Page 20 of The Love Hoax

“Please tell me. I’ll do anything.”

A playful smirk crosses Adam’s lips. “Anything?”

I nod, vigorously.

Adam takes a deep breath and tells me.

Chapter Fourteen

Adam

“I

’m really fine, Evie.” I take a sip of my cinnamon-laced coffee.

“Are you sure you don’t want something stronger?” Evie asks. “It’s on me.”

We’re seated in a mom-and-pop café in El Portal, just outside the park. The place is decorated to appeal to tourists with park memorabilia everywhere the eye looks. Old road signs, photos from the 1800s, carved walking sticks.

“Maybe we should have those scrapes looked at.”

“Still in mom mode?” I tease her.

She blushes a bit and looks down at her mug. It makes my heart beat faster.

“Okay, I’ll stop now.”

Truth is, if things had been different, I would have gone straight home, fixed myself a double whiskey on the rocks, taken a shower, and sleptit off.

I do my best to make it seem like I’m fine, but that near miss at the top of Cloud’s Rest shook me up, badly. Other than the near disaster with Zane on Angel’s Landing, this was the closest I’ve ever come to biting the big one, and that says something given my years in the mountains.

But seeing how upset Evie was, I played it down, suggesting we grab coffee and talk about my proposition.

Fine, maybe “proposition” sounds sketchy, but when she said she would doanythingto make it up to me, things quickly took shape in my otherwise foggy mind.

“Come with me to the wedding,” was all I told her when we reached the trailhead parking lot after the eventful hike.

Now seated across from her, Evie’s face morphs from concern to curiosity. “Fine, tell me about your sister’s wedding.”

“You’ll come as my fiancée, Ronna.”

The soft wrinkles around Evie’s eyes lift upward, her fabulous lashes fanning wider with amusement. It occurs to me I’ve never met a woman with such expressive eyes.

She pauses for a beat, tilts her head. “Are you serious?”

“As much as a guy who cheated death a few hours ago.”

Thankfully, she doesn’t react to the crass comment. Instead, a storm brews across her fine features, and then she nods. “Okay, I’m in.”

My heart flutters in my chest once again. This woman is different. She’s not only beautiful but confident, decisive, and caring. I want to get to know her better.

Which is why I’m sitting in The Rocky Roastery nursing a bitter Americano when I should be at home recuperating with a bottle of Jim Beam.

Evie finally drinks from her mug. “Tell me more about this scam.”

Rather than defend myself, I leave the word “scam” on the table. It’s accurate enough. “My sister, Steph, is getting married in five days. My parents believe that I will beattending with my fiancée, Ronna, whom, of course, they’ve never met.”

Evie leans in as if we’re hatching a bank heist.