Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“Nope,” I say, around cheeks full of cookies.
Mia crosses her arms. “You know… everybody will be annoyed with me for spilling the beans on this, but I’m tired of pretending.”
“Pretending what?” I ask. Why do I feel like dread is slowly slipping its cold fingers around my neck right now?
“Cade told me he overheard some guy telling you that you had to get married or you would lose the B&B. Months ago. He also told me that Jake stormed into the room and claimed he was marrying you mid-conversation. From how Cade tells it, you sounded as surprised by that as everybody else. Faker,” she adds with a satisfied smile.
All I can do is stare at her with my jaw hanging open. “Cade told you all that?”
Mia’s got her eyebrows up like a disapproving schoolteacher. “You say that like Cade is the one at fault. But I was thinking maybe the girl who is supposed to be my best friend in the entire world might be the one to be irritated with. You know, for not telling me something this huge.”
I let my head hang. “You’ve known? The whole time?”
“Yep.”
“You just let me keep thinking you didn’t? Why didn’t you say something?”
“It seemed like a fitting punishment. I could tell you were squirming. I know you suck at keeping secrets. But now I need to know if the wedding is actually happening. I’ve got some people I like involved in planning this thing, and I want to give them fair notice if you aren’t going to go through with the ceremony.”
I have a confusing ball of relief, shame, guilt, and giddiness at war inside me. Finding out that Mia already knows takes a huge weight off my shoulders. When I let myself stress about telling the truth to everybody, Mia was the one I was most afraid of. Paisley came next, along with some of the guys from the hockey team. But I hate that she has known and watched me continue to let the lie stretch on.
“I wanted to tell you,” I say slowly. “But we also thought it would be unfair to anybody who knew. We’d be asking them to lie. And the more people we told, the more likely it was to get out.”
“Yep. Already know your excuses. Andi told me.”
“You talked to Andi about this, too?” I gasp.
She laughs. “Well, duh. As soon as Cade told me, I told Andi. Then Andi told Paisley by accident because she thought I already had. But Paisley had already heard about it from Grams and Edgar. And they–”
I hold up a hand to stop her, eyes closed as I take all that in. “Wait. How many people know, exactly?”
“Um… Everybody?”
The word hits me like a freaking truck. “Everybody?”
“Pretty much, yeah? Nobody has the heart to tell you they know. We’re all just kind of enjoying the excuse to party. And who doesn’t like a wedding? Even if it’s fake.”
I put my face in my hands. “Oh my God. Does Jake know that everybody knows?”
“No… When we told the whole team, everybody agreed that he deserved to squirm, too. The guys said he was an asshole for not trusting them to keep a secret. Apparently, Jesse thought we should tell him, but I think that’s only because he was the one guy who got to know before everyone else.”
I blow out a long breath. “I think I need to have a conversation with Jake.”
She grins. “Not before you tell me what’s actually going on with you two?”
I run through everything as quickly as I can, from the oddly magical few days in Manhattan–even if I was sick for some of it–to the confusing stretch of low contact that followed and up to our current sexual connection paired with a bit of emotional distance.
“Wow,” Mia says, nodding. “So you guys are kind of a mess, huh? You really blew him on the boat, though? Some kids said they spotted you guys going at it with binoculars, but I thought they were kidding.”
My eyes bulge. “Binoculars?” The existence of binoculars hadn’t occurred to me while I had Jake’s cock in my mouth.
She smirks. She’s enjoying this. “Yeah, at least nobody was taking video on high-definition cameras with zoom capability. You know, since absolutely nobody would film something like an awesome couples rowing race.”
My cheeks burn hotter now. “Is there a video?” I whisper.
“Probably. You can likely expect some blackmail attempts in the near future if you piss off people in the town. So don’t start slacking on your event planning. But anyway, back to the owner of the cock you were gobbling on the boat… It sounds like the real issue was keeping the secret. So, the problem is solved, right? Secret’s out!”
“I don’t know the real problem,” I admit. “I just know we’ve always done well in the early stages. The chemistry has never been a problem. Give us a chance, and we can barely keep our hands off each other. But then we start sleeping together and questions about taking the next step come up. That’s when it feels like something changes.”