Dilynne
He Got What Pierced?
Elliot’s words may not exactly be the apology that I feel owed from him, but hearing him admit and acknowledge how Vinnie has made me feel for the past five years helps more than I care to admit.
“You’ve got this,” he continues, stroking his thumb along my jaw, waking up every nerve ending in my body, especially the ones between my thighs.
God, Elliot touching me shouldn’t be making me feel this way, this…needy.
“Now, do you have something appropriate to wear to dinner?”
My soft gaze turns hard again immediately. “You’ve already made it clear that I need to wear a dress. I think I can handle it.”
He releases my chin and then sighs. “Well, it’s the first time I’ll be introducing you to both of my parents as my fiancée, so it’s sort of a big deal.”
I blow out a breath as I do mental gymnastics, trying to determine if I have something hidden in the back of my closet. Damn it, I should have checked when he brought this up the first time. “I’m sure I have something that isn’t a bridesmaid dress. At least I hope so.”
“Are you saying you don’t own any other dresses?”
I wave my hands up and down my body covered in greasy overalls, a black tank top sans bra, and my work boots. “This is ninety percent of my wardrobe, Elliot. It’s sort of hard to tear apart cars in a dress and heels.”
“Understandable. But as I said before, if you need to go shopping, I have no problem paying for it.”
“Um, no. I don’t need you to buy me a dress.”
“I’m just offering…”
“And I’m just declining. I don’t need your help, Elliot.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “This isn’t about you needing anything, Dilynne, which seems to be a pain point for you, obviously.” His eyes meet mine again. “I’m just offering since this dinner is my fault.”
“How is this your fault? This whole thing was my idea.”
“Yeah, but if it weren’t for my dad, it wouldn’t be an issue.”
I take a moment to pause before I speak again. “It’s fine. We’ll satisfy Daddy Dearest, tell him what he needs to hear to believe us, and then hopefully by the time Motorlux is over, we can avoid him again.”
Elliot’s brows draw together as he nods. “Yeah, but…”
“But what?”
He rubs the back of his neck as he starts to pace.
I just watch him, wondering what on earth is taking him so long to get out.
But when he speaks, I can’t deny that he sparks my interest. “I sort of overheard a conversation between my dad and Tori today that has me wondering if I’m missing something. ”
“What do you mean?”
“They were outside the office building, behind the dumpsters, and my dad was being demanding…”
“Okay…”
“He told her to figure out a way to get me to give her another chance or to just bide her time.”
My confusion grows. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Well, the next thing he said was that they both need me to get married to get what they want.”
My entire body tenses. “I’m sorry. They said what?”
“Right?” His eyes find mine again once he stops pacing, standing right in front of me. “Why on earth would they need me to get married?”
“I have no fucking clue, Elliot. But I think you are definitely missing something. I mean, if Tori and your dad are talking about shit like that, then I think there’s more to her reappearance than just wanting you back.”
“But how am I supposed to figure out what it’s about? It’s not like I can outright ask them…”
The corner of my mouth lifts. “Looks like your fake fiancée is going to come in handy, huh?”
His face falls. “What are you going to do?”
I pat him on the shoulder. “Don’t stress, honey. Just let me stew on this for a while and I’ll come up with a game plan.”
***
I drain the rest of my glass of wine and then slide it across my kitchen counter to Laney. “Okay, no more. One to take the edge off and that’s it. I need to be in the right headspace tonight.”
Laney nods. “I know, but you were so fidgety when I got here that I just wanted to help.”
It’s Friday afternoon, and Elliot will be at my house in a little over an hour to pick me up for dinner with his parents. After digging through my entire closet and finding nothing that would suffice, I texted Laney yesterday and asked her to bring me some options from her closet.
Now, it’s time to decide what to wear and attempt to do something with my hair that isn’t throwing it up in a bun and covering it with a bandana.
Girly shit isn’t my thing. It’s not that I can’t do it, I just don’t do it often. And for some strange reason, I want to look nice tonight.
Is that for Elliot, or yourself, Dilynne?
A knock on the door startles me. “Is that Elliot already? He’s an hour early!”
Laney laughs as she walks to the door and opens it, revealing Elodie and Vienna on the other side. “Hey, girls! Thanks for coming. I’m going to need all the help I can get,” Laney says, widening her eyes.
Elodie laughs as she carries a bag inside over her shoulder that looks to be about half her size. “I brought everything I could think of.”
