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)
They start working on me while Jake observes. All I can do is watch myself in the mirror with a touch of disbelief.
“You know,” Jake says absently. He holds Walker in his arms and bounces him gently as he sleeps. “We’ll need to do this routine for the wedding dress soon. Right?”
His words make me feel a touch of instant vertigo. He’s right, of course. But playing engaged at a charity gala and staging an actual freaking wedding with our friends and family invited are two entirely different animals.
I take a deep steadying breath, and then the women unexpectedly start stripping the dress off me.
I go a deeper shade of red as I’m stripped down to my bra and panties in a very well-lit room on a freaking pedestal in front of a million mirrors. All the while, Jake Summers is watching from behind me on the couch. I suppose the women assume the father of my child has seen it all before, and I wouldn’t mind, but jeez. Would it have killed them to ask if I wanted some privacy?
One of his prominent eyebrows ticks upward. “My fiancée has quite the body, doesn’t she?”
The older of the two seamstresses looks up, almost surprised to hear his voice. “Yes,” she says. “She’s quite full in the bottom. You must be very happy.”
“And the chest,” Jake prompts. “I’ve always said a handful is enough, but who am I to complain if she brought some extra?”
I am going to die. I’m trying to death-glare him, but he’s not getting the message.
I put my palm to my face as they walk off with the dress, then I remember how exposed I am and try to cover myself. “You don’t have to stare,” I say through my teeth.
“What would your fiancé do, dear?” he asks, voice dripping with mock sweetness.
I force a smile, even though I’m pretty sure nobody is currently watching us. “He’d make an excuse about needing to use the restroom or give the baby some air for a few minutes.”
Jake considers my words, eyes narrowed. But he gets up, stretching his long legs, and sighs. “The things I do for love.” He gives me one last scorching look before he leaves with Walker.
11
JAKE
We’re both a little exhausted by the time we make it back to the hotel room. I set Walker in his carrier, where he sleepily yawns and stretches out like he’s about to get some rest… from resting all day. Babies.
Caroline stops to look at herself in the full-length mirror by the door. After her makeup, hair, and fitting session with the dress, she looks like a movie star. We barely made it to our cab before getting swarmed outside the clothing store, and she was getting stares as soon as we stepped into the hotel lobby.
“I can’t believe they just let me walk out with this on,” she says, running her hands down the dress. “I don’t want to sit down again. I just want it to stay perfect.”
I grin. “It’s all paid for and done. You can relax. But I do need to get myself ready. The gala starts in an hour.”
She checks her phone, looking nervous. “That means Andi and Jesse will be here soon. What are we even going to say? They’re going to think we’re insane.”
“We’ll just say we were embarrassed. Easy. Maybe we’ve been quietly seeing each other for a few… months. Is that believable?”
Caroline folds her arms and chews her thumbnail, eyebrows scrunched up. “Months… um, well, maybe one month. I may have said some things about you two months ago that would seem suspicious.”
A laugh slips out of me. “Wait, what did you say about me?” I’ve got my back to her as I gather my suit and slacks from the closet.
“It was nothing.”
“Nothing, huh? But ‘nothing’ would be the kind of thing someone wouldn’t say about their boyfriend. What was it?”
She’s pacing now, clearly uncomfortable. “I just said something about how you aren’t the family man type. That’s all. I told my friends I wanted to start a family and find my forever person. See? No big deal.”
“Why the need to bring me up at all in that conversation? Were you already talking about me?”
She blinks. “Well, yes. Maybe your friends are less perceptive than mine, but the girls have suspected something going on between us for years now. I’ve always denied it, but they suspect it. So when I complain about my love life, they sometimes like to bring you up.”
“Your love life,” I say slowly. “Like this mystery man you were with when you got pregnant with Walker?” I don’t say the part that has been eating at me for the past year–that Walker being somebody else’s kid means she was sleeping around the last time we were hooking up. I already know I don’t have a right to be mad. Having no right to be mad just makes me more mad, though. Go figure.