10. Ember
TEN
EMBER
I woke up when Jack moved, horrified to realize I’d mauled him in the night. He was gentle with me, and I pretended to sleep while he got out of bed and went to the bathroom. The shower turned on, and I rolled onto my back while my hands came up to slap against my face.
Mortification was a hot burn against my ribs. Maybe I should’ve insisted he take the armchair, after all.
When he came back out of the bathroom, dressed in the same clothes he’d had on yesterday, his eyes raked over my body like a physical touch. I flushed, remembering how I’d woken up, and ducked my head as I murmured, “Good morning,” before hiding out in the bathroom for a while.
We were served breakfast in the dining room—Oren was awake but unavailable, apparently—and then got the call from Bennett that the road had been cleared in the early hours. After thanking Giles and the rest of the staff for their hospitality, we escaped into the car.
Driving off the Blanchard land felt like re-entering the real world.
I stole a glance at Jack to see if he was as thrown as I felt, but he drove with the same confident ease as usual.
One hand on the steering wheel, the elbow propped on the window frame, his other arm resting on the center console, fingertips on the gear shift. Completely relaxed.
Things got a little easier when we picked Darby up from her uncle’s house. She threw herself in the back seat, her bag clattering against the far door. “Hey. You survived.”
“Barely,” Jack grumbled jokingly, throwing me an indecipherable look.
“How was your evening?” I asked.
“Good. We stayed up until ten watching a movie.”
“Oh?” Jack asked, brows arching as he drove.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Darby grinning. “Yep,” she said.
“Did you get any piano practice in yesterday while I was gone?”
Darby groaned at her father’s question. The same way she always did when he brought up piano.
“I’m guessing that’s a no,” Jack said.
“I’ll practice today, before family lunch,” Darby said, saying it like she was agreeing to scrub all the toilets in the house with her toothbrush.
I couldn’t resist sticking my nose in their business. “What’s the deal with the piano?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
Jack glanced at me. “What do you mean?”
I meant why was he forcing his beloved daughter to do something she clearly hated. But all I said was, “You’re very good, Darby. It takes a lot of dedication to practice as much as you do.”
“I only do it because Dad wants me to,” she grumbled, staring out the window as we drove.
“That’s not true,” Jack protested, his hand tightening on the steering wheel. “You love piano.”
Darby didn’t answer, and I decided this whole thing was, in fact, none of my business. I was leaving in a few weeks anyway. Wasn’t I?
We took a detour to go to the medical center so Jack and Darby could get their Day 7 rabies shot.
The wait was short, and once again no one fainted.
Finally, we got home, and I went up the stairs as Darby said her arm was too sore to practice piano and Jack grumbled his reluctant acceptance.
I changed and tried to hype myself up for our next and most difficult hurdle yet as a fake couple: Sunday family lunch at Etta’s estate.
One short hour later, we piled into Jack’s car and headed over just before noon. The closer we got to the big colonial home, the more my stomach knotted.
From the back seat, Darby asked, “So I’m not supposed to tell anyone that you guys are lying?”
Jack grimaced. “Remember what I told you? We’re trying to be delicate with what your great-grandma wants for the town. But neither Ember nor I wants to get married, so we’re just…scratching each other’s backs.”
“By lying to everyone.”
I glanced over at Jack, who met my gaze with a grim look on his face. “Well…yes.”
“And making me go along with the lie.”
“Right.” Jack inhaled. “Lying, generally, is bad. This is an exception. Remember?”
“Dad.” The flat tone of Darby’s voice conveyed a whole lot of meaning.
She was not impressed with our master plan, and she was resentful of having to go along with it.
I didn’t blame her. Maybe she was still grumpy about the piano negotiation, even though she’d won that round.
I didn’t blame her about that either; she probably knew there would be another battle about it tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.
“I fear we didn’t think this through properly,” I murmured.
Jack clicked his tongue. “You say that now?”
“I hadn’t anticipated so many complications.”
“You should’ve hired someone on Craigslist.”
“I tried that,” I said. “All I got were weirdos. One guy said he’d marry me in exchange for a lifetime supply of feet pictures.”
The car jerked as Jack’s foot spasmed against the gas pedal and he threw me an incredulous look. When he’d recovered, he said, “You’re joking.”
“Ember doesn’t joke,” Darby said.
“Hey!”
