Chapter Fourteen Lee
Chapter Fourteen
Lee
‘Wait, wait!’ Tara’s face is so close to the camera, her tight, dark curls are practically quivering; her voice is breathless with excitement. ‘You’re going to stay and pretend to be Nico’s wife for this lawyer person?’
‘Well, technically, I am his wife,’ I say, stretching out on the bed, my voice low so that no one can hear me filling in my best friend.
‘Oh my god!’ Tara’s camera wobbles as she moves around. ‘You’re doing a marriage of convenience! In a small town! You’re practically living in a romance novel right now!’
‘Are you making popcorn?’ I ask incredulously, even as her microwave dings and I watch her reach inside for the paper bag.
‘Listen, I lead a very boring life so I’m choosing to live vicariously through you.’ She props her phone up on her kitchen worktop and moves around, emptying the popcorn into a bowl. ‘I want to be fully situated so I can appreciate this.’
‘I haven’t got that long to chat.’ I glance over at the door and nerves leap in my stomach. Despite my air of breezy confidence with Nico, I’m far from feeling sure of my own capabilities when it comes to pulling off a proper ruse.
‘You know you don’t have to do this, right?’ Tara pauses and looks up, straight into the camera, clearly trying to read my own expression; there’s a flash of concern in her brown eyes. ‘You can just come home, no one would blame you.’
‘I know. But I want to help. And it’s not even really lying, is it? We are actually married.’
‘That’s not what I mean. Don’t you think you’re a bit… emotionally compromised?’
‘I care about Nico and Phoebe. I want the best for them, that’s all.’
‘Hmmm.’ Tara is giving me serious side eye at this. ‘Yeah, I think that we all know that you “care” about Nico.’ She does the finger quotes and everything.
‘I deeply regret telling you everything about my life,’ I sigh.
‘You’re just upset because you’ll never convince me that you don’t have proper feelings for Nico.’
‘It was a childhood crush,’ I insist. ‘I’ve hardly even thought about him for the last year.’
‘Sure.’ Tara’s flat delivery tells me all I need to know about how much she believes that story. ‘I just don’t want you to get hurt… Playing happy families with the guy you’ve been in love with for decades feels like a real recipe for disaster, babe.’ Her brow is crinkled with obvious concern.
‘Message received.’ I keep my tone light even as her words strike a definite chord.
It’s not like Nico had exactly been enthusiastic about this plan to keep me around.
It’s important that I keep a tight lid on any feelings I may have.
‘But this really is just a practical thing. It’s not Nico’s fault his dad was the worst.’
Tara nods slowly. ‘Yeah. Absolutely mad that there’s an actual trust full of money at stake. And that you’re married to a duke!’ She brightens at this, as if she can’t help herself.
‘He’s not a duke,’ I protest. ‘His estranged half-brother is a duke.’
Tara pays no attention to this, settling herself on her sofa and digging into the bowl of popcorn.
‘In a marriage of convenience with a duke,’ she says dreamily between bites.
The stacked gold rings on her fingers gleam against the deeper tawny gold of her skin as her hands move.
‘And you’re the ill-suited peasant who has to save his reputation. ’
I choke on a laugh. ‘I wouldn’t say peasant,’ I manage, apologetically. ‘There’s quite a lot of generational wealth and privilege on my side. Plus I don’t do too badly myself.’
Tara waves this away. ‘Yeah, but that’s like when the duke marries the factory owner’s daughter. It’s a class thing, isn’t it? Worlds apart.’
‘We literally grew up next door to each other,’ I say dryly.
‘Just let me have this!’
‘Please stop trying to tropify my life.’
My friend lets out an impatient huff. ‘I’ll never understand you. We met and bonded over reading romance novels and you’re the least romantic person I know.’
‘Just because I can appreciate a good romance novel doesn’t mean that I believe they’re representative of real life. I like them the same way people like reading science fiction or fantasy. It’s an escape from reality.’
In my experience, the reality of getting caught up in an ‘epic love story’ means excusing a lot of terrible behaviour on both sides.
People literally wrote songs about my mum and dad and their passionate romance, but living with them was like being braced in the back seat during a decades-long car crash.
However, this is an argument we’ve had before, which is probably why Tara simply ignores me.
‘So how long are you going to stay out there?’ she asks.
‘I don’t know. I guess that depends on what happens with the trustee.’
‘It’s not like you to be without a plan,’ Tara says after a moment.
I shrug. ‘Maybe it’s good that it’s out of character.’ I think about the argument I had with Gran. ‘Maybe I need to make some changes. You’re always saying I should shake things up.’
