13. James
CHAPTER 13
JAMES
It was a lucky coincidence that Hallie’s boss owns several of my pieces, so I latch onto the conversation, answering questions about my process and my policy of using found wood. Apparently, the Winter brothers have the same earth-first philosophy in their business and try to make their wine as eco-friendly as they can. Lucas is telling me about their efforts to remain carbon neutral when I suddenly feel Hallie tense up next to me. When she reaches for my hand, I know something’s up, so I discreetly glance around the room in time to spot that moron Chase heading right for us with a smug look on his face. I can tell that Hallie is nervous about Chase inserting himself into the conversation with her bosses, so I brace myself for whatever he has up his sleeve. I refuse to let this jerk get the best of me.
“You’ve all outdone yourselves, once again,” Chase tells the three brothers as he joins the conversation. “This place is amazing; I didn’t think you’d be able to top last year’s trip to Palm Springs.”
“Clay was determined to one-up me,” Lucas laughs. “I didn’t think he could beat the weather of Southern California, but even I can admit when I’ve been bested.”
“Let’s get out on the links and see what the course is like before we declare a true winner,” Chase laughing, miming swinging a golf club.
The brothers all nod and laugh in agreement and I can see right away how Chase has managed to get as far as he has in this company. He’s clearly a two-faced douche bag. The person he is around his bosses is far from his true self. He has nothing on Hallie. She might be lying about being in a relationship, but she’s as genuine to her bosses as she is to the accountants, the assistants, and everyone else she works with.
“So, I see you’ve all met Hallie’s boyfriend,” Chase says, turning his gaze to me. “I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to getting to know James here a lot better.”
Even though he’s smiling at me pleasantly enough, I can see the malice in his gaze. This man is going to stop at nothing to tear Hallie down and get the promotion for himself. It almost makes me feel glad that I’m here to protect her.
“Why did you keep him such a secret from everyone, Hallie?” Chase continues. “It seems like no one at the vineyard even knew he existed until last week.”
“Jasmine did,” Hallie replies a little too quickly, making me think she already had a response planned for this question.
“You two are thick as thieves,” Lucas laughs. “I remember having a best friend at work. Now I’m stuck with these two.”
We all laugh as Lucas gestures to his brothers. I’m hoping the conversation will move on from me and Hallie, but Chase seems intent on making a point.
“So,” he says, looking at Hallie with a wicked smile. “How did you two meet? I assume James was joking about finding you through an X rated 800 number.”
“What?” Scott nearly spits out his drink.
“Yes, Chase,” I quickly pipe in. “That was just a joke.”
I look over at Hallie, shaking my head and laughing, but I can see a look of panic in her eyes. It occurs to me in the moment that even though we spent all that time learning enough about each other to fool an immigration officer, we never came up with a backstory for our relationship. It seems like a glaringly obvious omission, given how much other information Hallie made me memorize, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.
“So?” Chase prompts us, refusing to let it go. “How did you lovebirds meet?”
“Oh, it’s, uh, it’s not really an interesting story,” Hallie says, laughing nervously.
“Did you meet on a dating app or something?” Clay asks, a hint of disapproval in his voice.
“No, definitely not,” I jump in. “It was much more romantic than that.”
“Well, tell us,” Chase says.
Next to me, Hallie is frozen stiff with worry, so I put my arm around her waist, running my hand over her hip.
“I was with my niece and nephew at the movies,” I begin. “We were supposed to be seeing some silly Halloween cartoon, but the movie trailers were all for horror flicks—really gory stuff. I couldn’t get the kids out of the theatre fast enough. We were spilling popcorn everywhere. I left behind about fifty dollars’ worth of candy.”
“You must be the fun uncle,” Clay laughs.
“I try,” I agree with a grin, thinking about my niece and nephew and how I don’t get to see them as much as I like anymore. “Well, I’m hurrying the kids out of the theater, and I run, literally knock right into Hallie as she’s coming in the door. Popcorn goes flying; Hallie’s soda ends up all down the front of my shirt, there’s ice all over the ground, it’s chaos.”
The group laughs at this, except for Chase who is glowering at me.
“Well, Hallie isn’t at all fazed by the mess, but she looks up at me with her eyes wide and asks what I think I’m doing taking two young children to see the digitally remastered Texas Chainsaw Massacre. ”
“Wait, you like horror movies?” Chase asks Hallie skeptically.
