6. Aubrey
My brain was going to explode.
Before it did, I should probably figure out if I was doing to kick Brodie in the balls, or find out of if he fucked as well in person as he did over a headset.
In the last five days, Sylvie had come up with a guest list, designed basic digital wedding invites, sent them to everyone in our family and her fiancé’s, and talked to Ravyn with me about using Ravyn’s yard for the ceremony and reception. I’d asked Brooke too, but she had other plans that weekend.
And now the family was starting to show up. I wasn’t as ready for this as I thought—and I had known I wasn’t ready for it.
Grandma had always come down harder on me than my sisters and cousins, and I didn’t know why. She hated that I was single. Tattooed. Wore revealing clothing. Hadn’t picked a career—at least not according to her—and to be a housewife. Had a little extra weight in the rear.
She seemed to hate me for everything.
Would she come around if she knew I had both a husband and a fiancé, as of this week?
Sure. That would make her love me. Not.
I wasn’t telling anyone I was married to Clint, and neither was he. And looking at Brodie in the middle of my shop, as he watched me, it was impossible to miss how gorgeous he was.
Yeah, I recognized him when he walked in. We went to school together. He was older, with the faintest hints of silver showing on dark hair at the temples, but he had the same kind face and deep brown eyes I could lose myself in. He’d kept in shape. He was the perfect height for me to have to tilt my head just a little, to make eye contact.
And his forearms were doing wicked things to sleeves that were rolled up a couple times.
Besides, he was in an industry I followed, and everyone knew his name. A pioneer. An innovator.
If he was the man I’d been talking to online—which I assumed because he had that same voice that made my panties damp just thinking about the things he’d said to me over the past few years—he knew more of my secrets than almost anyone. Possibly more than even Alys or Evie or even Clint.
Maybe.
“So, what do you say?” His question dragged me out of my head. “Fake marry me?”
The question felt familiar. As if someone had said something similar just a few days ago. Imagine that.
“I’ll be fake engaged to you.” That difference felt important right now.
“I’ll take it.” He kissed me on the cheek.
Were we this intimate already? It was both jarring and comfortable, and my brain didn’t know how to process the conflict. Last time I saw Brodie, he was Clint’s boyfriend. If that didn’t make this entire mess even more confusing…
I needed to put some distance between us. I moved behind my counter, and fiddled with the lock that hid some of my more expensive jewelry.
“Are you all right?” Brodie asked.
“Fine. Totally fine. All good. Perfectly fine.”
Absolutely insane was what I was. As the seconds ticked away, the absurdity of this entire situation sank in. Rather than slip into that hole of confusion, I grabbed one of my favorite vintage rings from where it rarely saw the light of day.
It was European cut diamond—rectangular—with alternately stepped sapphires and diamonds down each side, all set in platinum.
I slipped it on my ring finger and turned to show Brodie. “There. Like a proper couple.”
“It’s pretty. I would have bought you one, though. I still will.”
I wrinkled my nose. “No. You’re not spending money on this. It’s only for a month, and we’re not telling anyone we don’t have to.”
“If people see the ring, they’ll ask questions.” He didn’t sound like he had a problem with that. How was he taking this all so well?
“We’re still telling as few people as possible, and then breaking up quietly when it’s all over. How long are you here, anyway?”
Brodie shrugged. “Don’t know yet. When is Sylvie getting married?”
“You can’t just drop everything for a month, and hang out here.”
“Why not? I’ll stick around, play my part, and when it’s over you can tell everyone it’s because I was a big rich jerk and you sent me packing.”
Surreal. No. Really. This all felt too convenient, but I didn’t know how much was real and how much was manufactured.
Yet, I wanted it to all be genuine. I wanted Brodie to be the same guy I’d been talking to online. I wanted?—
“Hey. You should know your sister and some older woman—” Evie started talking the instant she walked into my shop and then stopped just as abruptly. “Brodie? Brodie Watson? I didn’t know you were back in town.”
Evie was a lot of incredible things. A good liar was not one of them.
“You remember me.” Brodie sounded surprised.
He wasn’t completely unflappable. Good to know.
“Us nerds gotta stick together,” Evie said. “And the two of you should know, there are rumors that you’re engaged. I know, nothing to be done about rumors, but?—”
“We are,” Brodie cut her off.
And so it begins. Telling someone besides Grandma made my insides do topsy turvy things. “We’re keeping it quiet.” Though my reply was for meant Evie, I gave Brodie a pointed look.
“She already knows, and the point is to not deny it. Besides, that only makes them talk more if you tell them it’s not true,” Brodie said.
I didn’t like that he was right, or that this came so easily for him.
“I’m sorry. How are you engaged?” Evie was focused on me.
“The normal way. I proposed, she said yes.” Brodie answered anyway.
Evie covered his mouth with her hand. “How are you engaged, Aubrey?”
She was one of my closest friends, along with Alys. We called ourselves the Nerd Herd—rather, I called us that and they went along with it. And we told each other almost everything, so it would make sense that me having a fiancé, or even a serious boyfriend out of the blue would be hard for her to believe.
Before I could answer, the door to my shop swung open again. Where were all these people coming from?
This time it was Alys, and Ravyn, another friend, was with her.
“Did you know—” Alys snapped her jaw shut. “Hey, you have company.”
Ravyn elbowed Alys. “Is that him?” Her hiss was anything but quiet.
Did Grandma walk out of here with Sylvie and announce this thing to the entire town? Was there a flier on the telephone pole outside my building? Aubrey is engaged.
“Probably not.” Alys shook her head. “I don’t know who this guy is.”
Fuck. I sighed. At least I could get this part of things out of the way quickly. I walked past everyone to lock the store and turn the sign on the door to Closed, then looked at Brodie. “I need to talk to my friends. Don’t tell anyone else we’re engaged until I get back.”