‘Well, yeah, but I meant get a haircut, a fringe that will look great at the hairdressers but that you’re bound to regret as soon as it rains…
not a husband, a stepdaughter and a dog in another country in a town full of strangers for an unspecified amount of time while some lawyer examines your fake life. ’
‘Anything sounds bad when you list it all out like that.’
‘Hmm,’ she murmurs. ‘Tell me about this town then, what’s it called, Roseport? Sounds cute.’
So I do, I tell her everything, from Bud picking me up and the twilight, Nirvana-fuelled yoga class, to Miss Rita and her ice cream with a side of gossip. By the end Tara is cackling, delighted.
‘Oh my god, it sounds amazing!’ she says. ‘I know you don’t want to believe you’re in a romance novel, but please tell me there’s a gorgeous, aw-shucks police chief and he’s going to be caught up in a love triangle with you and Nico?’
‘Well, actually…’
‘No!’ Tara exclaims, leaning forward with so much enthusiasm that kernels of popcorn go flying.
‘Not the love triangle bit,’ I laugh, ‘but I did meet the handsome police chief, and he seems very nice. He invited us out for drinks after the town meeting.’
‘Lee. Please.’ Tara’s face is suddenly very close to the camera. ‘This is so important. Please tell me he was wearing a cowboy hat.’
‘I’m afraid not.’
She sighs and sits back. ‘I guess you can’t have everything.’
‘I should probably get ready to go,’ I say reluctantly. ‘I think they said the meeting was at seven so we’ll all be heading off soon. What do you think a town meeting looks like?’
‘Chaos from the sound of it,’ Tara sounds gleeful, but then she must see the worry on my own face. ‘But absolutely nothing you can’t handle. You’re so clever and so brilliant, and they’ll love you.’
‘Thanks,’ I murmur. ‘I hate that I feel so awkward. It seems like it’s a really tight community and obviously they all love Nico…’
‘Oh yeah, everyone loves Nico,’ Tara grumbles.
‘I just meant the fact that they’re all so determined to be a part of this plan to help him. That’s strange, right? Nice, but strange.’
I can’t imagine any of my neighbours enthusiastically hurling themselves into a little light perjury for my benefit. I’m not even sure most of them would be able to pick me out of a police line-up. (Surely correct and normal?)
Tara only shrugs again. ‘Things are different in small towns, and they are all… you know… American. Who knows how things work over there. They put marshmallows on sweet potatoes – they’re capable of anything.’
‘Good point,’ I agree, getting to my feet. ‘Well, thanks for the pep talk. I’ll let you know how it goes. Brace yourself, this place seems pretty… eccentric.’
‘That’s because the town itself is a character!’ Tara yells, as I end the call.
When I hang up, I notice I have another message from Adrian:
A work trip? Nice. Anywhere glamorous? Xx
I feel another pang of guilt. I know ending the relationship was the right thing to do, and if I’m honest I thought he’d be annoyed, more than happy to disappear from my life, but I guess he’s really taking this friendship thing seriously.
I’m in the States, I type, and then hesitate. I can’t leave it at that, can I? It sounds so cold and his message was friendly. Don’t know about glamorous, but it’s very pretty. After a moment’s thought I add a couple of kisses… that’s what he did so it seems polite.
I don’t have to dwell on it for long because there’s a soft knock on the door, and when I open it Nico is standing there, looking sheepish. In the background I can hear Phoebe and Magda locked in a loud and competitive card game.
‘Sorry, can I—’ Nico gestures towards me and I pull the door wider, letting him in.
‘It’s your room,’ I remind him.
‘You know you really don’t have to come tonight.’ He lifts a hand and rubs the back of his neck. ‘I would understand if you decided you didn’t want any part in this.’
He doesn’t know he’s echoing Tara, but yet again it’s a reminder that Nico seems less than thrilled by the prospect of pretending to be married to me. It’s hard not to take it at least a little personally.
‘It’s not such a big deal,’ I say with what I hope is an easy shrug. ‘Let’s go to the meeting and hear what everyone has to say.’
He huffs out a sound that might be a laugh. ‘Honestly, I don’t know why I’m trying to talk you out of it, you’ve always been so stubborn.’
‘I have not!’
‘Yes, you have! You’re one of the most stubborn people I’ve ever met! Remember the thing with the trick or treating when you were seven?’
I blink. ‘I have no idea what you are referring to.’
‘Oh, please,’ Nico scoffs. ‘You heard that me and Jack were going trick or treating and your mum and dad said you should leave us boys alone. You snuck out the house anyway and followed us around all night, wearing a bedsheet.’
‘That wasn’t me.’
‘Daisy,’ Nico laughs, ‘the sheet didn’t cover your feet and you wore those shoes you loved with the beads on the laces… the ones Gran got you. They literally had your name on them, spelled out in black and white.’