“What! You’ve never told a joke since you’ve been here.”
“That’s not true.”
“You told me I was going to die of rabies.”
I clicked my tongue. “I did not. I said rabies had a hundred percent mortality rate after symptoms appear. There’s a difference.”
“Ladies,” Jack cut in. His fingers lifted off the steering wheel in a placating gesture. “Let’s just—focus on what’s important.”
There was a pause. Then, “Why would someone want a picture of your feet?”
“Darby,” Jack interjected, “that’s—um—”
“He just really liked feet,” I provided, which wasn’t a lie.
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” I said.
“As I was saying,” Jack said, giving me a meaningful glance. “We’ll just play it cool. We’ve known each other a week. We don’t need to do any grand declarations in front of the whole family. Got it?”
I reached into my purse and pulled out a scrap piece of paper. “I shouldn’t do my speech, then?”
The car jerked again, Jack’s eyes going wide. “No. No, definitely don’t do a speech, Ember.”
I flipped the paper around to show him a grocery list, then glanced in the back seat to arch my brows at Darby. “See? I joke.”
Her lips trembled with the force of holding back a smile, but all she did was roll her eyes to look out the window. I did the same, hiding the curve of my lips where no one could see it.
We drove onto Etta’s property to find a cluster of cars already parked outside the garages and on the patch of lawn beside them.
Jack parked behind another company vehicle, and the three of us got out.
I closed the passenger door and clutched my purse with both hands, taking in the estate where I’d first met Jack only six days ago.
The estate where we’d been married.
It seemed gloomier today, with the skies overcast and a light drizzle falling down on us, the tail end of yesterday’s storm. Noises were muted and the wind shivered through the trees, reminding me that winter was on its way.
I definitely wanted to be back in Chicago by the time the snow started. Remote areas of coastal Maine seemed far too perilous a place to spend the colder months. I wanted plowed streets and public transportation.
Liar, a little voice in my head whispered as I took a deep breath of the freshest air my lungs had ever experienced.
We trudged up the path and entered the home through the front door.
It was just as grand as I remembered, with a double sweeping staircase framing the foyer, a gigantic chandelier, and ornate rugs.
We stripped our jackets and handed them to a housekeeper who appeared in a side door, then headed toward the back of the home, where I could hear the murmur of many conversations.
The family was gathered in a big living room that led out to the same plant-filled solarium where we’d first spoken to Etta.
All eyes turned to watch us enter, and conversation swelled.
A big man with scars on his neck and the side of his head came up to us, smiling broadly.
This was Gideon, whom I’d met one morning on our daily be-seen-by-the-townspeople-and-act-like-we-love-each-other outings.
He had his arm around his wife, Sadie, and he disengaged to hug Jack while walloping him on the back. “Congrats,” he said.
Sadie smiled at me as she flicked her long brown hair off her shoulder. “I’ve been where you are,” she confessed. “Don’t worry. It gets easier.”
A tremulous smile pulled at my mouth, and I took a quick glance around the room. So many new faces. So many new faces looking at me.
“I’m not really good with new people,” I admitted.
“I’m basically new here too,” she said, hooking her arm in mine as she towed me toward a table of refreshments. “You’ll feel like you’re part of the family in no time.” Her gaze was assessing as she added, “I heard Jack took one look at you and decided he did want to get married, after all.”
“Um. Sort of,” I hedged as we reached the snack table. I glanced up to see Darby giving me a look. A teenage-girl look. A look that made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.
“What do you think, Darbs?” Sadie’s husband said as he joined us, his hand coasting up Sadie’s back. She turned toward him, tilting her head into his chest.
They looked completely in love. Utterly happy.
My heart twisted.
I’d taken that from Jack; he could have found someone like Sadie.
Someone friendly and bright and willing.
Instead, I’d studied everything I could find about him online and crafted my application to fit what I thought he’d need.
I’d manipulated my way into this position just so we could both game the system and enrich ourselves.
I was pretty sure I was a terrible person.
Then again, my father had provided me with half my DNA. How could I not be a terrible person, when that was what I was working with?
“What do I think about what?” Darby replied.
Sadie’s husband laughed. “Come on. You know what. What do you think about Ember?”
Darby studied me for a beat, her eyes narrowing. “She’s weird,” she said. “But she’s okay.” She grabbed a handful of crackers and a few cubes of cheese and escaped before anyone could comment.