you felt when I wasn’t in the room this morning.”
I shake my head, though I’m more amused than anything else. “This is going to be a long vacation.”
“Yes, it is.” Wade grunts and grabs my hand again. I do my best to ignore the electric shock pulsing through my body at his touch.
“Oh shoot, wait,” he says suddenly stopping in the middle of the hallway. “I have something for you.”
“What?” My eyes grow wide as he starts digging into his pocket. “Oh.”
