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The light conversation continues after we toast to love, and we spend the rest of the day with him. Nelly and Grandpops play a game of chess and he laughs harder than I’ve seen him do in years before it’s time for us to leave.
It’s dark outside when I walk Nelly to my car. The skies are dazzled by stars when we leave the penthouse. I don’t let go of her hand until I open the front passenger seat door for her.
“That went well,” I exhale as I sit down, a smile cracking my lips.
She angles her head to look at me, her smile tipping the corners of her lips ever slightly. “Yeah, it did,” she agrees before letting out a heavy sigh.
“Hey,” I whisper, noticing her calm demeanor. “Are you alright, Nelly? You look flushed.”
“I am flushed,” she answers.
“Nelly …”
“What you said back there during dinner, you said it so easily, like it was the truth. You could have fooled me … Could have fooled anyone. How did you do that? Looking him in the eye and lying about something so important?”
“It wasn’t all a lie, Nelly. You’re the most dedicated woman I’ve ever met. You’re kind, smart, and talented … You have a big heart, and you care about everyone regardless of what they can offer you. Any man would fall in love with you.”
“Any man, but not you.”
My silence marks the end of the conversation, and it stretches on the entire drive back to her house. Nelly stays on my mind after dropping her off, and I ponder the ease with which I said those words to my grandpops.
Lying to him wasn’t so difficult because it wasn’t all a lie. Nelly was everything I said she was. Not loving her was solely on me.
It has nothing to do with her.
I can’t risk getting hurt again.
Chapter 5
Nelly
Ethan and I get married a week after lunch with Grandpops, and we finally take our trip to St. Barts, and he gifts me a platinum wedding ring to make our ruse more believable.
Ethan leaked a few pictures of us with our close family together at the courthouse to the media to get them talking, and it’s been a spiral of social media attention since then. All of this still feels a bit surreal to me, but I try to enjoy our time here.
We live in a two-bedroom suite at a resort for our week here, and I’m more comfortable knowing that Ethan and I only have to be close when we’re out in public.
I can relax better with that knowledge and enjoy this mini-vacation.I haven’t taken a break in two years, so this is a relief.
St. Barts is where I was born. My mom talked about the sandy white beaches and flawless blue waves of the ocean each chance she got.
She loved it here.But she never got the chance to come back and relive the experience she had here before I was born. She had been too focused on the company.
My parents worked extremely hard to give my brother and I the life we now live. They are the only reason I’m doing this. I glance at Ethan and find him enjoying the view, too.
The beach is a bit crowded this evening. Kids play by the shores, building sandcastles and sticking straws in to defend their territories, while the adults enjoy the rushing waves as they surf and sit languidly by the shores.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” I ask, hoping Ethan will turn to me as the silence between us has stretched out for far too long. He barely said a thing to me during our flight here, and he stayed in his room when we finally checked into a two-bedroom suite at the Majestic Resort.
There’s a bubble of anticipation brewing inside me at the thought of what will happen after our week here. Ethan’s silence doesn’t help me feel any better.
“We should talk about what happens after our time here, right? When will we meet with your granddad? When will we sign the merger deal?”
“Yeah, all of that happens when we get back to L.A. This getaway’s simply our honeymoon.” A gleam enters his eyes when he says the word, and heat rushes through me.
“Should be easy.” I try my best to sound optimistic. “I mean, we can fake being in love for a year as long as we both keep to the terms of the agreement.”
“I think so too,” he answers, but his dry tone makes me suspect there’s more he wants to talk about.