Accidental Fiancé - Preview #2
“Mm-hmm. I date a few people here and there. Never got married though. I like to keep my options open. Life is too short to be tied down, you know?” Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly when she said the words, and now that they were hanging in the air, I wondered what had gone wrong for her in the romance department.
I’d always thought she’d get married, have kids, get divorced, and become an alimony ex-wife. She was a serial monogamist in high school; she always had a boyfriend, including a backup boyfriend, ready to go. But Chloe Foster, single after thirty? I did not have that on my bingo card.
“Have you?—"
“We should go inside so you can get your nametag and catch up with everyone,” she said as she looped her arm through mine, forcing me to go in without making a fuss about it. I was trapped by my bully.
Neither option held any appeal, and by everyone I was sure she meant Harmony and Emma.
I reluctantly went with her, not wanting to draw any unwanted attention.
As much as I loathed Harmony Piedmont, Emma Gonzalez and I had shared a strained friendship back in the day, and admittedly, I was curious about her.
Still, each step toward the convention hall took a Herculean effort.
I had hoped to catch up with Emma while having Nora by my side, in case she had gone full mean girl in the years since we’d seen each other.
Nora acted as my guard dog—when people were rude she gave it right back to them and more.
Nora had better have an amazing excuse for not being here, and that amazing excuse had better not sound like, “I had to work.”
Perhaps I had come to rely on her a little too much in the guard dog department. I didn’t have time to think about it though, not with Chloe speed walking us into the reunion, leaving me to wonder how she managed it in those heels.
The ballroom had been set up with a DJ, a dance floor, tall tables and a full bar with several bar stools, a sign-up table near the doors. Colored lights pulsed to the music, and a few dozen couples danced while others mingled.
As I signed in and grabbed my nametag, Chloe stood next to me, hands on her hips, staring around the room.
Lindsey Panier, the nametag table attendant, bit her bottom lip as she watched her.
From what I remembered of Lindsey, she was the nervous sort, always scared about her grades and keeping her clothes clean at recess.
Chloe asked, “Lindsey, what did we agree on about the decorations?”
“Flashy, but classy.”
“Then why are the streamers hanging at the wrong angles?”
“Wrong angles? For streamers?” I asked. Was there such a thing?
“I hung them how you told me to.”
“Come on, Lindsey, we both know better than that. If you had hung them how I told you to, then I wouldn’t be asking about them now,” she replied, a predatory smile on her mouth. “Find the ladder and fix them, ‘kay?”
“Of course. Right away.” Lindsey took off before Chloe could nag her some more.
“The streamers are fine, Chloe. No one cares about that kind of thing.”
She took my hand in both of hers, patting the back of it, her fake, syrupy voice cutting through me as she spoke. “It must be nice not to care how things look, but some of us do, and since I’m in charge of the reunion, I want it to be perfect.”
If I stayed around her much longer, I might chew through my tongue. “What exactly is that supposed to mean?”
She waved over my shoulder, ignoring me entirely. “Harmony! Over here!”
No, no, no. “I’m going to grab a glass of champagne…”
“Absolutely not! You don’t want wrinkles, do you?” Chloe said, whisking me toward Harmony.
Emma stood next to Harmony, and I instantly realized this was going to be a lot to swallow without liquid help. “Wait, you expect me to get through this entire reunion completely sober?”
“You were always so witty.”
She thinks I’m kidding. “Yeah. That’s me. The funny girl.”
“No, that was your girlfriend, Skinny. You’re the witty one.
It’s probably why you two made such a good couple.
” I jerked my arm free of her grasp, giving her my best forced customer service smile and patient tone.
“Chloe, if I have to deal with your condescension and snide comments all night, then I’m going to require a drink.
So, bar first, then Harmony and Emma, ‘kay?” I even added a little head tilt to soften my rudeness.
She studied my face for a beat then laughed. “Skinny made you funnier than when you were in high school.”
As she ushered me deeper into the reunion, I glanced longingly at the door. If Nora isn’t the next person to walk through that door, I’m running out of here.
A quick escape was half the reason I wore flats in the first place.
Chapter Two
Julian
I pulled my car up to the valet, gave him my keys, then strolled into The Manchester Hotel.
