Chapter 7
SEVEN
JADA
Waylon’s latest call comes through the moment I get off the phone with Ash, just as I expected.
“Are you alright?” Waylon asks. His tone is more concerned than mad. Not that Waylon’s ever been seriously pissed off at me the whole time we’ve known each other. We’ve never truly fought, and his worry loosens the massive knot in my chest. He’s not mad at me.
“Yeah. I’m just at home working on some admin because I wanted to get stuff done without people popping in. Why?”
“Because Ash just told me you two are together? The question in his tone is laced with a laugh. “He’s trolling me, right?”
I swallow and shut my laptop. There’s no way I’m going to get anything done after this conversation.
“No, he’s not trolling.”
Waylon is silent on his end of the line for way longer than I’m comfortable with.
“You’re dating Ash? And y’all are planning on getting married? Is that part of the reason you’ve been distant for the past six months?” he asks.
“Yeah.” I take a take a deep breath. “We just…I mean, can you blame us for keeping it quiet?”
“I can, a bit. I wish I’d heard it from you instead of him.” He sounds so hurt that it steals the breath I just took.
“I’m sorry. We just thought it would be better this way,” I say. “You didn’t even believe it at first and I would have spent a while convincing you.”
Waylon sighs softly. “I’m just…I believe you now, but why Ash? After everything? I know you had a crush on him when we were kids—”
“Oh my god, you knew?” I want to die. I thought I was so sneaky.
“Yeah, even stupid teenage me knew.” He chuckles. “But Ash isn’t your type at all and he’s kind of a wreck right now. He doesn’t even date or believe in relationships. It’s just sudden. Why him?”
I pace and bite the inside of my cheek. I should have thought this through. The reality of faking it is different than talking about it.
“We just clicked,” I say. “It’s hard to explain.”
“The last time I saw you two together, you were bickering,” he says. When did he see us together? As if I said it out loud, he asks, “At Wes and Rose’s wedding?”
“Right.” I clear my throat. When he didn’t even recognize me and was flirting up a storm in his own backward way.
“It’s just… He interests me. He doesn’t mind my rambling or get exhausted by me.
We can just talk and relax and it never gets old no matter how long we spend together.
There’s a spark there, even if it’s unconventional. ”
I just listed off a bunch of fantasy boyfriend traits, but it’s not like Waylon can call me out on it. He hasn’t been around for our (fictional) conversations and dates.
“Okay…” He’s still skeptical, which I anticipated. “It’s not that I don’t trust your judgment. I’m just worried about you.”
“I’m okay. I’m better than I’ve been in months.” I fidget. “I promise.”
“Okay.” Waylon blows out a breath and I hear snuffling on his end of the line. “Sadie, stop. I just ate an apple and she wants to smell my mouth.”
“Hi, Sadie!” I coo. I hear more snuffling sounds, and a little yawn. A smile spreads across my face. She’s the sleepiest dog ever. “I miss her.”
“She misses you, too. Wes wanted to cook dinner Friday night—want to come with Ash?”
My throat tightens up at the thought. Usually dinners at Wes’s are fun, and I haven’t been since my grandparents passed. Wes makes something delicious, Rose makes cocktails that are a little too strong, and we all hang out for hours around their fire pit.
Envisioning Ash there with my closest friends feels like inviting a centaur to brunch. I just can’t imagine it truly happening.
But we’re not just dating—we’re going to be married. We have to pull this off and that means doing stuff normal couples would do. The timing works out with our plan anyway.
“Yeah, definitely,” I say. “Just let us know what to bring.”
“Okay. I’ll text you.”
He ends the call and I stare down at my phone.
I’m back in the mindset I’ve been in for the past six months—itching to get out but wanting to stay inside and never see another human being again.
I crawl into my big chair and throw blankets over myself.
My stomach is churning, so I run through my mental checklist. I’ve eaten, had enough water, and slept decently enough.
So all of my shitty feelings are from lying to my best friend and hurting his feelings.
And from having to do the same in just a little bit to my brother and father.
Pip sees me curled up and slinks over, leaping into the spot between my hip and the side of the chair. His purring usually calms me down, but it doesn’t today. I don’t think I can calm down until I tell Jeremiah, too. I need to call him even though we’re going to Dad’s for dinner.
“Are you alright?” Jeremiah asks after picking up on the first ring.
“What? Yes. Well, no,” I say. “I’m dating Ash Stryker and we want to get married. I wanted to tell you before I tell Dad later.”
“Bullshit,” he says. He doesn’t even take a breath to consider it. “Ash Stryker? Your high school crush? Waylon’s messiest brother? There’s not a fucking chance, Jada.”
