Chapter 3 #3
“What the hell is taking so long?” Grant’s voice cut through the wall separating them. Sydney had actually forgotten he was waiting in the living room .
“I forgot about him,” Reese admitted, clearly sharing in her surprise.
Sydney laughed. “It’s good for his ego.” She looked toward the door, assuming their moment of fun was winding to a close. “Are you going to put him out of his misery?”
Reese looked at her seriously. “Why would I do that? I mean, I’m happy to correct the situation, but I don’t think I owe Grant anything, especially answers about my love life.”
Love life .
Sydney hadn’t had one of those in a year, even the fake kind.
Hell, probably longer, given the side game Grant had been running for who knows how long.
This was a horrible idea. Bound to blow up in their faces. She didn’t even know Reese.
But when she thought of Grant’s smarmy face on the other side of the door, she didn’t want Reese to correct him. She wanted him to squirm. Really, their breakup had been his choice, and with his impending marriage, he shouldn’t even be thinking about what was going on with Sydney.
“So you’re really down to keep this lie going? All to piss your brother off?”
Reese nodded resolutely before she looked around the room, gesturing to the inn. “I feel like my life is getting a little too boring, you know?”
Sydney was quickly finding that smile disarming in the best possible way.
“Shake on it?” Sydney asked, extending her hand.
Reese met her in the middle, and when their hands connected, she felt warmth and those little zigs and zags of electricity that made her feel alive again. She wanted to chase that feeling.
“Can we work out the details later?” Reese asked, slipping into business mode. “I’ll see what Grant wants, and you can go on your run?”
“Thank you for running interference. ”
They walked toward the living room together, and Reese poked her head out first.
Sydney braced for impact.
But Grant was nowhere to be found.
Instead, Hallie stood in the kitchen, making her daily smoothie.
She looked up at the sound of the door, her gaze flitting from Sydney to Reese and then back again.
Sydney felt like she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, even though nothing had happened.
“I wondered where you’d gotten off to,” Hallie said to Reese as she dumped her frozen fruit into the blender, then started to chop her kale.
Reese stepped forward and ran her hands down her shirt. “This morning really went sideways. I’m sorry.”
Hallie waved her off. “I saw Grant skulking around here. I assumed something was going on, though I didn’t expect it to involve you two locking yourselves in Sydney’s room,” she finished, lifting an inquisitive brow at her best friend.
“The door wasn’t locked,” Sydney argued, not that that was really the point.
“Glad to see you’re going out. I was worried the sofa would be permanently indented with your languishing outline.”
Sydney’s cheeks flamed. “Hallie.”
Her friend was having a little too much fun at her expense.
“I joke, I joke. Anyway… what have you two crazy kids been up to?” Hallie looked expectantly between them.
“So here’s the thing, Hal.”
Hallie threw her kale in the blender and placed the lid on it, waiting. “Hit me.”
“I’m going to need you to get on board with the story that Reese and I are dating.”
“You’re dating? God, woman, she’s only been here for a day,” Hallie said, half disbelieving and half impressed.
Sydney rolled her eyes. “If anyone asks, we’re madly in love. Can’t live without one another. Life and poems and songs all finally made sense. Got it?”
“Who would ask?” Hallie practically screamed over the blender she’d just started. The dark red liquid from the crushed strawberries was slowly giving way to a light green as the kale began to work into the mixture.
Sydney loved when Hallie was intentionally obtuse, even if she’d never admit it. “Probably a Devereux, if you happen to see one of them slinking around the inn again.”
“Are we in a throuple? I’m getting throuple energy,” Hallie said as she turned off the blender, her too-loud voice echoing off the walls.
Reese laughed from next to her. “It’s a tempting proposition, but I should probably crawl before I walk.”
Sydney bit down the unexpected flare of jealousy that Reese was considering the idea.
“I’ll play tennis with you soon if you go along with it,” Sydney offered. As always, Hallie had somehow become the linchpin of her scheme, and Sydney needed her best friend’s buy-in if this shtick was ever going to have a modicum of believability.
“Bestie, I was always going to go along with it. But I would love to play tennis,” Hallie said gleefully. “Almost as much as I love a good bit of subterfuge.”
Sydney looked at Reese, who seemed like she was suddenly wondering if they were in over their heads.
“We need her,” she pointed out. “She knows everyone. By tomorrow morning, the whole town will believe we’re madly in love.”
Reese looked at her skeptically. “Depends on the story.”
Sydney grew confident again. She’d dated Grant for over half a decade, and she knew exactly how to push his buttons.
She flashed Reese a winsome smile, loving the feeling of anticipation that came with a new challenge that stirred in her belly. “Leave that to me.”