The Art of Falling in Love with Your Fake Fiancé: A small town closed door romantic comedy (Sweetkis

17. Levi

SEVENTEEN

For the last ten minutes, I’ve listened to Georgie, without speaking, as she explains to me about her run-in with Lorna. My ear is sweating, we’ve been on the phone so long. Combine that with the allergy attack I’m having thanks to the cat sleeping in my room again, and I’m a hot Southern-fried mess.

Every other sentence, she stops to say she’s sorry, over and over, for being the one who let this slip, “and in front of all people, it had to be Lorna.” She’s riding a turbulent wave of emotions, and it’s all my fault.

She should know I can’t blame her. I’m the one who asked her to do this with me. For me. To “scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” It’s like she’s Julia Roberts and I’m Richard Gere and I’ve forced her into this situation by saying I’d give her a place to stay if she just pretended that she was marrying me. I’ve managed to pull a Pretty Woman on my best friend.

By the time I hang up, she’s calmer, but not by much. She has every right to be upset, but not at herself. At me. I’m the problem here.

I can hear Mom and Austin out on the porch, and the sound of a television set blaring upstairs lets me know that Duncan’s assumed his position playing video games. Once he’s been here longer, I’ll put more boundaries up around his screen time, but these days I simply want him to want for nothing.

Dialing Buzz, I question if that was a good idea in the first place, because wanting Duncan to only have the best has led to this moment. I let the phone ring and ring until finally Buzz’s voicemail picks up. How can I sum up everything I have to say succinctly and quickly in a fast message?

The answer to this is: I can’t. Instead, when his voicemail picks up, I can only beg him to call me back before disconnecting and throwing open the door to the porch. Time to talk to my people about this mess I’ve created.

“What happened to your face?” Austin asks, his jaw hitting the ground when I walk out, causing Mom to spin around from her seat only to stare at me in shock as well.

“Sweetie,” she says, rising to come over and look at my puffiness in all of its glory. “That stinking cat loves you so much.”

Another reason to move out soon, but I don’t say it out loud. “And I love Snickers, too, but that cat cannot come into my room anymore.”

“At least your bride-to-be is a dog person,” Austin says, making an attempt at humor but not realizing the mood I’m in. He catches on when I glower and look his way. “What’s going on? You don’t look like you’re in a good place.”

“Because I’m not in a good place,” I growl, filling them in on Georgie’s run-in with Lorna. It takes me a hot second to cover everything Georgie shared, but I get there in the end. As soon as I’m done, I pull a chair out from our outdoor patio table and spin it around so I can face these two and hopefully hear some good advice.

Austin’s the first to react. “Wow, Levi. I don’t even know what to say.”

Okay. Austin’s got nothing. I turn and look at my mother, who shakes her head.

“I didn’t think this was going to end well,” she says, but her voice is filled with understanding and not as much “I told you so” as I was expecting. “Have you called Buzz?”

“Did that before I came outside.” I slam myself into the chair and stare at the sky. “This is going to hurt my chances of getting Duncan, isn’t it?”

“Only Buzz can tell you that,” my mother shares, patting my leg. “I keep thinking that, of course, the courts will see that you get Duncan because of Tom’s wishes, but…”

She doesn’t have to say what she’s thinking. I’m thinking about it, too. If I hadn’t lied like this, I would have made a stronger case.

I know that most of this is out of my hands and it’s up to the courts. I knew that going into this. So why did I freak out and insist on saying anything to Georgie? Why would I ask her to pretend to be engaged so I could make sure I got custody of Duncan?

Because it’s what your friend wanted, for you to take care of Duncan, so you wanted to look as good as possible, says the little angel sitting on one shoulder.

Because you are in love with her and wanted to make your case, like having your cake and eating it, too, says the little devil sitting on the other one.

I hate them both.

“Levi, until you talk to Buzz, you can’t do a thing, so just do what does not come natural to you,” Mom says. “You’ve gotta wait.”

I tap my head against the back of the chair and stare at the sky. It’s hot today, the summer heat is starting to kick in. Maybe I’ll take Duncan down to the river for a swim. In case it’s my only chance to do it before someone comes along and takes him away from me, that is.

“While you wait, you can do something to figure yourself out, though.”

I glance over at my mother, tapping away on her iPad, scrolling through and looking at ice cream recipes. She is obsessed.

I tap my foot on the porch a few times. “What? What can I do to help this?”

“You could dissect the feelings you have for Georgie so you can put that to rest once and for all,” she announces matter-of-factly. Austin stands by her chair, nodding his head like a parrot agreeing with its master.