“I love them,” Hallie says convincingly, probably thinking about me rattling off all of my favorite horror films during our study session. “Especially the classics.”
“So, I tell her that of course I wasn’t bringing two young children to a horror movie, I must have walked into the wrong theater,” I continue. “By now the movie is starting and I’m covered in soda and Hallie offers to take the kids to the cartoon while I get cleaned up. Maybe I shouldn’t have sent my niece and nephew off with a total stranger, but something about her told me I could trust her. She stayed with us for the entire movie, and I invited her out to McDonalds with us afterwards. We’ve been together ever since. My brother’s kids already call her Aunt Hallie.”
“Wow,” Lucas shakes his head. “That’s a good story.”
“It sure is,” Chase says sardonically under his breath.
“No wonder the two of you look so happy—it sounds like it was love at first sight,” Scott adds.
“It was,” Hallie replies, looking up at me. “It really was.”
Clay’s assistant comes over to pull the brother’s away, leaving me and Hallie alone with Chase.
“Nice story,” Chase says. “That was some quick improvisation.”
“What is your problem, anyway?” I ask him.
“Me? I don’t have a problem,” Chase replies. “I’m doing just fine. But you two—you’re playing a dangerous game. And you’re not going to win.”
Hallie seems a little shaken from our encounter with Chase, so I lead her over to the bar to get a refill on our drinks.
“Don’t worry,” I tell her when we’re alone. “Chase is all bluster and no substance. He’s got nothing.”
“I don’t know,” she sighs, glancing uneasily around the room. “He seems pretty convinced that we’re making everything up and he’s not one to let things go, especially when there’s something so big at stake.”
“He might think he’s right, but he wouldn’t be so upset about the conversation with your bosses if he wasn’t worried. Remember—we don’t need to convince him that we’re a couple; we just can’t give him any ammunition to use again us.”
“I hope you’re right,” Hallie says, exhaling slowly. “Hey—that was some quick thinking earlier. How did you come up with such a great meet-cute so fast?”
I take a long swig of my martini, remembering how shocked Simone was when I came out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre with Connor and Abby. She couldn’t care less that her movie snacks were all over the ground; she was just surprised that I had two kids with me. It was our love of horror movies that brought us together. Unfortunately, that was when I thought she didn’t know who I was…and it wasn’t enough to keep us together when I didn’t want to be that person anymore. There’s no need to get into that with Hallie, though. It’s a story I don’t plan on sharing, even if it means having Hallie think I’m just some low life who uses women for sex. Maybe that’s not far from the truth these days.
“Oh, I think I saw it in a Hallmark movie,” I shrug noncommittally.
“A Hallmark movie?” Hallie replies, her eyebrows shooting up. “You watch romances?”
“Sure, why are you so surprised?” I ask.
“First of all, you didn’t say anything about it the other night when I told you I love RomComs,” she replies.
“Well, it’s not exactly something I’m proud of,” I insist. “Don’t tell anyone, okay? I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Your secret is safe,” Hallie says with a grin. “I doubt anyone who knows you would believe it anyway. That is something that definitely wasn’t on my bingo card.”
“I feel like I should take offense to that, but I don’t know why,” I laugh.
“Seriously? The least romantic guy I’ve ever met is into romance movies?”
“Ouch,” I say to her, placing my hand over my heart as if I’ve been wounded. “You don’t think I’m romantic?”
“Uh, for more than one night?” Hallie asks. “No, I don’t.”
“Okay then, challenge accepted,” I tell her. “Just give me a chance and I’ll show you how romantic I can be.”
Hallie thinks about it for a moment, giving me a long, appraising look.
“What do you have to lose?” I add.
“Fine,” she eventually agrees. “As long as you remember the ground rules...and that this relationship is just pretend.”
My breath catches in my lungs for a moment, realizing that this back and forth banter has felt a lot like flirting. I almost forgot why we’re here together—it’s all a ruse. There’s nothing between us, nothing to prove. I’m using this trip to hide from my family while doing a favor for someone in need. That’s all. Just because we’ve had a couple of nice moments together doesn’t mean anything can or will ever happen with Hallie. Like she said, it’s just pretend.
But as I watch her brush her hair back behind her shoulder, exposing her long, slender neck, I feel something stir inside me and I realize that I may not be completely pretending. I need to watch myself before I get carried away. I won’t let myself get hurt again.