“If someone asks, I’m not going to lie.”
I’d say that wouldn’t happen, but given the way things were going this morning, who knew what came next?
I grabbed Alys, and Evie and Ravyn followed us into my back room. There was a large space here that I used as a photography studio, to shoot images of the clothing I had in the store. Because I had it set up to keep noise from drifting into the store, and vice versa, it was also the perfect place for hiding and having conversations without people eavesdropping.
“So it’s true?” Alys asked the moment we stopped.
Ravyn jerked her head toward the shop. “Is that Brodie?”
“Yes,” Evie said.
Alys’s eyes grew wide. “No. Holy shit. Brodie from school?” She was a few years younger than me, so it made sense she wouldn’t know him from anything but mentions around town. “How did you get engaged to him?”
“Probably the normal way. He asks, she says yes,” Ravyn said.
Evie shook her head. “Regardless of what he says, I don’t think it actually happened that way.”
I loved my friends. They always had my back. There were times all our different experiences made a streamlined conversation harder. I should be grateful Elaina wasn’t here adding to the bedlam, but it meant telling her separately.
Come to think of it, why was Ravyn here? “Why are you here?” I asked her.
She jutted her lower lip out. “I can leave.”
“No. Don’t. That’s not…” Slow down, brain. Be nice. “I’m glad you’re here, I just don’t usually see you downtown.”
Ravyn had inherited a farmhouse and barn on the outskirts of Haddarville. She hadn’t lived there long, and really only knew Alys and the rest of us. She would stop by on trivia night, or to pick up food, but she spent a lot of time hiding in her house and painting.
“Onyx was at an estate sale,” Alys answered for her. “Limited edition Bowie vinyl I knew Ravyn had to see, and he has some awesome stuff for you, too Aubrey. A trunk of satin pretties.”
Onyx was one of her boyfriends, and owned the record store a few shops down from mine. I’d forgotten he promised to snag me anything from the sale that looked promising. How did I let such a thing slip my mind? Possibly because I’d gotten married and engaged in the same week. To different people. In that order. And I was helping my sister plan her wedding.
“Awesome. Yay. Everyone has nifty new stuff.” Evie’s voice was flat. “Why are you engaged, Aubrey?”
I could tell them. None of them would go spreading the truth around town—what a weird way to think of this whole thing. Wouldn’t want reality getting out. “No one can know but those of us in this room. Especially not Gage.” I gave Evie a pointed look.
She scowled. “You mean especially not Rohde.” One of Gage’s good friends, who tended to gossip about everything. “But I get your point. This is top secret.”
“Cross my heart, no one will hear it from me.” Ravyn made an x motion over her chest.
“Me three,” Alys said. “It never leaves this room.”
Right. Every one of these decisions made sense in my head, so they should be easy to explain to friends who understood me. “Brodie was flying home—here—and was seated next to my grandma on the plane.”
“What are the odds?” Alys asked.
Evie seemed to consider that. “A billion to none.”
“They live in the same state, and they’re both flying first class nonstop to the same state.” It couldn’t be that random.
“You could probably get Vegas odds on that,” Ravyn said.
I was glad she had my back. “Grandma mentioned me, and what a disappointment I was, because yanno…” And they did. This wouldn’t be news to Alys or Evie. Ravyn’s huff made me think she understood as well. “He realized who she was and that she was talking about me, and defended my honor by telling her he was my rich fiancé.”
Evie scowled. “Seriously? Did that redeem you in her eyes? That you have a man with money?”
“I don’t know.” I hated that part of this as much as Evie did. “But she seems to adore him, so I assume that will make her easier to deal with until after Sylvie’s wedding is over. Her and the rest of the family. I don’t want to make a big deal out of it, and I definitely don’t want to steal the spotlight from Sylvie, but if this saves me from at least a few of the passive aggressive comments…”
“I get that.” Alys squeezed my hand.
Evie shook her head. “I’m not sure I do.”
“I definitely do.” Ravyn should come by more often. “Just because you know who you are and what you want, doesn’t mean it’s easy to hear a non-stop barrage of people telling you they think you’re wrong.”
“Exactly.” This wasn’t so complicated. It’d be fine.
Evie leaned against a nearby display case I had back here for storage. “He’s been gone for almost twenty years. And you’ve been lusting after Deacon for at least that long. Until recently, anyway. People aren’t going to buy this.”
“People will believe what they want.” We’d all learned that a long time ago. “Besides, it’s not out of nowhere. Brodi and I have been chatting online for a while now. Not that I knew it was him, but…”
Alys’s mouth formed a perfect O, and no one responded.
“He’s BW,” I said. “I didn’t know and neither did he.”
Ravyn blew out a noisy exhale. “Vegas just retracted those odds.”
How much less likely is it that I’m married to his ex-boyfriend? Fuck. “Please…” I’d lost track of what I was asking.
“It stays between us. We promised,” Evie said, and Alys nodded her agreement.
“Be careful.” Ravyn’s words caught me off-guard. “Rich guys who think they can do and buy anything… They will always think that.” She came from one of the wealthiest families in the state, and I assumed she spoke from experience.
But I’d been there too, even if I didn’t associate with my family or their money. “I know. I’ve got this all under control.” I’d already set some rules, and I would lay down more. I wouldn’t yield on any of them, and everything would be fine. I had this under control.
My friends and I returned to the front of the store to find Brodie waiting patiently. As soon as I approached, he pulled me close and gave me a hard, fast kiss. “Missed you, Peach.”
His voice and touch sent a shiver of desire through me.
Ravyn cleared her throat in the least subtle way possible.
This was totally fine. I absolutely had things under control.