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Yes. It was. And it drove Calvin crazy. Me, on the other hand? I would bask in his attention as long as I could, because when it was just us, I could forget about Levi and Calvin’s stupid rivalry. I could see a version of reality where he liked me.
Getting the chance to flirt with Levi would be fun. All of my flirting was found either in my imagination or on the page of a book. Real-life Amy was sorely out of practice.
Calvin would call it out the second he saw it, which further justified everything Levi had just brought up. Even if he didn’t figure out that this marriage was for revenge, he’d find any hole in our story.
But I couldn’t forget my conversation with Lily.
“It’s not too much to ask you not to break my heart, is it?”
His eyes softened. “I’ll do my best toneverbreak your heart, Amy Willard.”
I nodded, but I didn’t know what he could do when he would eventually be done with this and I would be alone again. If I fully gave myself to our marriage, I would never want it to end.
I was distracted by the waiter coming to get our orders. Once we were done eating, we headed to our next destination: a bookstore.
When we walked in, I made a beeline for my favorite section.
Usually, I made these kinds of trips alone. If Lily was with me, she would linger in the romance section for a few minutes before disappearing into the fantasy one. This time, Levi went with me and immediately picked out a book from the shelf.
I reached for one with a blue cover that I’d seen before but couldn’t place.
“Nope. Not that one.” Levi took it out of my hands. “It doesn’t have a happy ending.”
“Wh—really?” I asked.
“Yes. One of them dies in the end, but the publisher decided to market it as romance. It got me good.”
I looked back at it. That was where I remembered it from. V had read it years ago and warned me.
A lot of people must have read this and been shocked.
“Thanks for the warning, then,” I mumbled and went for something else. It was obvious that Levi was well-versed in the section. There were a few that I wanted to read but they weren’t available at the library yet, so I grabbed those and smiled up at him.
“Does being a good husband mean you’ll buy me more books?”
He did a double take, his cheeks going pink. “Yes, of course.”
I should have married for money a long time ago. Who cared what it did for my morals? Buy me books and I’d instantly fold.
We both had a stack of them by the time we walked back out to the car.
“Okay, so we’ve done what I wanted to,” I said. “Is there anything you want out of this honeymoon?”
“I’ve never been here, so I have no idea what’s fun.”
“There’s putt-putt golf. Shopping. Movies?—”
“What about the SkyBridge?”
I froze. That hadn’t been a thing when I came here last. But “sky” and “bridge” were two things I didn’t love.
“Um, are you sure? There’re other things.”
“I like adventure. I can do it on my own if you’re scared of heights.”
I should have let him go by himself. I didn’t do heights. Even hiking in the mountains, I knew I would avoid any cliffs too high up. Anything less than the solid ground beneath me was a one-way ticket to a panic attack.
But I wasn’t about to admit that to him.