Chapter 39 Lucy #2
I risk a glance at Kingston. He looks surprised as well, but his eyes are focused on Miles.
“You’re married?” Willa shrieks. “To who?”
I glance at Miles, and Willa’s eyes grow wider, if that were even possible.
“To him?” she croaks out, her cheeks flushing.
Uh oh, not good. Willa doesn’t lose her temper very often, but when she does, it’s a volatile mess. And this makes it twice on my account lately.
“It’s not like we’re really married!” I try to explain.
But she’s busy muttering to herself and pacing back and forth. She stops in front of Kingston and grabs both of his arms. “You knew, didn’t you!”
I can’t let her accuse her boyfriend of keeping secrets. “No one knew, Willa. Only Miles, me, his sister, and Margaret.”
Willa freezes and pivots on her heel. “Margaret?”
I shift uncomfortably. “I needed a maid of honor.”
“WHAT ABOUT ME?” she yells.
Oh boy. This is beyond Willa’s volatile temper. We’ve moved into fear-for-my-life territory.
I take a step backward and bump into Miles. He settles his arm around me, pulling me comfortably back toward him. “Willa. We didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. We’re just roommates who wanted to win a bet.”
“Yes!” I latch onto the lifeline that he’s throwing to me. “It’s not a real marriage. I mean, it’s real, but we’re not like in a relationship or anything.”
“What?” Willa exclaims.
Kingston clears his throat. “Maybe we should all sit down while you explain this.”
Miles squeezes my shoulders and nods. “It’s not that long of an explanation. Just the usual. My grandma offered to pay the first grandkid who got married fifty thousand dollars.”
Willa’s still glaring daggers at us, so I allow Miles to lead me to a seat and wait for Willa to sit down as well.
And then, we explain everything. The marriage. The bet. Ainsley. Preston. Even the camping trip. (Well, not everything about the camping trip.)
The clock on the wall says we’ve been here for an hour by the time I finish the story.
Some of the fight has left Willa, but I don’t believe for a second this is over.
She’s thinking, and when Willa sets her mind to thinking, it’s a dangerous business.
“Why did you need the money? You have a good job with great benefits. Plus, you have a roommate. It’s not like you needed a chunk of money. ”
“It’s for her student loans,” Miles oh-so-helpfully adds.
I pinch the inside of his leg, and he yelps. He turns to glare at me with a raised eyebrow. “What? There’s nothing wrong with admitting the truth.”
I draw my finger across my throat slowly, hoping he’ll get the message. I hadn’t decided how much of the truth I was ready to tell her.
“Lucy. What student loans? You had a full-ride scholarship!” Willa’s staring me down and looking more confused than ever.
Kingston is staring at me with a similar quizzical look. “You don’t have a student loan? I thought you had a debt to pay off and that’s why you needed to have a roommate.”
I tug at my sweatshirt collar and stare at Kingston. He’s the only one with a neutral face at the moment. “Would you believe I have a gambling problem?”
“No.” All three of them reply at the same time. Miles smiles at me and I have the urge to reach over and pinch him. He knows the truth and he’s not making this easy on me.
“I’m involved in a tax evasion scheme?”
Three heads shake as if one. Willa glares at me. “We are not leaving here until you tell the truth.”
She means it too.
I whisper, “I do have some student loans to pay off. Just not mine.”
“What?” Willa asks as the blood drains from her face.
I wait a few minutes, not wanting to overshare with Kingston and Miles sitting right here. But then I see the minute all the pieces fall into place. “Mine,” she says.
“Wait, I’m confused,” Kingston pipes in. “She’s not paying her own student loans?”
Willa shakes her head, then locks eyes with me. I see it the moment she understands. Her eyes soften as she asks, “Why didn’t I realize the discrepancies before?”
“You were young. You shouldn’t have had to think about it.”
“Dammit, Lucy. You’re only fifteen months older. You shouldn’t have had to think about it either.”
“Do you feel like they’re having a conversation without us?” Miles asks Kingston. I poke him in the ribs. He’s soaking this up, and I’m not sure why. He could help clear the confusion in the air, but I think he’s enjoying this a little too much.
“Yup. It’s like they have a secret code going on.”