It was one of the nicer hotels in the city, and whenever consultants visited from abroad, my executive assistant often arranged for them to stay there.
According to Inga, they had the smoothest sheets on the comfiest beds.
I never asked how she knew that. No sense in creating HR drama for my company.
The interior was classy and polished. The front desk staff politely directed me to the location of the reunion after giving me my key card and sending my luggage to my room.
So far, I felt good about my out-of-town consultants staying at The Manchester.
As soon as I reached the doors to the ballroom, I stopped and pulled my phone out.
I had to make a call before I went inside.
I stepped out of the way of a few revelers so I didn’t block the door as I waited for her to pick up. Piper’s sleepy voice answered, “Hello?”
It made me instantly smile. “Hey, Pip.”
“Hi, Pop.”
My daughter had been dealing with night terrors lately, and the doctor’s theory was that her circadian rhythm was off. She suggested I allow her to set her own bedtimes at her own pace instead of me setting them for her. Which meant her babysitter had to cooperate with Pip’s timetable as well.
Rena was a good babysitter—one of the best we’d had, actually—but she was still a teenager, and she let slip that she was going to study for a test after Piper went to bed. I was calling to check on her as much as Piper. “Rena getting you ready for bed?”
“I’m in bed now.”
It was only just after nine. “Did you want to go to bed now?”
“I’m tired.”
“Did Rena tell you that you should go to bed?”
She giggled. “I really am tired, Pop.”
“Okay, then. I want you to sleep well, have sweet dreams, and remember I love you very much.”
She said it back and added, “Dream about cake.”
“Why cake?”
“So that you have sweet dreams.” She giggled after she said it.
I couldn’t help but smile. Piper was only four, but she was smart and witty. “Alright, Pip. Cake dreams for you too then.”
The line went dead, and a wave of sadness hit me. It was always that way whenever I hung up with her. But as I heard the beats of old hits from high school pulsing through the wall, I allowed myself to get distracted and threw open the doors to the ballroom.
School colors haunted the massive space, rose and gray dripping from the ceiling, the chairs, the tables and the bar.
Confetti stuck to the chilled flutes of cheap champagne and littered the floor.
I’d always hated our school colors, but they went with the school’s theme since it was Rosewood High School.
Named for the woody stems of the rose farms that were our suburb’s lifeblood, RHS was nothing if not a living, breathing theme.
Our school mascot was a rose, perhaps the dullest of all school mascots throughout the history of man.
The main rivals of our school had a tiger, a devil, and a lightning bolt for their mascots.
I had always been embarrassed to be a rose.
We were teased often and we never stood a chance.
But it wasn’t all bad. The fact we had a historically long losing streak didn’t stop us from having school spirit and good times under the Friday night lights for football games.
That was the kind of people we were—no matter how many times life kicked us down, we picked ourselves up and tried again.
Tonight, however, wasn’t about all the times we fell down. A reunion was about seeing old friends and reconnecting. After the hell I’d been through over the past two years I could use that.
I signed in and took my nametag, affixing it to my suit lapel. Lindsey Panier smiled up at me. “I didn’t think you’d show up.”
“Why is that?”
“Don’t you usually spend your weekends yachting or something?”
I snorted out a laugh. “Not generally, no.”
“That’s what it says online.”
“Life on the internet and real life rarely intersect.”
“Well, we’re glad you could make it. Have a good time.”
“I will, thanks.” The line for the bar was mercifully short, and once I had my whiskey in hand, I scanned the crowd for Tim Drake and Victor Clyburn. We’d lost touch over the years, and the older I got, the more I learned the old adage was true—it was harder to make friends as adults.
Tim stood with a woman I didn’t recognize and two men I knew from back in the day but couldn’t quite remember their names. I was dying to know how things turned out for Tim, and while I could have looked him up, I knew better than to trust the internet for information.
Tim had been a straight-A student, dual-enrolled in college courses as he finished his high school diploma early. Considering he graduated with the class before ours thanks to all that hard work, I was surprised to learn he’d be here, but I was just as glad to see him. “Hey, Tim.”
“Julian Black, holy shit, you actually came!” he said, yanking me into a bear hug. Tim’s blond hair had gone a little thin on top, but otherwise, he still looked like the guy I knew from back in the day. Taller than me, fit, and smiling. “This is Andra, my wife.”