“That’s easy for you to say; you don’t have skin in the game like I do.”

“Skin in the game? You’re hiding behind a fictional idea of an engagement. THAT is not having skin in the game, it’s playing house or testing the waters. Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free—”

“Pretty sure that’s not what that saying means,” Austin tries to interject, but Mom won’t let him.

“You, no talking.” She wags a finger at him. “As his brother, it’s your job to make sure he’s on the straight and narrow, and this whole plan is not straight nor is it narrow. It is wide and wiggly and has gotten him into trouble.”

She then turns to face me again. “However, we’re going to fix it.”

I raise an eyebrow. “We are?”

She nods. “I feel like you’ve been attempting to play a long game; you just did it stupidly.”

I can’t argue. Mother knows best. “Why didn’t you, of all people, try to stop me?”

“Because, Levi, something you’re going to have to learn if you do get custody of Duncan is that sometimes you have to let your kids make their own mistakes.”

Mic. Drop. MC Mary Porter in the house, ladies and gentlemen.

“Okay, that’s fair.” I tilt the chair so it teeters on its hind legs. “What do I do now?”

“Put that chair on all four legs before you bust your chin open, that’s what,” she mumbles, waiting for me to do just that. I do as I’m told because I will never be too old to listen to my mother. Never.

“If you’re going to try to woo her,” Austin offers while I pray what he’s saying is going to actually be helpful, “you also need to talk to her about that social media post I saw.”

My mother’s lips go into a tight line. “What post?”

Austin opens his phone and shows it to my mother. As soon as she’s done, I hold my hand out. I’ve not seen it yet, only heard about it from Georgie. As I read it over and skim the comments, I can see why she’s feeling vulnerable and pulverized by all of this at the moment.

“That poor girl, and you didn’t take into account what can of worms could be opened when she’s with you.” Mom tilts her head to the side as she raises her hand to shield her face from the sun. “Talk about learning a hard lesson.”

The brevity of this whole situation sits on my chest like someone dropped a weight on it. The lies being said about my beautiful friend, inside and out, who has been through so much are horrible, and the fact she’s been thrust into all of this because I wanted it? I’m feeling like I overstepped here and in a big way.

But is it overstepping when you’ve been secretly in love with someone for over a year? When their name pops up and you feel a blast of ice go through your veins because you know that they’re in the world and under the same sky as you? There were nights when I was on the road and the one thing that kept me going was looking forward to a call with Georgie, glancing up at the moon and knowing she was seeing the same one I was.

“I need to fix things with her, and I need to do it fast.” My eyes flicker back and forth between my mother’s and Austin’s. “But I don’t know what to do, and y’all have seen that when I’m left to my own devices, I pick the wrong street to turn down. Help.”

“I know!” Austin slaps his hands together. Underneath his tough exterior, this quarterback is also a fan of a Hallmark film or three. “It’s time for…” He does a drumroll on his thighs. “The grand gesture!”

My mother cocks her head and looks at him as if he’s just suggested we take her to a strip club. “A grand gesture? Like what, buy her a house?”

“I mean, if he had the money…” Austin begins.

Laughing, I cut him off. “Like in a rom-com, Mom. I need to show up and do the big thing to show her how I feel.”

“How do you feel?” She looks at me pointedly. “Expand on that.”

Talk about being open with your family. “I’m in love with her.”

The pair fall silent as my words sink in. I’m even stewing on the fact I’ve said it out loud as my mother starts grinning.

“Well, now that you have FINALLY admitted what we can all see, you really do need to sweep her off her feet.” She hops up out of her seat and heads back into the house. “Come on, I’m going to make us something to snack on while we come up with some ideas on how you can woo that sweet girl. I like her and want to keep her around, so let’s make it good, hear me?”

“Just no more ice cream,” Austin pleads as he follows her inside.

I’m two steps behind them when my cell phone rings. Glancing at the screen, I see Buzz’s name, then hit the button to connect and press it to my ear as fast as I can.

“It’s not good news,” he says once our niceties are done. “I’ve had a call from the judge. Turns out she’s in Lorna’s book club and got an earful earlier today about your situation with your soon-to-be wife.” He says the last part with what I can only imagine is a little grimace on his face. I start to remind him that he hinted at this very idea, but instead I decide not to. In the end it was my choice.

“What’s happening?” I ask, my stomach starting to knot.

“She managed to get an order to move the date up to next week, Monday morning. I’m sorry for the short notice, Levi, but you’ll be going to court after the weekend to see who gets custody of Duncan once and for all.”