Page 20 of Clear Shot

I scowl. “I think marriage and a kid has made you a romantic fool. He didn’t look at me any particular way.”

“Okay.” He says the word but the smirk on his face tells me he doesn’t agree with me.

“Slava and Zoe and Decker and Eden just pulled up,” Sloane calls out. “Time to get this party started.”

I nod and look around for Aiden, anxious to get away from my brother’s intense stare. It’s like he knows something I don’t.

“You ready?” Aiden asks me, coming over and sliding an arm around my waist.

“As I’ll ever be.” I take a deep, steadying breath and paste on a smile.

I can do this.

I have to do this.

“Everyone coming is a friend,” he says softly, searching my face. “They’re going to be happy for us.”

“They’re going to be happy for us and celebrating a lie,” I whisper. “And I hate that because they are our friends.”

“So we tell them an exaggerated version of the truth,” he says. “We explain that while it was a little soon for us to getmarried, we knew it would be impossible for us to continue the relationship if you had to go back to Bratislava.”

“And we took a leap of faith?”

He nods. “Exactly. But people aren’t going to ask questions like that.”

I snort. “Obviously, you’re not a woman. My female friends will absolutely ask those kinds of questions.”

“Now you have the perfect answer.”

“You guys!” Zoe comes running in and gives me a big hug. “You’ve been holding out on us! How did we not know things were serious between you?”

“It’s complicated,” I say, trying to keep my voice light.

“Well, congratulations! I’m so happy for you guys!”

And for the next hour, that’s how it goes. Guys from the team and their significant others arrive with gifts and congratulations and hugs. For a while I’m even able to forget that the marriage isn’t real, that this is all about a visa.

Aiden barely leaves my side, an arm around my waist as we talk and laugh.

There’s champagne flowing—Johan seems to have bought out a liquor store because I’m never without a full glass—and music playing.

One of Johan’s teammates is married to Juliet Cicero, who’s part owner of Cicero’s Pizzeria, and she catered the event. Italian is one of my favorite foods so I appreciate my brother’s thoughtfulness.

I feel a twinge of guilt as we sit down to open gifts—I hadn’t expected that at all.

“I hope you like it,” Zoe says as I tear into the pretty silver paper. “I don’t know what your taste is but I do know Aiden’s walls are pretty barren and I thought this would be meaningful for you.”

It’s a framed picture of an illustrated map. It shows a line from Boston to Bratislava, and then another with an arrow pointing to Fort Lauderdale. At the top it says “Our Journey of Love” with today’s date.

Tears prick my eyes at her thoughtfulness.

“How did you get this done so quickly?” I whisper.

She grins. “There’s an art shop on Las Olas and I know the owner so she did it for me.”

“Thank you! This is beautiful.”

“It really is,” Aiden agrees, and I can see a flicker of emotion in his eyes as well.