“God, you knew I had a crush on him in high school, too?” Kill me.
“I’m pretty sure everyone did. You’ve never been subtle in your life.” He pauses. “So what’s really happening? Is it the inheritance?”
His deep voice turns gentle. We were born minutes apart, but sometimes he feels like he’s older when he’s soft like this. I can’t keep trying to lie to him. If anyone will keep my secret, he will.
“Yeah. He needs to be married for his inheritance, too, though he didn’t specify that it has to be based on true love. We just need to fake it. It’s the only way.”
I hear him doing something on his end of the line. Probably cleaning or something.
“JJ, the will said it has to be based on true love. Which you can’t really quantify but people can tell. I don’t think Dad will be thrilled but he’ll stay quiet. But Danika? She’ll call your shit out and everything will fall apart.”
“I know. I know.” After getting over my shock and talking to Ash, I sent Jeremiah the rest of Danika’s Instagram post. He was just as surprised as I was.
“And you know she would. She’s petty as hell.”
“I know, but when’s the last time we were up to date on each other’s lives? We just have to be good at pretending even when she gets nosy.” I scratch Pip between his ears.
He grunts in acknowledgment.
“So you’re going to have a whole wedding? Kendra and Malcolm and the little twins will want to come. You’re going to fake it in front of them, too?”
I close my eyes and try to steady myself, but my niece’s and nephew’s sweet little faces pop into my head. Then Kendra’s and Malcolm’s confused ones.
“We aren’t planning on having a wedding. We’re going to the courthouse next week and getting it done. But you know Mrs. Stryker. She’ll probably plan a party.” I swallow. “And yeah, I’ll have to fake it with them.”
“Kennie’s not going to believe you, either.”
“She has to.” I sigh. “You can help me sell it, right? Please. I’m going to tell Dad at dinner. We’re going with the story that we were dating and the inheritance just moved up our timeline.”
“I guess I have to, because since when have I ever been able to pull your attention away when you’re locked in?”
“Thank you.” I blow out a breath. Not that I ever thought Jeremiah would be against me, but still. He didn’t even try to convince me otherwise because he knows me that well. “I swear, it’s for the greater good.”
“I know. We just have to keep it up. And you and Ash need to figure out how to look like a couple because Danika is going to be pissed when she hears you’re getting married, too.”
“She can stay pissed because I’m not letting her get her hands on the hotel. And I’m not saying a word or posting about it online until the ink is dried on our marriage license.”
“I know, which is the main reason I’m going along with this nonsense,” he says. “And tell Ash I’ll kick his ass if he tries anything sketchy.”
“Noted.”
“I gotta run. See you in a bit.”
“See ya.”
I hang up and toss my phone across the couch. Pip doesn’t even jump.
“Pip, I’m in deep shit. I’m getting married and it’s all a lie,” I say. Pip blinks and gives me two short squeaks. “I appreciate that, but it’s not helping me.”
I spend the next hour or so puttering around, being busy but unproductive, before heading to my dad’s house for dinner.
Our monthly dinners are just now starting up again. Before my grandparents passed, they were every second weekend of the month like clockwork. Dad liked the break in the middle of the month for us all to reconnect.
Dad’s house isn’t far from my apartment.
It’s the house we grew up in—modest and older but kept up well.
He owns a few properties, including the apartment building I live in, but this is the house he bought with my mom when they were newlyweds.
He’ll never let it go or move out of it.
Usually going home is nothing but comforting, but my stomach is in my throat when I park.
Thankfully Jeremiah is already here. I let myself in and hear Dad and Jeremiah laughing at something in the living room. The older Jeremiah gets, the more he sounds like Dad.
They look similar, too, but there’s enough of Mom in Jeremiah that they don’t look like clones of each other—her smile, which I only clearly remember from photos, and the deep brown of her skin.
“Hey, JJ.” Dad smiles and pulls me into a hug. “You alright?”
Of course, Dad copped my mood immediately. I’m grateful I have a family that notices moods and gives a shit, but damn. Can I ever have secrets?
“Yes but…” I lock eyes with Jeremiah over Dad’s shoulder and he shrugs. “I have something to tell you.”
Dad’s eyebrows go up and he adjusts his wire-rimmed glasses on his nose.
“I’m getting married. On Monday.”
“You’re what?” His eyes widen almost comically. “Sit down.”
I sit in my usual spot on the couch, adjacent from where Dad’s Shih Tzu mix, Ms. Beulah, always sits. She’s roughly a million years old, so she just thumps her tail a few times when she sees me.