Chapter 1 #2
My brow furrowed. "Yeah, why did you do that? It made everything infinitely worse."
Brady shifted, leaning his elbows on his thighs, ever the picture of calm.
I always thought it had something to do with being the youngest Kingston brother. He took everything in and somehow managed to remain calm through all the chaos.
He blew out a breath. "It could work."
"What could work?" I asked, more agitated by the second. We needed to retract this story fast if we had any hope of it being stopped.
"Our engagement."
My eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"
He gazed thoughtfully at the fire. "I need a girlfriend, but a fiancée will do."
I placed a hand on my hip. "You need a girlfriend, but you'll settle for a fiancée?"
His gaze lifted to meet mine. "You know I love video games."
"A lot of people do."
"And my dad hates that I waste my time on it."
I frowned. "Why do you care what he thinks about what you do in your spare time?"
His brow creased. "It's a little more than playing video games."
"What are you talking about?"
"I record shows about me playing video games. I have a channel, and it's picking up viewers. I want to get the designation as a kids' channel so that I can gain even more traction. When I applied, the streaming platform said it would help if I were dating someone who appeared with me on the shows."
I held up my hand. "You lost me. You have a show where you play video games, and kids watch it?"
He nodded. "It's getting popular, and I want to take things to the next level."
"Does anyone know about this? Your brothers, parents?" I was his best friend, and I had no idea.
"I don't want to tell them. At least not until it's successful."
"Why is that?"
"He's proud of Marshall. Hudson is the responsible one who'll take over the business. Shep and Coop get a free pass, Dalton is busy with his personal life at the moment, and Luna’s running a successful business. I'm the one who can't be trusted with any responsibility."
"I thought you were content with your role at the business."
"I'm not saying I want to take on more work, at least not now that my show is taking off. But I want my father to respect what I do."
I sat next to him. "He loves you."
"But does he respect me? Sometimes it feels like I don't have a connection with him at all. He's annoyed that I play video games, and he'll never respect my work unless I can show him that I'm making money from it."
"You can make money from playing video games?" I felt so lost. How had I missed something that was so important to my friend?
Brady shook his head. "You can't even imagine how much."
"The kids at the library are always talking about these shows, but I had no idea they were so lucrative."
Brady nodded. "It's kind of crazy."
"And this is what you want to do?"
"It's an outlet for me. For a few hours, I can forget about responsibilities and my family stuff."
I sighed. I didn't have the family issues he did.
My parents died when I was little, and my grandparents raised me.
They were unconventional, not always doing the same things as other parents who were younger, but I loved them fiercely.
Since Grandpa died a few years ago, Grandma was my only family left.
"If we stay engaged, it will give me the narrative I need for my shows. The streaming platform will be happy. I get what I want."
I frowned. "And what do I get out of this?"
"You get to make your grandmother happy?—"
"But what happens when she finds out the truth?" I asked, because she would. There was no keeping secrets in this town.
"By then, I'll have the show I want, and you could keep making cameo appearances."
"You know I don't play video games." He'd tried for years to get me to play, and I didn't have the patience for it. I preferred books to electronics.
"You don't really play. It's more like you're commenting on what's going on in the game. I create the video game feed first, and then I record me speaking about what's happening. You can watch a few to get the hang of it."
"I don't know about this. I don't want to lie to Grandma."
"Mabel was quick to believe that it was true. There was no doubt in her mind that it was real."
"She's been asking for years when we were going to get together. To her, it's a foregone conclusion."
"And to you?"
I rolled my eyes. "We're friends. If there was something between us, then we would have acted on it years ago." Lies. All lies. I'd suffered in silence while he dated other girls. No matter how much I liked him, I was never willing to take the risk and tell him the truth. I couldn't lose him.
"The point is that it's believable. It's not so far from reality that people on the island won't believe it. We'll be seen together, post a few things to our social-media pages, and get you filming the show. Then I'll apply for the kids' designation."
"And then what?"
"We can quietly break up."
"How long do we have to pretend to be engaged?" My heart was racing with the possibilities. Would he hold my hand? Would we need to kiss to make it appear real? What else did he expect of me in this arrangement?
"A few weeks, maybe even a month or two?"
"We go through with the engagement party," I said, feeling resigned to this crazy plan.
"That will be the perfect post to my social-media pages."
Brady moved his chair so that it faced mine, taking both of my hands in his, his knees bracketing mine. "I'll never hurt you. We'll do this as long as it's good for both of us. When one of us wants out, we'll end it."
I wanted to know what would happen if one of us caught feelings, but I was fairly positive that would be me, and I would keep my mouth shut about that.