Chapter 17
LUKE
She stared at me in horror, which wasn’t what I expected.
Of course, I hadn’t expected to pay her for the girlfriend role, either.
But I meant it. I needed her and maybe she needed me to help her as well.
I’d thought about her drunken admission all night.
Some fucker named Duncan who had a thing for her mother.
If that was her last boyfriend… no, fiancé, then no wonder she didn’t want anything serious.
I had trust issues because everyone in my world was fake. Literally fake, like Lacey and her boobs, and her cheekbones, probably her ass, too, if what I heard about implants there was legit.
But Aspen wasn’t fake. Not her body. Not her personality. Not her friendships. Not her relationship with her daughter. Everything about her was so real.
Including her reaction.
And I wanted her. All of her. If the only way I could get more of her since she didn’t want a real relationship was to start a fake one with her, then so be it.
“How did you–”
“You’re talkative when you have too much wine.”
She flopped back on the bed, flung the comforter over her head so only the lower portion of her leg stuck out. “Go away. I want to die of embarrassment in peace.”
Reaching out, I pulled the blanket down so her face showed. “Who’s Duncan?”
She rolled her eyes and huffed just like I imagined Sierra would do in a few years. “He’s my ex-fiancé.”
I knew that much. I broached my next question carefully because I was a little scared of the answer. “You mentioned something about your mother?”
She put a hand over her face, wiped her eyes. “God, what didn’t I tell you?”
I waited and I used my acting skills to appear patient.
“My mother has… an important job. She has a lot of connections that some find valuable. Turns out Duncan was one of them.”
“He dated you for what? Access to your mother?” It was better than the assumption I made the night before.
She nodded, her sloppy hair sliding over her pillow. “Pretty much. He was going to marry me for it. Stupid me thought he actually liked me. He was a good actor. Maybe there’s a part for him on your show? Dead body number one?”
I smiled, but it was fake. I wanted to find out Duncan’s last name and make him really a dead body. “He live here in Hunter Valley?”
“Idaho. I was stupidly going to relocate for him. You know, to be with him and his mistress.”
He cheated on her, too? What the fuck? I took a breath and tried to calm my rage. Doing that, I picked up on something else she said. That she thought he actually liked her. Not loved. Why would she be engaged to a guy she didn’t love with all her heart?
What had happened to her? It had to be more than Duncan the Dick.
“So you dumped his ass.” I hoped.
“I did. And in some sort of life cleansing, I took the ring up into the hills and buried it. Buried my stupidity at thinking some guy would want me for a real relationship and moved on to being smarter and wiser.”
I winced because I didn’t want her for a real relationship. Well, I did, but I needed her to play a role. To be my girlfriend. And I’d pay her to do it.
Oh shit. But I wasn’t lying to her about it.
I might want something from her, but she was getting something in return.
We were walking into this arrangement with our eyes open.
It would be fake. We were fake. Even knowing that, I was fiercely protective of her. How dare that fucker use her like that!
“There was wine involved.” She winced. “I swear I’m not a lush, but last night I missed Sierra and–”
I held up my hand. “You’re not the only one who’s had a few too many before.”
She brushed her hair back again. “Well, I remember the bulldog rock. There really is one, I think, and I buried the ring in a tea tin right in front of it. I just don’t know where it is.”
“You said this was two years ago. He wants the ring back now?”
She sat up and held the blanket to her chest. She was so fucking pretty, and she had no idea. “I know, right? His lawyer sent me a letter. I have to give the ring back by the end of the month or I owe him the value of the ring.”
“Which is?”
It was her turn to wince. “Fifty thousand dollars.”
Shit, that was an expensive ring. No wonder she enlisted the kids to help her find it. But it was easily solvable. I could make this asshole and Aspen’s problem go away. Life cleansing? I’d give her toxic ex removal once and for all. “I’ll give you the money.”
Her eyes widened. “What? No. You will not.”
I shrugged. “I’m rich. This jerk doesn’t deserve–”
“No!” she countered, clearly adamant. “I will not take your money. I was the stupid one, burying it like that. It was my embarrassing mistake. Duncan was my mistake.” She was the only woman I knew who refused that kind of money and she wasn’t even going to keep it.
I wasn’t sure if that was more telling about her integrity or the quality of the people who usually surrounded me. Perhaps both.
I held up my hand. “Fine. Then be my fake girlfriend in exchange for the money. You would really be helping me, and I think we can agree, liking each other won’t be too hard to fake.”
In fact, I wasn’t faking at all.
She pursed her lips. Huffed. Closed her eyes. It was as if an internal battle was playing out before my eyes.
“Or we can go hunt the woods again for the bulldog rock.”
“Fine! I’ll do it.”