Willa’s eyes are filling up. “You did that for me?”
“You’re my baby sister. I’m gonna look after you, even if you don’t think you need it.”
She leaps out of her chair and yanks me into a hug.
Willa is not a hugger—not by any stretch of the imagination.
It’s an awkward flailing of limbs and back pats, but it shows me how much it meant to her that she’s clinging to me and not letting go.
Physical touch is my love language—hers is acts of service.
And we’re learning to meet each other where we are.
“You should have told me. You know I’ve been doing well in my business. ”
“And I wanted you to enjoy running your business without the stress of paying off student loans.”
“Are we trapped in a Hallmark movie?” Kingston asks.
“I sure hope not,” Miles groans.
We sit back down, and Willa explains, “Lucy is paying my student loans.”
Kingston pins me with a stare for so long that I stand up to leave. Miles grabs the back pocket of my pants and pulls me back down to sit on his leg like he’s Santa.
“How did you pull that off?” Kingston asks—ever the logistics guy.
Willa, who’s always been a little too sharp for her own good, has already pieced it all together and does the honor of explaining.
“I thought I had a full-ride scholarship. Turns out my sister lied to me. I’d always thought it was strange that I’d managed to get the full ride.
My GPA wasn’t as high as Lucy’s. Algebra and Calculus kicked my butt in high school.
The scholarship I received was also very vague.
But I never got a bill for tuition, and I graduated with my degree. ”
“You never looked into your scholarship?” Kingston asks her.
“No, not really. All the emails were identical to Lucy’s…which maybe should have been my first clue.” She pins me with a glare, but then she’s smiling again just as quickly. “Lucy must have just changed the names and sent them from a burner email.”
“I wondered why you loved that white-collar crime show so much,” Miles whispers in my ear. “I should have realized…”
I give him a guilty smile. “Maybe in another life, I’ll be a con woman.”
And then he presses a kiss against my cheek.
Kingston clears his throat. “So this is just a deal between the two of you? Marriage, in name only?” He smiles broadly at the two of us.
“Yes, exactly. It’s mutually beneficial,” I say, although I’m not quite sure if it’s helping Miles that much.
“Oh, I’m sure it is,” Kingston agrees as he dips his head towards us.
I blush when I realize I’m sitting on Miles’s lap. Not good.
I leap up and move to the chair beside him.
“You’re so sneaky,” Willa says. The smile on her face is still there, as though she’s proud of me. “I know exactly what you’ve been up to.”
My eyes widen at that. I feel like there are so many things she could be alluding to.
“You’ve been protecting me all these years. And that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done.” Her voice takes on a choked tone, and her eyes start to water.
“Don’t you dare cry, Willa. You know it makes me cry every time.”
“Too bad. I can cry if I want to. But you’ve always let me, haven’t you? You’ve always made me feel safe with you, and I’ve never appreciated it.”
I shake my head. “You’ve always been kind to me.”
“But I haven’t always known the sacrifices you’ve made for me,” she shoots back.
Kingston surprises all of us when he walks over to me and tugs me out of the chair, pulling me into a big bear hug. He whispers into my ear, “Thanks for being what Willa needed.”
He stands there and holds me, his big arms around my shoulders, my eyes burning like mad while I try to fight the tears.
“And now it’s time for you to get to chase your own happiness,” he adds quietly as he releases me.
I glance at Willa, who’s nodding emphatically. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know how much you’ve been doing just so that I could live the life that I wanted.”
“You’re my baby sister. And I love you. I would do anything for you.”
Willa glances at Miles. “Well, you married him for me, didn’t you?”
Miles snorts. “Hey, now. No cheap shots.”
Willa smiles at him. “I should thank you for being more aware of what was going on than I was.”
Miles waves a hand through the air. “If you think I was doing Lucy a favor, it was all purely selfish reasons.”
I meet his warm gaze and realize I could easily stare at those green eyes for the rest of my life. “On that note, I think I need to go get some fresh air before I cry all of my makeup off. I’m going home to eat lunch.”
And before anyone can argue with me, I speed walk out of the office. I don’t even stop to say goodbye to Thea. A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and I should feel relieved.
Instead, I feel like I’m flying through the air, headed straight for a rock-hard landing.