“And I brought the shoes,” Vienna adds, patting her own bag. She looks so much better than she did after her injury a while back, although she’s glowing from pregnancy hormones too, so that’s probably helping.
I turn to my best friend. “You brought in reinforcements?”
Laney plants her hands on her hips. “Uh, yeah. This isn’t just a typical date you’re going on. This is dinner with the Thornes. Your appearance matters.”
“Trust me, I’m aware,” I grumble under my breath. “But this isn’t a date.”
“Then what do you call it?” Elodie asks. “Because you’re pretending to be engaged to the man and getting all dressed up for him. Sounds like a date to me.”
I arch a brow at her. “Did my brother ever bring Carol and Nick on one of your dates?”
“Well, no…”
“Exactly. Parents being in the vicinity nixes that definition. This is just to appease his dad, which reminds me…” I take a deep breath and say, “Elliot overheard a conversation between his dad and Tori the other day that caused some concern.”
Laney clears her throat and juts her thumb over her shoulder. “Not that I don’t want to discuss this, but we’re running short on time. Can we continue chatting while we start getting Dilynne ready, girls?”
Elodie and Vienna nod, and then the four of us head toward the other side of the house, stepping into my room that looks like a tornado swept through it.
Vienna’s eyes go wide when she sees the state of the floor. “Uh…”
“Sorry. Laney was throwing dresses at me to try on and I just threw them back to her.” Rushing to provide a walkway, I bend down and pick up Laney’s clothes, putting them in a pile in a corner to be dealt with later.
Elodie bites her lip in thought. “Let me go get some chairs from the dining table so we have somewhere to sit.”
Once everyone has a chair, Elodie makes me sit down in the bathroom with her facing me to start on my makeup. “Okay, so back to Elliot’s dad and Tori. What were they talking about?”
“Something about a deal they made and how they need Elliot to get married to both get what they want.”
Vienna is standing in the doorway, holding a glass of water while listening, and Laney is ironing the little black dress we settled on in the main part of my room.
“Huh,” Vienna hums. “Any idea what their deal could have been?”
Trying not to move too much while Elodie works on my eyeshadow, I say, “Knowing Tori and how calculated that girl has been since she was in high school, it could be anything.”
“Well, in my experience, people are willing to do some twisted stuff for money.”
My eyes pop open and meet hers. “You think it involves money?”
“I’d almost bet that it does.”
“But Elliot’s family is rich,” Elodie interjects. “Right?”
“I mean, he comes from a generationally wealthy family, yes. But that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be something going on behind the scenes that no one’s aware of,” I reply.
Laney steps up behind Vienna in the doorway to the bathroom. “What does Elliot think?”
“He’s just confused right now,” I say, thinking back to our conversation the other night. “But I told him that I would come up with a plan to help him figure out what’s going on.”
Laney smirks. “Aw, what a good fake fiancée you are.”
I blow a raspberry at her. “Come on. You know the last thing I tolerate is my friends being taken advantage of. Remember how I threatened Fletcher when you two started messing around leading up to Elliot’s wedding?”
She rolls her eyes. “Yes, which is why it doesn’t surprise me that you want to help Elliot with this. You’ve already helped him with so much.”
Elodie tilts her head at me. “What have you helped him with?”
My eyes meet Laney’s and she gives me a curt nod of encouragement. Bouncing my gaze between Elodie and Vienna, I admit something out loud to them that very few people know. “I’ve sort of been checking on Elliot ever since Tori walked out on him.”
Both of their eyes go wide.
“Oh my God,” Elodie says.
Vienna smirks. “I knew it.”
“Knew what?” I counter.
“It’s not just irritation between you two.”
I fight the urge to roll my eyes as Elodie directs me to close them again so she can finish blending my eyeshadow. “Look, it’s not that big of a deal.”
“Yes it is!” Laney shouts from the main room again.
“No it’s not!” I yell back.
Elodie giggles. “Then why do it? Especially for someone you clearly don’t get along with very well.”
I lift one eye open to glare at her. “You’re reading too much into this.”
Vienna snickers. “Oh, I don’t think she is at all. I think it’s very clear why you checked on him.”
“Which is?”
“You don’t really hate Elliot at all.”
The moment she says that, something shifts in my chest. Like hearing those words out loud allows me to finally believe them.
I know that I’ve tried to let go of the past between us, and even though the man gets on my ever-loving nerves sometimes, this past year has shown me a different side of him, more so in the past few weeks since I suggested this fake engagement.